HP tries to revamp itself, spends $40,000,000

The American PC giant is trying to lure the younger generation

HP is betting its latest strategies against the young and hip generation. The American PC giant has decided to make the younger generation a potential target for its latest product positioning strategies – as reported by Tom’s hardware. To promote this brand portfolio, the company has spent close to $40 million in the promotion that will span eight-week.

Part of this campaign is a showcase of TV short videos that signifies the youthfulness with artists like Dr. Dre. Rhys Darby of "Flight of the Conchords," plays the host in there funny yet educative TV spots that aims to reflect HP’s brilliance in making your computing life simple. The HP Bit audio, their network capability, saving paper initiatives are being stressed upon, and there will be more episodes in near future, as Rhys hints in the fourth and last video.

Michael Mendenhall, SVP and CMO of HP, describes this move as differentiating the company as the one that “does”, unlike many of the competitors who only talk or think. He says, “This idea that we would tell the short stories in very simple ways is a part of this campaign, that shows the collaboration and that demonstrates the HP capability becomes very important. So it’s not just putting a lens on HP, but it’s really about putting a lens on our customers and what HP has done to help, to enable them, and to give them the capabilities to compete today”

HP is not the first company to target the younger generation for any product or services. Pepsi has been doing it for long, Dell concentrates on style and youthful designs among others, but it is HP who needs to lift its spirits after their not-so-impressive netbook venture. In fact many critics say it is the advent of netbooks that almost dethroned the biggest PC giant on earth. Smaller companies like Acer and Asus really took center stage. Although the HP Mini-series has been quite successful, it was not quite up to the numerous Asus Eee PC models or the immensely customizable and cheap Acer Aspire Ones. HP wakes up early to the Tablet wave, and it remains to be seen how they will fare with this youth appeal and a great upcoming product – the HP Slate!