November 1, 2002

Washington Post: Moo-vin' On Up - Gateway Ditches Cow Motif for A Sleeker Image

My spin:Gateway has a new image and brand that it will unleash today, but can it work? Will it cause an increase in sales? It's already got competitive prices. It's products are made as good as any one else. So I wonder - what is the problem? I think it may boil down to simple market economics. There's only x amount of top tier PC vendors (let's say IBM, HP, Dell and....Gateway) and x amount of "all the other PC vendors". Then of course, especially for businesses, you've got to factor in the millions of "white box" PCs sold by resellers and IT consultants. Maybe Gateway will have to settle for a much smaller piece of the pie and shrink its operations down to the size of a Micron or even smaller.

For years, computer company Gateway Inc. has traded on the South Dakota roots of its founder and chief executive, Theodore W. Waitt. The company's brand -- either homespun or hayseed, depending on your view -- has been symbolized by a Holstein cow. The white boxes that the computers come in are covered with black cow spots. Gateway Country stores are stippled with cow spots. Waitt even appeared in television commercials with a bantering bovine. (full story)

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