Novell Launches Aggressive New Marketing Strategy Backed by Global Advertising and Corporate Identity Campaign

Initiative is the Largest in Novell's History

OREM, Utah -- September 10, 1996 -- Underscoring the company's commitment to networking leadership, Novell, Inc. today unveiled an aggressive new marketing strategy with the launch of a worldwide advertising and corporate identity and brand campaign. The fiscal fourth quarter $20 million advertising and branding campaign is designed to strengthen Novell's brand equity with its key audiences, establish the company as a major intranet market player and clearly define the company's networking vision.

"This campaign is the first in a series of major marketing initiatives we plan to deliver over the next several months. We want the world to know that we are expanding our territory as the networking software leader and a revitalized Novell is ready to meet our competitors head-on," said Steve Markman, executive vice president for the Novell Products Group. "We have decided to refocus the company's marketing strategy around the Novell master brand and three power brands, which together establish the company as the clear intranet leader now."

The new Novell strategy will unify Novell's individual networking software product "powerbrands", including IntranetWare™, GroupWise™ and ManageWise™, under the Novell "masterbrand" and will demonstrate to customers how Novell's individual networking software products are designed to work together as a full-service intranet solution. Novell has partnered with leading global firms for its advertising and corporate identity campaign including Hornall Anderson Design Works, Inc., Lexicon and Young & Rubicam.

Young & Rubicam developed more than 30 ads which span four interrelated advertising campaigns featuring the two key themes of "Everthing's Connected" and Novell's intranet capabilities. The ads target senior decision-makers, such as CEOs and CIOs, as well as information technology (IT) professionals and resellers.

"We plan to sustain our fourth quarter levels of investment over the next three quarters in order to communicate to our customers and the market that we are providing networking leadership," said Joe Rodriguez, director of worldwide advertising for Novell. "Our campaign is based on extensive research we conducted in the U.S., Europe, Australia and Asia, which told us that the overriding concern among IT professionals was their ability to connect disparate systems and people. Users also told us they need clear information on how to build an intranet solution. Thanks to this research, we have much greater insight into the issues that matter to our customers and this is reflected throughout the advertising campaign."

Novell's first substantial corporate identity and brand marketing effort in a decade is aimed at building the Novell brand. The new corporate identity was designed to reflect Novell's commitment to connecting customers seamlessly to more of the people, information and resources they need around the globe by incorporating images that evoke human values, such as ease of use, time savings and improved communications between people.

"In the past, Novell's individual product brands overshadowed the Novell brand," said Bill Rozier, Novell director of worldwide corporate identity and branding. "The new look will create a single Novell graphical identity and a common 'voice' to unify Novell's corporate and product groups worldwide, and will reflect Novell's commitment to providing integrated networking solutions that give customers an enduring competitive edge. The new brand has already started to appear on new Novell product packaging, collateral, advertising, trade show exhibits and new media such as the World Wide Web and CD-ROMs."

The new identity builds on Novell's existing brand equity, such as its strong Novell "wordmark" logo and distinctive red, black and white color palette. A secondary color palette and human imagery have been introduced to create a lighter look and warmer brand "personality." Under the new branding and identity strategy, Novell has shifted from having forty different classes of collateral available for customers to just seven. The move to streamlined marketing collateral and new standardized technology means that Novell's collateral can be localized for distribution for anywhere in the world in as little as two weeks.

Novell partnered with leading international branding design firm Hornall Anderson Design Works, Inc. to create the graphical corporate identity. According to Jack Anderson, founding partner and executive vice president of Hornall Anderson, the Novell branding effort is one of the largest branding campaigns occurring nationwide.

The advertising campaign began September 9 in print business publications and will appear beginning next week in business, lifestyle, and trade publications as well as on 25 World Wide Web sites. The campaign will include broadcast media later in the year. The new corporate identity will be showcased at the Networld + Interop trade show, held September 16 - 20 in Atlanta.

Founded in 1983, Novell (NASDAQ: NOVL) is the world's leading provider of network software. The company offers a wide range of network solutions for distributed network, Internet, intranet and small-business markets. Novell education and technical support programs are the most comprehensive in the network computing industry. Information about Novell's complete range of products and services can be accessed on the World Wide Web at http://www.novell.com/

Novell is a registered trademark, and GroupWise, IntranetWare and ManageWise are trademarks of Novell, Inc. All other registered trademarks and trademarks are the property of their respective holders.