• Brandweek, Wednesday, October 13, 2010 8:26 AM

"Cloud computing has given way to what might be called 'cloud branding,'" Todd Wasserman tells us in the lede to his Q&A with Richard Gerstein, svp-worldwide strategy and marketing for Hewlett-Packard's Personal Systems Group. That means tech marketers are looking to "own" the brand experience, not just peddle a product. But ownership is a pretty exclusive neighborhood.

"I think there's only a space for two to four [companies] that provide a seamless, multi-device, software-enabled ecosystem, which is what consumers are ultimately looking for,' Gerstein says. Apple's clearly one of them. HP wants to be another.

"We developed this new vision and from that we developed a marketing mission for a marketing organization ... I want people saying 'I've gotta have an HP' as opposed to 'chose an HP and it was fine,'" he says.

Gerstein, who has held marketing posts at Sears, Alberto-Culver and Procter & Gamble, says that the pace is faster in high tech. "It's tough to really 'disrupt' laundry detergent," he points out. "I mean, you can do some cool things, but it's not disruptive."

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