Lenovo (LNVGF), the world's No. 3 PC maker, has been experimenting with bold colors and graphic images in its home market of China for years. Now it's beginning to strut its stuff on the world stage. On Aug. 6, Lenovo will unveil a limited-edition notebook PC that uses some of the same design elements featured in its winning design for the Olympic torch.
The company will also announce an online auction on eBay (EBAY) where it will sell Olympic Torch PCs each week until the Beijing Games begin next August. The auctions will start in February, timed to sync up with the Olympic torch relay, when the flame will be carried by runners across five continents. Proceeds from the auction of 39 laptops will go to charity.
The Olympic Torch PC, a version of Lenovo's Tianyi notebook line for consumers, is black and red, with a decorative cloud motif on the top cover. Some of the 2,044 notebooks that are being produced will be signed by as yet unidentified Olympic athletes. "We don't just want to create machines for customers; we want to create emotional experiences. We want to connect them with the Olympic spirit," says Yao Yingjia, executive director of the Lenovo Design Center in Beijing.
Lenovo's marketers are determined to squeeze every ounce of brand equity they can out of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Lenovo, with headquarters in Beijing and Raleigh, N.C., is one of the Olympics' main corporate sponsors and has even sponsored a climbing team that will take the torch to the top of Mt. Everest next June as part of the official torch relay.
Determined to Win
Design will play a major role in the company's marketing blitz. Already, the boulevards in Beijing are lined with billboards and signs displaying the Olympic computer and advertising the Tianyi line. "Along with technology and innovation, nothing is more important to Lenovo than design. Our design strategy has always driven our success," says Alice Li, a Lenovo veteran who is vice-president for Olympic marketing.
The high-profile role of design in Lenovo's Olympic marketing campaign began more than two years ago. The Beijing Organizing Committee conducted a design contest for the Beijing Olympics logo, and Lenovo designers submitted a proposal. They didn't win, but when the committee launched yet another design contest, this time for the torch, Yao was determined to win the commission—which typically goes to a traditional design company.
To get the creative juices flowing, Yao conducted a brainstorming session on Nov. 25, 2005, at the Jiu Hua Hot Spring Resort outside Beijing. He pulled together about 80 Lenovo designers, electrical engineers, and mechanical engineers, divided them into four teams, and challenged them to come up with design ideas. He wanted the design to work for the runners who carried the torch. In other words, it had to be light and easy to hold and hand off. But he also wanted striking imagery that would wow the people who viewed it—and he wanted it to reflect both the Olympic tradition and Chinese culture. The scene at the hotel was chaotic at first. The team members—including designers from China, Germany, Singapore, and New Zealand—were talking over each other in Chinese and English. "It was like vendors shouting in a crowded market," Yao recalls.
A major breakthrough came when Angela Qiu, a design strategy director, urged the group to make the torch look like a scroll. She pointed out that the Chinese had invented paper, and she demonstrated her idea by rolling a large sheet of paper from both ends until it became a compact, torch-like shape that could easily be held in a runner's hand.
The Essence of China
The next issue was imagery. Some of the designers wanted to use a dragon, the Great Wall, or the phoenix—all common Chinese motifs. But Yao pressed for a design that would meld the Olympics with China.