Thread: Office PCs

We have an interesting situation here. Assembled PCs have moved out of the race for the office desktop. They were at the edge last year, but this year, they're com
pletely out. The remaining four brands remain the same as last year-HP, IBM/Lenovo, Dell, and HCL. At an overall level, the brand persuasion levels of all these brands remains unchanged over last year, and it's not on the positive side, i.e. they're still not persuasive enough. There are more users having top of mind recall for these brands, but lesser number who're likely to purchase them. The brand pull situation is again more or less the same as last year, with half of the players gaining pull and the other half losing it.

Coming to individual brands, HP-Compaq is the most persuasive brand of the lot, making it the winner of this year's Users' Choice awards. The brand is well ahead of all its competitors. It's the second most persuasive brand on a relative scale, and third on the brand pull scale. Another point of concern in brand pull for HP is that there are more user switch outs happening than switch ins, which is not a healthy situation to be in. It enjoys 62% brand loyalty, and 21% of its existing users are likely to switch to other brands, and mostly to IBM.



IBM/Lenovo's future readiness score is 61%, and in fact it has moved up one notch and swapped places with Dell. Wo while it lost out to Dell for the second spot in notebooks, here it has evened the score by moving ahead of Dell. IBM/Lenovo is also the most persuasive brand of the lot on a relative scale, and also the brand with the second highest pull. It enjoys 60% brand loyalty, with 16% of its existing users saying they're likely to shift to another brand, which is mostly HP. Dell enjoys a rating of34% on the future readiness index, and has lost speed as compared to last year, which has brought it to the third spot. It's also the third most persuasive brand. So while its speed and persuasion might have gone down, its brand pull situation is the best of the lot. While IBM and HP are loosing brand pull, Dell is gaining pull, meaning ther are more users switching into the brand than switching out. Dell enjoys the maximum brand loyalty among its customers at a who ping 76%.

Last in the future readiness club is HCL wit a score of 14%. HCL's brand persuasion is th lowest of the lot, and ditto for brand pull figure as well. In fact, the brand pull figures are a concern because there are more users likely t switch out than switch in. Last year, it was gain ing brand pull, but this year it's started to loos pull. The brand loyalty figures of H CL aren't to healthy either at 40%. 50% of its existing user said that they're likely to shift to other brands mostly HP and IBM/Lenovo. We hope it wi! pick up speed to remain in the club next year.