Against the common myth that notebooks cannot be fashionable, there are brand alliances, which prove the contrary. But first things first, recently I stumbled over this innovative joint promotion campaign at New York’s Times Square (see picture below). To be seen are two billboards, one which advertises the Hewlett Packard (HP) Mini Vivienne Tam edition notebook (lower billboard on the right) but also includes an advertisement of each partner’s brands and products, the HP Touch Smart PC in the upper billboard and a Vivienne Tam collection in the lower. Joint promotions which are used to communicate a consistent marketing message to a common target group are used at its best in my opinion in this creative example.

But now to the details of this co-operation: last year technology company HP and world-renowned designer Vivienne Tam created a special edition notebook. The new device is an ordinary HP mini notebook with a unique design and is targeted at fashionistas around the globe who use notebooks for daily work and like it that it suits their stylish outfit. It is the first time a computer company has partnered with a globally renowned designer. After the successful introduction of last year, the two partners have just recently announced a new design for the spring of 2010 (see picture below).

Vivienne Tam is a fashion brand, which has its home market in the US and a strong presence in Asia, but is not really known in Europe yet. The Chinese born designer characterizes her works as being suitable to all modern women of all ages from the High Society to Urban Teens who demand a beautiful design which is wearable, has superior quality but is affordable as well. Furthermore, she implements elements from her Asian background in all her fashion collections. Whether the entire target group can actually be activated remains questionable since a lot of “urban teens” might not be able to afford her style. Prizes for a Vivienne Tam piece range from around €100 to over €700. The same holds for the new “fashion” notebook, which is about 50 percent more expensive (in Germany) compared to similar notebooks in the same product category.

Apart from the considerable price premium for the HP Vivienne Tam mini notebook the fit between the two partners is good. HP, also convinces its customers with very good quality and above average looks at reasonable but yet above average prices. The company, which is the world-wide market leader among personal computers with a market share of 20 percent rightly identified the development of the market. Since many years now the company has been running a marketing campaign (“The computer is personal again”), which emphasizes the highly individual relationship people have with their computers. Due to the increased difficulty to gain share in the computer market this co-operation is trend-setting because it recognizes the call for more diversification and personalization among notebook designs. These factors have been predominantly ignored by the majority of PC and notebook manufacturers but actually become increasingly important as a market expert of DisplaySearch points out: “It’s critical to have that look-and-feel that touch presence. At the end of the day, the physical experience is very important”. This exterior appearance is particularly important among the increasingly popular netbooks, since they can be carried around easily everywhere and are therefore more visible than a lot of the bigger and bulkier notebooks. Thus, the HP Vivienne Tam partnership is a co-operation not only with a good fit but also with a good intuition as regards to the current trends.

For HP the partnership with Vivienne Tam is a smart move to tie in fashion-loving customers with a product with which they can personally identify with and for which they are willing to pay a premium prize in order to stand out among peers. The product is a complementation of each brand’s expertises which results in a netbook that communicates superior technological quality and fashionable excellence.
Other than in North America and Asia where customers are much more aware of the Vivienne Tam brand, it might take a while before the spark can leapfrog in Europe as well. Perhaps, the disposal of the Vivienne Tam HP notebook in Europe can also be interpreted as an approach for Vivienne Tam to enter various markets in Germany and elsewhere across the continent with her own shops.

The HP Vivienne Tam notebook is not the first example to make notebooks more fashionable and personal. In 2008 the Dutch company ego lifestyle and the luxury sports car producer Bentley created a high-end luxury design notebook in the shape of a women’s handbag (see picture below). Bentley appears to be the perfect fit for Ego lifestyle, since the company is designing, producing, marketing and distributing high-end luxury lifestyle consumer electronics. For its innovative, outside-the-box thinking Ego received the “Microsoft Fashion PC Award” in 2008. The award is supposed to encourage the development of highly personal, premium quality Windows based products. The big downside of the “Bentley notebook” is, it is not for everybody, as its price (€12.500) and its limited edition of 250 pieces demonstrates. In comparison to the HP Mini Vivienne Tam notebook, the “Ego for Bentley” notebook is in my opinion definitely an exceptional case as it is 20 times more expensive than the Vivienne Tam HP mini. Nevertheless, each of the new tech devices appeals to its particular target group likewise and demonstrate that the industry is on the right way to make the computer personal again.