Hewlett-Packard shocked attendees at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month when CEO Carly Fiorina announced a multi-year alliance with Apple Computers. The companies will join to produce an HP-branded digital music player based on Apple’s best selling iPod. Apple’s iTunes digital music jukebox and music store software will be pre-installed on HP PCs and notebooks, a bold move considering that Apple has never sold its hardware to another brand.
More than 54% of current HP consumers download music to their PCs, according to HP research.
HP’s digital music player will be available this summer at retail outlets and will be competitively priced in comparison with other currently available digital music players on the market. The deal calls for Apple to produce a blue HP-branded iPod, according to a report in The New York Times.
Also this summer, iTunes software and a desktop icon guiding users to the music site will be preloaded on the HP Pavilion, Media Center and Compaq Presario desktop and notebook consumer PCs. (For more on the marketing of downloadable music, see p. 21.)
“We explored a range of alternatives to deliver a great digital music experience and concluded Apple’s iPod music player and iTunes music service were the best by far,” Fiorina told the Vegas audience.
Joined on stage by musical entertainers, Fiorina also announced that HP is incorporating copy-protection systems into its 2004 consumer devices to combat music piracy.
PepsiCo International announced a partnership with Iraq’s largest soft drink bottler, Baghdad Soft Drinks Co. putting Pepsi products on Iraqi store shelves for the first time since 1990. Products will be available in the first half of 2004.
As the brand is re-introduced to the market, an extensive marketing effort will promote the PepsiCo products incorporating usual elements of a product re-launch: signage, packaging and P-O-P, according Dick Detwiler, spokesman for PepsiCo International. New bottle designs with contemporary graphics will also be introduced.
Baghdad Soft Drinks Co. will produce and distribute Pepsi-Cola, 7Up and Mirinda soft drink brands in a deal expected to generate 2,000 new jobs at the Iraqi soft drink company over the next few years.
In its prime, Pepsi grew to become Iraq’s leading soft drink brand, and Iraq became one of PepsiCo’s largest beverage markets in the Middle East. In 1990, Pepsi halted business in Iraq after U.S. and international trade sanctions barred trade with the country, the company said. Those sanctions were lifted in May 2003.
The History Channel signed a multi-year deal to sponsor the National Basketball Association Hardwood Classics program. The new alliance culminates this spring. The NBA is the first professional sports league to team-up with The History Channel to celebrate the league’s past with a series of retro games and multi-media programming.
The NBA Hardwood Classics programming will include two NBA-produced one-hour documentaries to air on The History Channel. The History Channel will also have a prominent presence in NBA TV programming, NBA Hardwood Classics merchandise, NBA.com’s history section and select Hardwood Classics Night games, a series of retro games conducted by NBA teams celebrating their past players, teams and prominent anniversaries. The History Channel will also have branding on hangtags of Hardwood Classics jerseys sold at retail.
NBA Commissioner David Stern and The History Channel executive VP-general manager Dan Davids announced the partnership at a December press conference at the NBA Store in New York City. “Our brands were drawn together by the public’s fascination with the past — from ‘retro’ merchandise to ‘classic’ games — people today want to understand their connection to yesterday,” says Commissioner Stern in a statement.
Strategic Sports Group, New York City, will manage the partnership.
