Key takeaways

• Differentiation in crowded B2B, B2C and B2H markets starts with audience clarity, context and relevance
• Qualcomm’s “house-of-brands” strategy simplifies complexity across B2B and B2C portfolios
• The Snapdragon® and Qualcomm Dragonwing™ brands clearly separate consumer and industrial audiences
• Sports and culture partnerships humanize advanced technology at scale
• Purpose-driven storytelling builds long-term trust with customers, investors and policymakers

As part of HCLTech’s Davos Dialogues series, hosted from the HCLTech pavilion at the World Economic Forum, global business leaders come together to explore how technology, leadership and brand strategy are evolving in real time. In this fireside chat,  Jill Kouri, Global Chief Marketing Officer at HCLTech, sat down with Don McGuire, Chief Marketing Officer of Qualcomm.

Against the backdrop of an AI-saturated, highly competitive market, the discussion focused on how brands, particularly in B2B, can differentiate, stay relevant and remain human. From brand architecture and global storytelling to sports marketing and purpose-led initiatives, McGuire shared how Qualcomm navigates complexity while engineering what the company calls human progress.

Qualcomm, a global leader in leading-edge AI, high-performance, low-power computing, and unrivalled connect, operates broadly across consumer, industrial and enterprise ecosystems, often overlapping in broader industry dialogues on AI, 5G and 6G, edge computing and intelligent operations, where service partners like HCLTech apply and integrate technologies to real-world use cases.

Why Qualcomm shows up at Davos, and what the CMO owns

McGuire began by grounding Qualcomm’s presence at Davos in both business and policy relevance. “We have had a pretty strong presence at Davos for several years now, it's a great place to do business and to engage in a lot of the conversations that are happening, both from a business perspective and a policy perspective.”

As CMO, he oversees a wide remit. “Most companies either tend to be in a B2B or B2H [human] space and others tend to be solely consumer facing,” he said, noting that Qualcomm must succeed across all of them; an added challenge, but also a significant opportunity.

A house of brands built for clarity and differentiation

Qualcomm has become a house-of-brands, with “Qualcomm being the master brand…and we have to tell that broad Qualcomm story to certain audiences.” Those audiences include customers, investors, operators, policymakers and regulators; each requiring a different lens on the same core truth.

Across all brands, McGuire applies a consistent marketing framework. “First you have to know your audience…then you have to provide them context…and then once you provide the context, make it relevant for them.” When done well, “resonance leads to action,” whether that action is engagement, advocacy, or purchase.

This philosophy shapes how  Snapdragon, Qualcomm’s consumer-facing brand that powers personal devices such as smartphones, PCs and wearables, and Dragonwing, which brings together Qualcomm’s enterprise and industrial portfolio, show up in market. “[The] Snapdragon brand lives where humans engage with technology that's personal to them,” while Dragonwing represents “industrial settings and connectivity infrastructure…that we mostly sell into enterprise or through partners and system integrators.”

Organizing products under Dragonwing replaced fragmented naming with structure. As McGuire explained, clarity matters: “When there's a brand ethos, when there's a story to tell…you can understand roadmaps more easily.”

Brand momentum and global scale

That clarity is paying off. “For the first time in our 40-year history, Snapdragon showed up on Kantar’s BrandZ list,” said McGuire, alongside Qualcomm’s appearance on Interbrand’s ranking. He framed this as the result of collective company evolution, not marketing alone.

Asia has been foundational to that success. “Asia is where we start. It was the birthplace of Snapdragon.” Years of sustained investment built exceptional awareness: “upwards of 88% brand awareness in China and 78% in India,” creating a model now being applied globally as Snapdragon expands from smartphones into cars, PCs and new personal devices.

Personal AI, Physical AI and the next frontier

As AI dominates headlines, McGuire distinguished between categories. Snapdragon sits firmly in personal AI, “where people are going to engage with technology that is personal to them.” That includes phones, PCs, earbuds, glasses, cars and emerging wearables.

He pointed to rapid adoption in smart glasses: “The glasses market has surpassed 10 million pairs a year…and that has a potential to be 100 million.” The opportunity, he noted, lies not just in technology but in helping people understand why it matters. “Again, it’s about storytelling and how we bring people into the fold.”

As Kouri noted during the conversation, much of what HCLTech is demonstrating at Davos is centered on Physical AI. “Most of what we're demoing here today is all around Physical AI. We see a huge future in Physical AI,” she said, pointing to industry-focused AI offerings that sit within HCLTech’s engineering services portfolio. Kouri added that delivering physical AI at scale depends on ecosystem collaboration, noting that HCLTech “relies on our hardware partners to bring a lot of this to market.”

Sports marketing as a differentiator

Sports emerged as a powerful brand lever. McGuire discussed Qualcomm’s partnership with golfer Bryson DeChambeau, describing him as “a great fit for us” due to his scientific mindset and obsession with technology experimentation.

Known widely as “the scientist” in professional golf, DeChambeau is recognized for applying physics, biomechanics and data-driven experimentation to optimize performance.

With a massive social reach, “upwards of 50 million views on his YouTube videos,” DeChambeau allows Qualcomm to flex different brand stories across audiences. Sports, noted McGuire, create emotional connection: “People are passionate about it…and it's a unifier.”

Purpose-driven branding and the soul of the brand

For McGuire, differentiation ultimately comes down to purpose. “I’m a big believer that brands need to have a soul.” While technology itself delivers societal good, he believes modern brands must be explicit about their values, especially for younger generations.

Qualcomm’s partnership with (RED) featuring its Snapdragon brand exemplifies this. Leveraging its Manchester United platform, Qualcomm helped reintroduce (RED)’s mission to eradicate health injustice to a new generation. “I don’t want a dry eye in the house,” said McGuire of the storytelling ambition. The second year of collaboration was announced at Davos.

The company also supports Mission 44, founded by F1 driver Lewis Hamilton, expanding STEM access in underserved communities through technology, tools and storytelling.

Standing out by staying human

In an AI-driven, overcrowded marketplace, McGuire’s message was clear: differentiation isn’t about volume or novelty; it’s about relevance, resonance and values. By pairing disciplined brand architecture with authentic storytelling and purpose, Qualcomm demonstrates how its brands can cut through complexity and remain deeply human. In that sense, engineering human progress is not just a tagline, but a marketing strategy built for longevity.

FAQs

What is Davos Dialogues?
Davos Dialogues is an HCLTech initiative hosted from the HCLTech pavilion at the World Economic Forum, featuring conversations with global leaders on technology, business and leadership.

How can B2B brands differentiate in crowded AI markets?
By deeply understanding their audiences, providing clear context and making messaging relevant, brands can create resonance that drives trust and action.

Why did Qualcomm create the Dragonwing brand?
Qualcomm Dragonwing distinguishes Qualcomm’s enterprise and industrial portfolio, making complex technologies easier for customers and partners to understand and adopt.

What role does sports marketing play for Qualcomm?
Sports partnerships humanize advanced technology, create emotional connection and provide scalable platforms to reach diverse global audiences.

Why is purpose important in modern branding?
Purpose builds long-term trust, especially with younger generations, by showing how brands contribute positively to society beyond products and profits.