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March, 1999

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Ron Seybold, Editor In Chief

I’ve seen a lot of AS/400 advertisements lately and they look great. Perhaps it would be beneficial to spend a little more marketing money on the HP 3000 than what we’ve got. Does HP have any plans to increase public, non-3000 customer awareness of the HP 3000? Is HP doing any marketing research into perceptions of the HP 3000? Does HP want to compete against AS/400 or any other well-known and well-marketed brands?

Vicki Symonds, HP 3000 Product Marketing Manager: We are doing quite a bit this year to increase the 3000 public awareness, not just within the installed base but outside of the installed base. We have an active advertising campaign. We have a Spring Introduction coming with a number of items that will be of interest not only to our installed base but to new customers as well.

We are doing some market research to understand the customer perception of the HP 3000, as well as the potential to reach out beyond the installed base. Competing against the AS/400 has always been a tricky one for the HP 3000. Clearly we are often in the same space as the AS/400, but in general we tend to try to find places we can compete without coming directly into conflict with the AS/400. There’s never been much of a good strategy to attack the AS/400 installed base — just like there’s not usually a good strategy for the AS/400 to attack the HP 3000 installed base. People stay pretty loyal to their operating systems.

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