anjalicutek
Anjali Khurana
International Business Machines (IBM) (NYSE: IBM) is an American multinational computer, technology and IT consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM is the world's fourth largest technology company and the second most valuable global brand[3] (after Coca-Cola). IBM is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history dating back to the 19th century. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software (with a focus on the latter), and offers infrastructure services, hosting services, and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology.[4]
IBM has been well known through most of its recent history as the world's largest computer company and systems integrator.[5] With almost 400,000 employees worldwide, IBM is second largest (by market capitalization)[6] and the second most profitable[7] information technology and services employer in the world according to the Forbes 2000 list with sales of greater than 100 billion US dollars. IBM holds more patents than any other U.S. based technology company and has nine research laboratories worldwide.[8] The company has scientists, engineers, consultants, and sales professionals in over 200 countries.[9] IBM employees have earned five Nobel Prizes, four Turing Awards, nine National Medals of Technology, and five National Medals of Science.[10] As a chip maker, IBM has been among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders in past years.
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IBM's new accessibility ad campaign focuses on what people can do, not what they can't. In one ad, a Deaf man �hears� the demands of his employees. In another, a blind woman �sees� changes in the marketplace.
These ads continue IBM's legacy of award-winning advertising, which represents everyone in the marketplace � whether Curtis Mayfield, a stroke victim using voice-recognition technology (1997); Joyce Massingill, a Black aerospace engineer (1969); or Carl Berman and Mitch Goldstone, a gay couple who own a photo shop (1998).
Passionate about diversity
Lisa Baird
Lisa Baird
Today, representing the diversity of the marketplace is a strategic mission. "We're passionate and almost maniacal in this regard," says Lisa Baird, vice president, Worldwide Integrated Marketing Communications.
To increase its business, IBM is focusing on newer segments, such as medium businesses and constituency groups. How do you get the attention of constituency groups? You start by representing them in your advertising.
"When people can see themselves in our advertising," Lisa adds, "they can connect with us." Casting ads and conveying messages must hit the right note, however, to be effective. To ensure positive portrayal of constituency groups, IBM recently developed casting guidelines for its ad agencies worldwide.
IBM also sponsors key community events, such as La Familia Technology Week during Hispanic Heritage Month, Black Family Technology Awareness Week during African American History Month, and advertising in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) journals during Gay Pride Month.
"Advertising drives people to learn more," Lisa says. "For us, that means creating interest in our solutions, products and leadership message."
Recognizing subtle differences
When it comes to marketing to constituency-owned businesses such as women, Asian, Black, Hispanic and Native American businesses, IBM applies the same go-to-market strategies as it does for any business � reaching out through business partners, employing a 1-800 number or ibm.com.
Within a specific constituency market, IBM first identifies which businesses make the most sense to connect with. Then, the IBM determines the most efficient way to reach each of them � whether through individualized marketing or a creative combination of IBM's go-to-market strategies.
IBM business partners then help in generating demand and selling IBM solutions to businesses. For example, Esource Systems and Integration, Inc., an IBM-authorized business partner based in Huntersville, North Carolina, sells IBM solutions which contain IBM software and hardware products. This business partner provides technology solutions for government agencies and commercial customers to solve business problems.
IBM also enters the business community through professional associations and organizations. Such groups generate interest in IBM and may even help IBM identify new business partners. By sponsoring and participating with them, IBM is able to communicate its message of value to the member businesses.
Rai Cockfield
Rai Cockfield
"We're saying, in effect, to our constituency customers, 'We know you're out there and we want to work with you to make your businesses more profitable and productive,'" says Rai Cockfield, vice president, Market Development. His group is responsible for marketing to businesses owned by women, Asians, Blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans.
While focusing on small- and medium-sized businesses, marketing to constituencies is all about building relationships. By working with business partners and owners, IBM demonstrates it speaks a community's language and recognizes its culture. IBM then closes the equation by helping businesses understand how they can reach their potential.
Finding out each segment's needs requires a willingness to break with old assumptions and "go places where you don't usually go." While acknowledging that everyone in a segment is not the same, it's necessary to recognize "subtle differences" that exist between constituencies � such as one being more "relationship-oriented" or "techno-savvy."
Even so, Rai maintains all people prior to a purchase ask, "Does this product or service meet my need? Is the company reputable? And is the price reasonable?" Today, he adds a more pressing question, "Are you reaching me in the way that I see myself?'
"That's what endears a person to a company and a product," he says.
Opening the aperture
Jani Byrne
Jani Byrne
Imagine the ability to access information anywhere - computing without limits. That's what IBM researchers call "pervasive computing and accessibility." They also have redefined accessibility to mean �access to information � for everyone," says Jani Byrne, formerly the worldwide business director, Accessibility, IBM Research.
IBM researchers are taking that notion of accessibility a step further: Imagine the ability to access information anywhere � computing without limits. That's what IBM researchers call "pervasive computing and accessibility."
In a world of computing without a limits, a blind person could go to the refrigerator to cook food. Radio-frequency tags could instruct people how to prepare that meal, step-by-step. A teenager could learn to cook this way, or get help with homework.
The mission of IBM's six Worldwide Accessibility Centers, launched in 2000, is to ensure all of IBM's 3,000 plus products are accessible, and to bring the notion of �access to everyone irrespective of ability or disability� to businesses around the world.
While first focused on special needs, the Centers boldly decided to "open the aperture," Jani says, to bring information technology to the masses, especially individuals with temporary disabilities, the aging community, as well as people with traditional forms of disability, such as hearing, vision, cognitive, mobility, and speech.
The Centers now target businesses and government agencies with this broader, more inclusive definition of accessibility. Developing technologies accessible by everyone � whether disabled or temporarily abled � solves many accessibility issues across the board. For example, researchers realized that the general public always enjoys inventions designed for people with disabilities � such as close-captioned TV, sidewalk curb cuts and wide doorways.
"If you've tried to hear sports scores on a TV in a noisy restaurant, you've experienced the benefits of closed captioning," says Jani.
Another target is the aging global population. In the United State alone, the fastest growing segment of our society is people over 85. Furthermore, throughout our life span, each one of us will experience some form of disability...whether it's working with dyslexia during early educational years or facing cognitive impairment as we grow older.
Thanks to federal legislation, IBM is well-positioned: Producers of information technology who make products accessible will be favored for bids with the government � a longtime IBM customer � over those who do not. Even if a competitor offers a lower bid, the government must contract the producer of accessible products.
"This significant marketing strategy is central to IBM's leadership in the marketplace,� explains Jani. "Brand IBM is in the game and with the power of IBM Research, we're in a leadership position."
IBM is sharing its vision of an accessible future through a robust public relations strategy, ads and events which have already touched 31 million people. A multimedia experience depicting this future was launched at California University at Northridge (CSUN) last year and so well-received that the Governor's Office asked that it be featured at a post-Oscar event.
"At IBM, we proudly believe in the technology leadership of our company, as evidenced by our unsurpassed patent activity for the past 10 years,� says Jani. "Now we're leveling the playing field to make information accessible to everyone."
IBM has been well known through most of its recent history as the world's largest computer company and systems integrator.[5] With almost 400,000 employees worldwide, IBM is second largest (by market capitalization)[6] and the second most profitable[7] information technology and services employer in the world according to the Forbes 2000 list with sales of greater than 100 billion US dollars. IBM holds more patents than any other U.S. based technology company and has nine research laboratories worldwide.[8] The company has scientists, engineers, consultants, and sales professionals in over 200 countries.[9] IBM employees have earned five Nobel Prizes, four Turing Awards, nine National Medals of Technology, and five National Medals of Science.[10] As a chip maker, IBM has been among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders in past years.
Contents
[hide]
IBM's new accessibility ad campaign focuses on what people can do, not what they can't. In one ad, a Deaf man �hears� the demands of his employees. In another, a blind woman �sees� changes in the marketplace.
These ads continue IBM's legacy of award-winning advertising, which represents everyone in the marketplace � whether Curtis Mayfield, a stroke victim using voice-recognition technology (1997); Joyce Massingill, a Black aerospace engineer (1969); or Carl Berman and Mitch Goldstone, a gay couple who own a photo shop (1998).
Passionate about diversity
Lisa Baird
Lisa Baird
Today, representing the diversity of the marketplace is a strategic mission. "We're passionate and almost maniacal in this regard," says Lisa Baird, vice president, Worldwide Integrated Marketing Communications.
To increase its business, IBM is focusing on newer segments, such as medium businesses and constituency groups. How do you get the attention of constituency groups? You start by representing them in your advertising.
"When people can see themselves in our advertising," Lisa adds, "they can connect with us." Casting ads and conveying messages must hit the right note, however, to be effective. To ensure positive portrayal of constituency groups, IBM recently developed casting guidelines for its ad agencies worldwide.
IBM also sponsors key community events, such as La Familia Technology Week during Hispanic Heritage Month, Black Family Technology Awareness Week during African American History Month, and advertising in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) journals during Gay Pride Month.
"Advertising drives people to learn more," Lisa says. "For us, that means creating interest in our solutions, products and leadership message."
Recognizing subtle differences
When it comes to marketing to constituency-owned businesses such as women, Asian, Black, Hispanic and Native American businesses, IBM applies the same go-to-market strategies as it does for any business � reaching out through business partners, employing a 1-800 number or ibm.com.
Within a specific constituency market, IBM first identifies which businesses make the most sense to connect with. Then, the IBM determines the most efficient way to reach each of them � whether through individualized marketing or a creative combination of IBM's go-to-market strategies.
IBM business partners then help in generating demand and selling IBM solutions to businesses. For example, Esource Systems and Integration, Inc., an IBM-authorized business partner based in Huntersville, North Carolina, sells IBM solutions which contain IBM software and hardware products. This business partner provides technology solutions for government agencies and commercial customers to solve business problems.
IBM also enters the business community through professional associations and organizations. Such groups generate interest in IBM and may even help IBM identify new business partners. By sponsoring and participating with them, IBM is able to communicate its message of value to the member businesses.
Rai Cockfield
Rai Cockfield
"We're saying, in effect, to our constituency customers, 'We know you're out there and we want to work with you to make your businesses more profitable and productive,'" says Rai Cockfield, vice president, Market Development. His group is responsible for marketing to businesses owned by women, Asians, Blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans.
While focusing on small- and medium-sized businesses, marketing to constituencies is all about building relationships. By working with business partners and owners, IBM demonstrates it speaks a community's language and recognizes its culture. IBM then closes the equation by helping businesses understand how they can reach their potential.
Finding out each segment's needs requires a willingness to break with old assumptions and "go places where you don't usually go." While acknowledging that everyone in a segment is not the same, it's necessary to recognize "subtle differences" that exist between constituencies � such as one being more "relationship-oriented" or "techno-savvy."
Even so, Rai maintains all people prior to a purchase ask, "Does this product or service meet my need? Is the company reputable? And is the price reasonable?" Today, he adds a more pressing question, "Are you reaching me in the way that I see myself?'
"That's what endears a person to a company and a product," he says.
Opening the aperture
Jani Byrne
Jani Byrne
Imagine the ability to access information anywhere - computing without limits. That's what IBM researchers call "pervasive computing and accessibility." They also have redefined accessibility to mean �access to information � for everyone," says Jani Byrne, formerly the worldwide business director, Accessibility, IBM Research.
IBM researchers are taking that notion of accessibility a step further: Imagine the ability to access information anywhere � computing without limits. That's what IBM researchers call "pervasive computing and accessibility."
In a world of computing without a limits, a blind person could go to the refrigerator to cook food. Radio-frequency tags could instruct people how to prepare that meal, step-by-step. A teenager could learn to cook this way, or get help with homework.
The mission of IBM's six Worldwide Accessibility Centers, launched in 2000, is to ensure all of IBM's 3,000 plus products are accessible, and to bring the notion of �access to everyone irrespective of ability or disability� to businesses around the world.
While first focused on special needs, the Centers boldly decided to "open the aperture," Jani says, to bring information technology to the masses, especially individuals with temporary disabilities, the aging community, as well as people with traditional forms of disability, such as hearing, vision, cognitive, mobility, and speech.
The Centers now target businesses and government agencies with this broader, more inclusive definition of accessibility. Developing technologies accessible by everyone � whether disabled or temporarily abled � solves many accessibility issues across the board. For example, researchers realized that the general public always enjoys inventions designed for people with disabilities � such as close-captioned TV, sidewalk curb cuts and wide doorways.
"If you've tried to hear sports scores on a TV in a noisy restaurant, you've experienced the benefits of closed captioning," says Jani.
Another target is the aging global population. In the United State alone, the fastest growing segment of our society is people over 85. Furthermore, throughout our life span, each one of us will experience some form of disability...whether it's working with dyslexia during early educational years or facing cognitive impairment as we grow older.
Thanks to federal legislation, IBM is well-positioned: Producers of information technology who make products accessible will be favored for bids with the government � a longtime IBM customer � over those who do not. Even if a competitor offers a lower bid, the government must contract the producer of accessible products.
"This significant marketing strategy is central to IBM's leadership in the marketplace,� explains Jani. "Brand IBM is in the game and with the power of IBM Research, we're in a leadership position."
IBM is sharing its vision of an accessible future through a robust public relations strategy, ads and events which have already touched 31 million people. A multimedia experience depicting this future was launched at California University at Northridge (CSUN) last year and so well-received that the Governor's Office asked that it be featured at a post-Oscar event.
"At IBM, we proudly believe in the technology leadership of our company, as evidenced by our unsurpassed patent activity for the past 10 years,� says Jani. "Now we're leveling the playing field to make information accessible to everyone."