AMD: An ode to poor marketing

KazeoHin

KazeoHin

[H]F Junkie
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I have seen this discussed here before, but I haven't really seen a thread dedicated to the idea.

I have a vision. It's a violent vision: but the vision itself is more a metaphor, and not a true-to-life desire. I see a single-file row of people, black burlap sacks pulled over their heads, hands tied behind their backs. These people are men, women, short, fat; people of all kinds. Their otherwise bland business-casual attire looking out of place as they march through a cold, muddy field. Their tiresome treck is halted as each member of this line are stood against a sturdy brick wall. Gunshots fire, and the men and women fall lifelessly to the ground; their faces shrouded in sack and mud.

These people are AMD's marketing and PR team. AMD just made the best decision it could have.

/vision.

Dramatic yes, but the point remains: I could imagine AMD having a large budget for marketing and PR, after all: it is quite a large company in the greater scheme of things. I would guess that the AMD PR team would be quite large, and they would be awarded a respectable salary. So why, oh WHY does AMD's advertising, marketing, PR and general outreach blow chunks?

Here are two really bad mistakes AMD has made recently, and my humble opinion on how to rectify their situations.

1. Bringing back the FX branding.

We all may say "but that is a genius idea! FX was the only chip to ever challenge Intel blah blah blah positive memories blah blah blah" but in truth this was a dud idea. not only has AMD tainted the FX monicker, but they brought it back for all the wrong reasons. In retrospect, we see that FX was used to boost confidence in a product that (as we see in the reviews) shouldn't really have confidence in the first place. "But Paul! That's what marketing is all about! getting the most sales that a product can and boosting revenue!" Huzah I agree! Let us break-down the market to show why 'FX' branding won't mean a thing:

50a87880-2aba-4355-82c6-7e535d52f5a4.png

AMD: You aren't fooling anyone, in fact: you're just pissing people off.

2. FX-8xxx marketed as an Oct-core, when really its a quad-and-a-half core.

Does Intel market the core count of it's hyperthreaded CPUs by the number of threads they use? No. Could they and get away with it? Yes. Should AMD have marketed the new Bulldozer chips as a quad-core? Yes. The truth is that Bulldozer acts like a hyperthreaded quad, and not a true oct. Yes, there are definite PR benefits to proclaiming the 'world's first 8-core' for AMD. Even IGN have a damn article about it! Obviously there is a strategy to this, the problem is that "the world's first 8 core desktop CPU" gets it's ass kicked by "Just about every quad-core CPU". The arse-bruises would be substantially smaller if the FX chips were marketed from the onset as quad-core parts. Then, their benches against old Phenom X6 chips would seem more fair: "wow, AMD's new Quad is about as fast as intels quad, and sometimes faster than AMD's old hex!" versus "eight damn cores and you STILL can't beat a 2600 stock?" The idea of AMD finally competing on a core-to-core basis would ring quite loudly from enthusiasts like ourselves to the customers we sell parts to. I know for a fact I've had to suggest Intel simply because customers have asked me for "the fastest quad-core". AMD would have 'one of the fastest' quads on the market... if it marketed the FX as a quad. Instead they have the slowest single core performance we've seen since Barcelona.

I rest my case.

Thoughts? ideas? IBTLs?
 
I think they really did focus on the server first, and punched out a "consumer," offering just because they are likely to at least gain some extra money from doing so.

I do remember Agena when it first came in, TLB bug, 2MB L3 (though was not as significant until we realized Intel was about to have a similar cache hierarchy in Nehalem - just better executed), and low clocks. Deneb/Thuban went a long way to cleaning that up... though that did require a full node step, too :(
 
what they should of marketed it as was a quad module processor, not a quad core persay. the problem with marketing it as a quad core, is what do you call the other 4 threads? they can't call it hyperthreading since thats trademarked by intel. so quad module would of been the way to go. was it a marketing failure? kind of, in the enthusiast work it was a total failure, in the grand scheme of things the average consumer is dumber than a doornail and AMD knows it so calling it an 8 6 4 core processor will increase sales. i go through this crap with customers all the time when i build systems for them. every time i suggest going with an i7 2600k they keep saying "well it only has 4 cores and the phenom II x6 1090T has 6 cores". that alone shows you how little the average consumer knows and why numbers sell better than facts.

as far as the FX name goes, no one remembers that crap except people in their late 20's and older. kids/people these days have no idea what an FX-60 or FX-51, 55, 72 was. do i care if they used it? no not really, quite frankly i'm glad they have finally killed off the phenom name so i don't have to see people calling what would of been the phenom III, PIII. why people get so worked up over a brand name is beyond me.
 
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Zambezi is a marketing fail, but well, if they'd have used Phenom II X8 or *gasp* Athlon II X8 as their branding, nobody would complain it's an octa-core. So the use of FX is more of a fail than the use of octa-core as marketing.
 
It's only fail for enthusiast market and as JF said they don't care about those 5% ;)

Johnny "the average computer illiterate" Wallmart will go to shop and look at OMG 8 cores 4,2 ghz and if he has a bit more knowledge he will see OMG 16 MB cache for only 250$.

Considering how much time and effort it took to educate people in athlon days about clockspeed being not the most important thing I'm supprised they didn't call it AMD FX-8 4200 Mhz
 
I would like to see some #'s for comparison and see if there is really a let down that we (high end) users feel. Who knows maybe it sells?
 
Michaelius said:
It's only fail for enthusiast market and as JF said they don't care about those 5% ;)

Johnny "the average computer illiterate" Wallmart will go to shop and look at OMG 8 cores 4,2 ghz and if he has a bit more knowledge he will see OMG 16 MB cache for only 250$.

Considering how much time and effort it took to educate people in athlon days about clockspeed being not the most important thing I'm supprised they didn't call it AMD FX-8 4200 Mhz
Click to expand...

Let's not even mention that the FX box as it currently exists COULD be grounds for charges of misleading advertising on the "cores" bit.
 
Michaelius said:
It's only fail for enthusiast market and as JF said they don't care about those 5% ;)

Johnny "the average computer illiterate" Wallmart will go to shop and look at OMG 8 cores 4,2 ghz and if he has a bit more knowledge he will see OMG 16 MB cache for only 250$.

Considering how much time and effort it took to educate people in athlon days about clockspeed being not the most important thing I'm supprised they didn't call it AMD FX-8 4200 Mhz
Click to expand...

lol 4200mhz is to small of a number.. 8150 sounds like its insanely more powerful.

lets put it this way, a customer that doesn't know dick about computers walks into a store. they look at a core i7 2600k, then see's an FX 8150. even without knowing that the i7 2600k is 25-30% faster all they see is the FX says 8150 and the i7 says 2600k, so the FX 8150 must be way faster because the numbers way bigger..

thats pretty much how it works. and yes the majority of people that walk into fry's, microcenter, and bestbuy are actually that stupid. its those people companies like fry's microcenter, etc pray on to sell products to.
 
Michaelius said:
It's only fail for enthusiast market and as JF said they don't care about those 5% ;)

Johnny "the average computer illiterate" Wallmart will go to shop and look at OMG 8 cores 4,2 ghz and if he has a bit more knowledge he will see OMG 16 MB cache for only 250$.

Considering how much time and effort it took to educate people in athlon days about clockspeed being not the most important thing I'm supprised they didn't call it AMD FX-8 4200 Mhz
Click to expand...

AMD has told us that name recognition doesn't matter. Its not important that the general consumer can sing the Intel jingle but have never heard of AMD. Its promotions at the retail level that sale CPU's. I think thats a load.

Even if they see "8 cores" on the tag, they're gonna think "who the hell is AMD" and they're gonna buy the brand they know and recognize; Intel.

Yeah I think the marketing department at AMD is in dire need of an overhaul.
 
Mr. Rory Read
CEO
AMD

Dear Mr. Read:

In light of the devastating fiasco of the FX introduction, we at [H] would like to offer our services as your consumer enthusiast CPU marketing department. Since it is sorely obvious that your current personnel in this department could not find their rectums with both hands and a flashlight, we are available for consulting as to the products your firm should be promoting and most importantly how to promote them to this consumer group without making you look like a bunch of lobotomized vegetables who are submitting to Intel in much the same way as the Pretty Young Maiden in Barnacle Bill The Sailor. Kindly forward a retainer in the sum of $10,000,000 (ten million U.S. dollars) to Weeth c/o [H] to commence this contract.

Sincerely,

Weeth
 
Weeth said:
Mr. Rory Read
CEO
AMD

Dear Mr. Read:

In light of the devastating fiasco of the FX introduction, we at [H] would like to offer our services as your consumer enthusiast CPU marketing department. Since it is sorely obvious that your current personnel in this department could not find their rectums with both hands and a flashlight, we are available for consulting as to the products your firm should be promoting and most importantly how to promote them to this consumer group without making you look like a bunch of lobotomized vegetables who are submitting to Intel in much the same way as the Pretty Young Maiden in Barnacle Bill The Sailor. Kindly forward a retainer in the sum of $10,000,000 (ten million U.S. dollars) to Weeth c/o [H] to commence this contract.

Sincerely,

Weeth
Click to expand...


^^^ Win! Bwhahahahahahahaahha :D :D :D
 
'this department could not find their rectums with both hands and a flashlight'

I LOL so hard, almost got caught reading on the job LOL JOKE! Diner Time ;)
 
Michaelius said:
It's only fail for enthusiast market and as JF said they don't care about those 5% ;)

Johnny "the average computer illiterate" Wallmart will go to shop and look at OMG 8 cores 4,2 ghz and if he has a bit more knowledge he will see OMG 16 MB cache for only 250$.

Considering how much time and effort it took to educate people in athlon days about clockspeed being not the most important thing I'm supprised they didn't call it AMD FX-8 4200 Mhz
Click to expand...

This is the situation in a nutshell. You are right.

What we are seeing here and on other tech enthusiast websites, are a lot of folks butthurt because they have just realized that big tech corps really don't give a shit about them and the enthusiast market. It's a token gesture to generate a bit of buzz. AMD have basically given them the finger. Intel if it was honest and dropped the PR front probably doesn't really care what a few Moutain Dew hyped and over sensitive geeks think either.

Of course folks will say they do but at the end of the day we don't pay their wages. We probably don't even pay for the free coffee in their canteen.

Life will go on. Let it go.
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
lol 4200mhz is to small of a number.. 8150 sounds like its insanely more powerful.

lets put it this way, a customer that doesn't know dick about computers walks into a store. they look at a core i7 2600k, then see's an FX 8150. even without knowing that the i7 2600k is 25-30% faster all they see is the FX says 8150 and the i7 says 2600k, so the FX 8150 must be way faster because the numbers way bigger..

thats pretty much how it works. and yes the majority of people that walk into fry's, microcenter, and bestbuy are actually that stupid. its those people companies like fry's microcenter, etc pray on to sell products to.
Click to expand...

but but....2600k is like...2,600,000. That's obviously bigger than 8150. Geez, you act like average consumers wouldn't clearly recognize this.
 
Tiporaro said:
but but....2600k is like...2,600,000. That's obviously bigger than 8150. Geez, you act like average consumers wouldn't clearly recognize this.
Click to expand...
Most of the Average American Consumer™ does not understand SI prefixes.
 
I do agree, however "Intel is better" outweighs "MOAR COARS" in almost all the sales I make. people trust Intel, with its cute ads and marketing team that actually do... you know... their damn job.
 
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