Background / Challenge:
Intel Corporation was founded on July 1968, by semiconductor pioneers Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore (of Moore’s law), and is associated with the executive leadership and vision of the late Andy Grove. The name Intel, is a portmanteau of the words ‘integrated’ and ‘electronics’.
Branding has been a major part of Intel’s success over the past several decades. The ‘intel inside’ brand strategy is probably the most well known and most successful examples of ingredient branding. And, Intel’s unique and innovative approach to naming with sub-brands like Pentium has been a core part of its brand building approach.
In 2018/2019, Intel turned to us to help to continue its legacy of creating strong brand names for a range a range of new initiatives.
Solution:
In 2018, Intel was looking to revamp and relaunch three existing partner programs – Intel Technology Provider, Intel Cloud Insider and Intel IoT Solutions Alliance – under one umbrella name.
Intel has relationships with thousands of partners – some are authorized distributors, manufacturers and sellers and solutions integrators. Others are independent software vendors (so-called ISVs) as well as Cloud Service Providers (CSPs). A stronger, more organized partner program was needed as well as a novel tiering approach to help honor and recognize its most important partners.
We explored hundreds of name options before selecting ‘Intel Partner Alliance’. This simple two word idea created a succinct, memorable and descriptive name.
For the Partner Alliance tiers we explored a range of approaches and styled before selecting Member, Gold and Titanium. Each tier would come with role-specific criteria and denote different kinds of requirements for reaching each level.
In the spring of 2019, we worked with brand leadership at Intel on the creation of a new software architecture. The new initiative was designed to underscore Intel’s commitment to a “software-first” strategy that would define and lead programming for an increasingly AI-infused, heterogeneous and multi-architecture world.
Over a fast-track 3 week engagement, we developed a range of name ideas before selecting ‘OneAPI’. The name OneAPI helped to evoke an integrated set of developer tools that would provide a unified programming model simplifying development for architecture workloads and allowing developers to get the full performance out of the hardware.
In the summer of 2019, WANT worked with the brand team at Intel on several naming initiatives including creation of the name ‘EVO’ – a new platform sub-brand and standard for laptop manufacturers.
Outcome:
Fifty years on from its founding, Intel continues to be a technology leader motivated by a singular purpose: to create world-changing technology that enriches the lives of every person on earth. Intel remains firmly at the center of a new era where everything looks and acts like a computer and the company’s innovations are helping to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges.