Firms Unveil a Fresh New Face for a New Year

Hoping to forget the unpleasantries of 1992 and get a fresh start in the new year, some companies are shopping for new public images by reintroducing themselves to American consumers.

Troubled computer maker International Business Machines and Domino’s Pizza Inc., for example, unveiled new advertisements last week designed to show that they’re keeping up with the times. Procter & Gamble’s Max Factor line is planning a new assortment of items intended to recapture business lost to competitors.

All three have been criticized by industry analysts as slow to respond to trends in business and consumer tastes.

IBM--which plans to cut 25,000 jobs in 1993 and reduce $1 billion from development and overhead spending--stresses its 1992 achievements, such as growth in services, in the new ads.

Prepared by Wells Rich Greene BDDP, a major New York advertising agency, the ad doesn’t directly mention IBM’s profound problems, which helped devastate the company’s stock value in December.

Instead, the ad, which first appeared in a recent edition of the Wall Street Journal and will run elsewhere, begins: “We would like to put some perspective on events that have occurred over the past few weeks.”

The ad says IBM has been reshaping itself for several years and is making the transition from a leading provider of large-scale computers into software, services and nimbler machines.

For Procter & Gamble, the highly successful consumer products conglomerate, the revamping of Max Factor cosmetics looks like part of a year-end compulsion to put fresh makeup on an old face.

The Max Factor line, acquired by Procter & Gamble for $1.06 billion from Revlon Inc., will feature more elegant styling and substantially more eye shadow and blush colors.

With the new approach, P&G; is trying to regain market share lost in the $2.1-billion U.S. mass-merchandise cosmetics market to two rivals that have already reworked their lines, Revlon and L’Oreal.

Domino’s, which gained fame by guaranteeing pizza delivery within 30 minutes, began new television commercials last week promising customers “Somethin’ for Nothin’ From Domino’s.”

For example, customers ordering a large pizza with one or more toppings get a free salad and bread sticks.