Sparking the next era for the Intel brand

Karen Walker Senior Vice President Chief Marketing Officer

By Karen Walker

Intel, with our logo, bunny suits and iconic musical “bong,” is a brand familiar to people worldwide – in fact, Forbes recently named us one of the world’s most valuable brands. Built on 52 years of innovation, a dedication to excellence, speed and performance, the Intel brand has remained largely untouched for years, even as the company has undergone a significant business evolution.

Today, we make a leap into the future, with a transformed Intel brand that reflects our essential role in creating technology that moves the world forward.

We are a different company than we were even five years ago. We are actively executing against a new growth strategy, creating a new revenue mix and pursuing new market segments fueled by data and the rise of artificial intelligence, 5G network transformation and the intelligent edge. Our diverse portfolio and the broader ecosystem are unparalleled. As we enter new markets and broaden our technology, we see an opportunity to play an even bigger role in our customers’ success. Opportunity that starts with Intel technology as the foundation – or spark – for the world’s greatest innovations.

At the same time, we are a team of over 100,000 dreamers and doers who believe strongly in our purpose: to create world-changing technology that enriches the lives of every person on Earth. There has never been a more urgent time to harness the breadth and scale of our reach to make a positive impact for people, business and our planet.

More: 11th Gen Core/Evo Launch (Press Kit)

As a marketer, my aspiration for the new Intel brand is to capture and convey both our business and cultural evolution through a simplified, focused platform that supports our 2030 ambitions while staying true to our history.

The new look and feel of the Intel brand is purposeful and inspired by Robert Noyce’s quote: “Don’t be encumbered by history. Go off and do something wonderful.” This quote has long served as a source of inspiration and innovation across the company; it’s in Intel’s DNA. The mantra has been our North Star, guiding generations of workers to make a meaningful impact on the world. This new brand is not only representative of the technology we create, but also an embodiment of the human spark of ingenuity and innovation that runs through the company.

The new Intel brand also reflects our commitment to accelerating progress against the world’s most critical challenges. As our CEO Bob Swan stated this year: Our world is facing challenges unlike any we have seen before. The urgent need for action to address climate change; the deep digital divide; the lack of diversity, inclusion and equity in technology; and the global pandemic call for a new era of shared responsibility. To address this, we have raised the bar for ourselves and evolved our corporate responsibility strategy to increase the scale of our work with others to create a more responsible, inclusive and sustainable world, enabled through technology and our collective actions.

This truth, in who we are and what the brand represents, infuses humanity into everything we do. It brings solutions to our customers that touch the lives of people across the globe.

These driving forces made clear it was time for our external image to evolve to better represent the company we’ve become:

• Our new logo honors our past by bringing forward some of the strongest design elements while simplifying and modernizing them to bring dimension and breadth extending our brand into the future.
• Some may see “Intel Inside” as a sticker; to us, it’s a badge. We’ve reimagined our badges as simple expressions that give our products individual identity while connecting them under the One Intel family.
• Blue remains the foundational color of the Intel brand. In addition to our classic Intel blue, we will introduce new variants with an extended color palette to add more depth and modernize our visual identity.
• Our musical sound signature or “bong” will retain those iconic five notes recognized around the world, but a modernized version will roll out later this year.

We know a new brand won’t come to life with new colors, sounds and logo; it needs to be a unifying rally cry built on action and aligned with our company purpose. We recognize that only through time and a continued track record for excellence in innovation and delivering for our customers will we shape and define ourselves.

Rather than introduce everything at once, our plan is to roll out our brand over time. We start today with the launch of our 11th Gen Intel® Core™ processors, as they represent one of our biggest technical innovations in years.

Moving forward, you will see the brand reflected in:

• Our technology. We will continue to create breakthrough technology that enables our partners and customers to do more wonderful for their businesses and the people they serve.
• Our impact. We will redouble our commitment to enabling people to do something wonderful.
• Our team. We will celebrate our team and our ecosystem of world-changers and all the wonderful things they do to impact the world.

We welcome you to join us in this journey, to transform the way you do business, to do something wonderful. Now is the time to take this internal mantra out into the world and celebrate it – celebrate you and all the things your work inspires others to do.

All the world needs is an idea – and Intel Inside – to do something wonderful.

Karen Walker is senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Intel.