Thread: Vision Processor Branding – Tangled Further by AMD

The latest buzz of technology worldreveals that AMD has tried to overhaul the computer buying experienceof the customers. AMD started its Vision MarketingProgram in 2009 on its chips, and since then it has been offering itscustomers a system that has been developed to guide them to choosethe best product from among vast products in the market. The systemwas divided into numerous categories namely vision basic, premium,ultimate, and black. “Premium” was developed for systems designedfor HD video consumption, “ultimate” for digital media creation,and “black” for the high end gamers.

The vision brand proved highlybeneficial to the retail associates as well as consumers whounderstood it easily. As a matter of fact, Mr.Tony Fernandez-Stoll, Vice President AMDAmericas marketing, told in an interview that more than 80% of theirsales staff understood the product very well. Hence they were easilyable to distinguish between the various visions categories.

The vision category displayed by AMD isvery large and comprehensive. Besides, there are significant pricedeltas which made it extremely hard for the retail associates tounderstand the system and the differences inlaid in it. In addition,the price of Vision Premium system is far higher than many of itscompetitors which delivered the same functionality in reasonablysmall sum of money.

This unavoidable situation dragged thecustomers into the “the guts of the system” discussion. Thissituation proved the worst for AMD as its loyal customers alsostarted opting for other alternative at low price. According toFernandez-Stoll, the mission of Vision to simplify the processof computer buying failed due to this. Thus, to bring back theirsystem to life, AMD, gave the name E2, A4, A6, and A8 to its chipinstead of Vision, Premium, Ultimate, and Black.

According to AMD, distinguishing theprocessor family with the help of alphabets and numerical will makethe process extremely easy for retail buyers. The truth is this thatthe AMD’s vision system is based for the computer buyers who do notcheck the latest reviews of the products. Unfortunately, these marketingchallenges have been developed by chip makers themselves. For morethan 10 years they developed and analyzed their processors based onthe speed of the chip. This process was simple and automatic.

However, when the clocks stopped theirrapid climb into Gigahertz, the chip making firms had to switch on tonew ideas to improve the performance of the system. Therefore, theyadded cores as well as graphic capabilities to their chips. This madethe system hazy. While, Intel Inc. launched Core Duo,Core 2 Duo, Core i3, i5 and i7 for its users, AMD came forward withVision. Unfortunately, as if now, no chip making firm has yet beensuccessful to offer an automatic procedure that could help them tounderstand the advantages of one system over other.