Evolving the AMD Brand Portfolio
The voice on the other end of the call said, very clearly “You’re doing what?”
“We are replacing the “ATI” brand with “AMD” across our market share leading Radeon graphics family, starting in the fourth quarter of this year.”
(Silence)
“Well, I wasn’t expecting that…”
This is an example of the kind of exchange I had with some of the editors who cover our ATI graphics family. And it was not surprising. Brands are intended to evoke emotions and create connections, even feelings that can transcend logic. In that respect, the graphics business is very much like sports and politics in that people take their emotional positions and enjoy participating in the dialogue about the competition. It’s part of the “fun” of the business.
Even so, many brands have come and gone, and there comes a time when the real value of a brand wanes, often before the sentimental value. This is exactly the position we face now with the ATI brand – based on the hard facts of market research undertaken in early 2010, it is clear our strongest foot forward is actually a combination of AMD and product brands such as Radeon™ or FirePro™. But we’ll share more of that later.
A bit of background – hopefully grounded in the ‘realm of reason.’ First, we at AMD believe – actually, we know – that processor brands (CPUs and GPUs) are largely irrelevant in the PC buying decision. Time and again, our research confirms that the average PC buyer is unaware of what processors are under the hood of their PC. This is why we invest very little in ‘brand-building’ with the mainstream market segment.
And, it’s why we launched our VISION Technology program. If you want the most visually-compelling PC experience for your money, you want the one with the “VISION” sticker on it. If you’re a retail sales associate, everything you need to know is on that sticker. The VISION brand is simple and memorable, and it’s focused on what people are trying to do with their PC, not what is in it. For that reason VISION is a big hit across the industry.
But I digress…most brands and logos in this business are aimed at what we refer to as the “processor aware” audience. For AMD, that’s everyone from OEMs and ISVs to channel partners, investors and IT professionals. And for the ATI brand, it means enthusiasts and gamers. So, earlier this year, we asked over 4,000 “graphics processor aware” individuals in seven countries – China, Brazil, Germany, Russia, UK, Japan and the US – which brands they know about, consider and prefer. The results may surprise you, at least a bit.
First, we learned that the “Radeon” brand is as strong as any other product or company brand in terms of awareness and consideration. Oh, there are regional differences in favor of one brand or another – but in general, Radeon is well established as a leader in this segment.
Second, preference for the AMD brand is stronger against the competition than the ATI brand. This isn’t to say the ATI brand isn’t strong… it says that enthusiasts assign higher brand preference to the AMD brand. And it is a nice complement to the Radeon-related finding mentioned above.
Third – and this was the clincher – those who know that AMD and ATI merged score their brand preference for AMD three times higher than those who are not aware of the merger. In other words, if you know we are one company, you believe in us more. On the other hand, by keeping the brands distinct, we were actually limiting or handicapping our own brand strength.
In short, we needed to make ‘the move.’
So, with our new product refresh in the fourth quarter of this year, you will see the beginning of an industry-wide shift to AMD Radeon™ and AMD FirePro™ graphics processors. The timing couldn’t be better, as we just regained the market share lead in discrete graphics, and have launched an unprecedented number of processors and solutions for the professional graphics market. Not to mention that in Q4 of this year, we intend to begin shipping our first AMD Fusion family of APUs, featuring world-class AMD Radeon graphics.
So, all emotion aside, we know this is a solid decision, based on feedback from a large customer base, numerous partners and our own sense of the industry. We hope you agree. But whether you agree or disagree – rational or emotional – please take a minute and let us know. Because, as always, we are interested and care very much about your opinion.
I look forward to your comments.
John Volkmann is Corporate Vice President – Corporate Brand at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
What people actually didnt know you two had merged? ATI & AMD? wow and i thought i lived in the old ages. Personally i do not mind what brand name you use as long as you deliver affordable but top end products and offer life long support for them, I mean theres nothing like buying a brand new gfx card then having it nerfed by the “latest” drivers and when people complain the forum thread is deleted and then we get told to shut up. Nvidia this is not the way to run a business!
I personally do not see what the fuss is about, it is not like they are firing the ATI staff and replacing them with a bunch of college grads. It is not a big deal, sure we have all seen brand names come and go, and yeah we will all still probably refer to an AMD card as an ATI one after the change, but we still know who made the product, and how commited they are to bringing us great products and then supporting them for years after their purchase; which is probably the main reason why my rig is AMD built and anyone with any sense will do the same.
AMD, ATI or what ever, do what you have to do as long as you promise not to follow in Nvidia’s path concerning most of their customers and support for any of their products. Just keep up the good work and you’ll always have a paying customer here.
I smiled at the reference to means-end chains (Vision)
Let’s hope the engineers at old ATI are not too sentimental.
While I hope for a return to the Athlon/Opteron kicking your cpu competitors behind days with the products next year, currently that is not the AMD reputation. AMD in terms of CPU means value segment at the lower end of mainstream where Intel did not have competitive products on a performance/$. I think Sandy Bridge is targeted here.
The ATI brand is associated with top tier graphics. This is something your cpu competitor does not have. Since some of the OEMs have requested “AMD”-less Radeon and FirePro badges you are going to have a hard time transfering the GPU quality to “AMD” when a descrete card is in an In* based cpu system. So some people are going to see an In* sticker and a Radeon sticker and are going to think In* Radeon!
Now your survey says the perfromance is more assocated with Radeon than ATI. I hope it was a well run survey. So what do you think is more strongly associated for your discrete graphics competitor NV* or Ge*?
From various articles it appears that AMD thinks the discrete market is going away eventually [I think it is too] and this branding change can make sense in that world. Especially when NV* no longer exists on the PC [In* settlement only keeps the bus NV* is relying upon for 6 years].
I’ll missing the ATi branding on the Wii.
I will be disappointed when ATi is gone for good. An AMD Radeon is not an ATi Radeon for me personally, even more if there is green in the logo, the AMD sign.
I see the reasoning for the move, especially because of FUSION and the new APU’s, and I would definitely call these AMD.
Just stick with ATi for the discrete graphics market. And all ATi fans will remain ATi fans.
I am all for this…though I think the AMD logo should be changed to reflect the ATI heritage that has been brought into AMD. I was never really a big ATI fan until the merger and now I am a huge fan of the Radeon series. The merger of the AMD and ATI has made both stronger and I think the AMD brand’s logo should reflect them both….maybe a green fading to red or something like that….just a my thought on it…Thx!!!
I wholeheartedly agree with those that suggest sticking to ATi where the discreet/dedicated graphics market is concerned. In fact, this is what I expected when I first heard hints of these rumors- I thought you were going to call Fusion chips AMD with no ATi branding, but would continue to refer to the high-end ATi GPUs used on the actual cards as ATi GPUs.
This seems a bit extreme, and unnecessary…
I mean, I personally don’t mind, but I also see the great potential for backlash from the ‘Enthusiast’ market who actually know the brands and don’t have confusion issues.
AMD… não mate a marca ATi… aprendi muito sobre graficos com a ATi. Adoro a Marca AMD e adoro a ATi, quando a AMD comprou a ATi fiquei feliz com a união, agora triste com o fim da marca ATi… Desabafo de uma fã das marcas AMD/ATi…
AMD makes mistakes by not investing more in brand building, people actually consume brands before they consume products. Amd lets Intel control people’s mind through its fast image brand. Amd should change its strategy by creating a new product that can outperform intel core i7
This is getting better and better for AMD.
I, for one, love AMD since I began knowing ‘a bit more’ about PCs, (about 2003).
Hope you won’t let your guard down and kick nvidia’s ass definitely, and, in the future.
I disagree, amd company to do.