Case Study

Successful Communications Campaign Rebrands Company as "Full-Line Enterprise Storage Solutions Provider"

SITUATION: Rebranding a billion dollar company is more than a short-term PR campaign it requires a long-term change in mindset across every internal segment of a company even before the challenge of communicating a new "image" begins. Voce Communications, the chosen PR consultancy for the company since 1999, accepted the challenge integrating with the NetApp worldwide PR team to successfully change the corporate editorial image of NetApp as a niche storage innovator to a top global enterprise storage provider with a full line of storage solutions. The corporate-wide rebrand require a significant change in the existing mindset for every NetApp audience.

STRATEGY: This rebranding initiative was spearheaded by an aggressive PR campaign integrated with other communications, marketing, and sales programs spanning 30 countries where Network Appliance maintains a dedicated PR presence.

The ultimate PR goal was to position Network Appliance as a leading full-line provider of enterprise storage solutions for businesses around the world. This message was in line with the corporate NetApp goal to be one of the top three enterprise storage providers by the year 2005.

One of the first action items was to create a strategic news flow that capitalized and built on the existing NetApp brand strength in NAS systems (or NetApp filers) and the company's long history of delivering technology innovation to its storage customers. News programs, product and solution reviews, contributed opinion and thought leadership pieces, and carefully managed media outreach that involved all levels of NetApp management were needed to gradually help key journalists and their readers conceive of Network Appliance as not only a NAS vendor, but also a trusted storage expert and specialist attuned to a wide range of data and data management concerns.

RESULTS: Coverage rolled out over a one-year period with messages that ranged from a technology superiority position within a variety of technology trade publications to a customer solution story replete with TCO and ROI value propositions. Next, real-world customer case studies were placed in key vertical and technology publications. Finally a "company to watch" story focusing on Network Appliance was featured in The Wall Street Journal. This article coincided with a worldwide corporate branding event in New York City that drew more than 100 journalists and 500 analysts as well as customers to witness Network Appliance's evolution as a full-line storage leader. Later an in-depth profile was placed in Forbes detailing NetApp’s success against the biggest rival in the storage industry, EMC. Coverage rich in messaging also appeared in key newswires, on major business broadcast outlets, and in key technology trade magazines. Articles characterized Network Appliance as the "first enterprise storage provider to offer a single integrated SAN/NAS solution."

The successful campaign won The Technology Marketing ICON Awards for marketing innovation and was a runner up in PR Week’s Hi-Tech Campaign of the Year.