Businesses of the world are changing the way they work and IBM has a strategy to help them. Ann Rubin, vice president of corporate marketing at IBM, explains: “IBM is in a constant state of innovation, preparing for a world that is infused with digital intelligence and a world where humans and machines work side-by-side to do things that humans simply cannot do alone.” “‘Let’s Put Smart To Work’ is our new brand platform,” she continues, but “it’s not just advertising, it’s bigger than that. ‘Let’s Put Smart To Work’ is an invitation.
We’re asking clients and partners to work with us to put smart to work to use innovative technologies to change businesses and industries and organizations.”

THE NEW IBM IBM has a hundred-plus-year history of innovation.
Since its early days as the Tabulating Machine Company, IBM has gone through many dramatic transformations.
The company shifted from tabulation machines, to typewriters, to computers, to business services and consulting, to artificial intelligence in response to changes in technology, the global economy, and business practices.
Along the way IBM developed several well-known products such as the automated teller machine (ATM), the hard disk drive, the magnetic stripe card, and the Universal Product Code (UPC). In addition, researchers at the company won four Nobel Prizes and six Turing Awards for contributions of lasting and major technical importance to the computer field. IBM is in the top 25 of the world’s most valuable brands and in the top 50 of the world’s most admired companies.
Today IBM has $73 billion in sales and 364,000 employees, is ranked 42nd on the Fortune 500, and is viewed as a cognitive solutions and cloud platform company.
According to CEO Arvind Krishna, “IBM is an innovation powerhouse. If you look at all the tectonic forces shaping the future of technology—cloud, AI, blockchain and quantum—IBM is leading on all fronts.”

Strategy Based on Values The forward-looking, visionary strategy at IBM is built on core values that are the fundamental, passionate, and enduring principles guiding its conduct. To articulate those values IBM held a global discussion event, called ValuesJam, among more than 50,000 employees. The results were three underlying values of IBM’s business practices. Teresa Yoo, vice president of brand strategy and experience design, explains the outcome: “We weren’t founded on or defined by a particular product or even a particular leader. It was what we believed and valued in the world, and what drove the decisions about everything that we do. So, those values have evolved over time and remain at the core of what we do. They are (1) a dedication to every client’s success, (2) innovation that matters for our company and for the world, and (3) trust and personal responsibility in all our relationships.”.........

Questions 

1. What is IBM’s “Let’s Put Smart To Work” strategy?
2. How does this strategy relate to IBM’s values?
3. Conduct a SWOT analysis for IBM’s “Let’s Put Smart To Work” initiative. What are the relevant trends to consider?
4. What marketing tools described in this chapter are prominent in IBM’s strategic marketing process?
5. What is “agile” marketing at IBM? Why does IBM use the agile approach?