Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • January 2018 (Revised March 2020)
  • Case
  • HBS Case Collection

SAP: Branding in the Digital Age

By: Das Narayandas and Amram Migdal
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:24
ShareBar

Abstract

By 2017, digital, social, and mobile technologies were rapidly changing the way many of SAP’s traditional customers did business over the last decade. In response to this trend, SAP had acquired companies with capabilities in e-commerce, human capital, workforce management, travel and expense management, and other areas. No longer able to rely on a single contact point through customers’ IT departments, SAP’s salesforce now had to target a variety of buyers including line-of-business managers and end users, who had a growing role in software purchase decisions. The case focuses on the changing role of SAP’s marketing function including its ability to (a) revamp SAP’s brand for the digital age to materially help sales reps when they approached buyers in the short and long term, (b) help SAP earn mindshare of prospects and customers by articulating unique points of view that informed and educated buyers who were increasingly moving online for research, insights, and thought leadership at a time when brand messages were increasingly being defined by advocacy groups and influencer communities, and (c) realistically demonstrate that recasting SAP’s branding as a leading-edge technology company would pay off.

Keywords

Brand Positioning; Marketing; Sales; Brands and Branding; Strategy; Technology Industry

Citation

Narayandas, Das, and Amram Migdal. "SAP: Branding in the Digital Age." Harvard Business School Case 518-058, January 2018. (Revised March 2020.)
  • Educators
  • Purchase

About The Author

Das Narayandas

Marketing
→More Publications

Related Work

    • January 2018 (Revised March 2020)
    • Faculty Research

    SAP: Branding in the Digital Age

    By: Das Narayandas and Amram Migdal
Related Work
  • SAP: Branding in the Digital Age By: Das Narayandas and Amram Migdal
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College