Opportunity
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, a leading producer of external disk drives, solid-state drives, external storage products, and services, came to Ideon with the goal of optimizing its internal and external profile and fueling sales growth. After years of acquisitions, and a recent merger with IBM, OEM’s and consumers were confused about the present and future value of the brand. Consumers didn’t know what Hitachi GST was, what its hard drives were good for, and how/where to buy them.
Ideon introduced a new brand strategy, story and identity to put Hitachi in direct conversation with its customers and transition the company from unknown and un-locatable to the #1 in tech storage, and to own the category.
Solutions
Based on deep market research, the key to Hitachi’s fresh new brand positioning and visual standard was Ideon’s choice to leverage the term “solid”, which was generally reserved for solid state drives. Using images of rocks, water resistance, and “not fragile” boxes, we launched an ambitious 6-month plan to reinforce the brand’s strength, resilience, and durability.
This story united GST’s brand portfolio under Hitachi’s Masterbrand architecture, asserted GST’s position as the top performer in tech storage, supported GST’s long-term goal to segment the market into ‘Hitachi’ branded products for mainstream PC, Mac, and G-Technology users, and provided a platform to jumpstart online activation.
A vital component of the “Solid” brand strategy was developing a new, compelling and dynamic “Why” Hitachi branded website to deliver tailored user experiences, drive revenue, and highlight customer facing products. At the same time we rolled out a “Solid 10” competition online and asked customers to submit personal stories in 10 words, images, or seconds of video, to drive brand engagement and sales.
Results
Through Ideon’s intrepid strategic branding, Hitachi GST became a billion-dollar “Why” company which was almost immediately sold to Western Digital Corporation for $3.9 billion and 25 million shares of WD stock. Western Digital used HGST’s brand and products to help it hyperscale revenue for the twelve months ending June 30, 2022 was $18.793B, a 11.06% increase year-over-year. (Source: Macrotrends)
Hitachi is a fan, explaining, “Ideon’s fresh, innovative eyes for this branding project allowed Hitachi to reframe the established business challenges to show why our product [line] is truly a transformative one.”
