Hewlett Packard uses retirees for grassroots marketing

Across the country, companies are making use of retirees as part-time or temporary workers. But H-P's twist is particularly unusual in Silicon Valley, where long-term company loyalty is as rare as a pinstripe suit. In a move it says reflects a renewed emphasis on grassroots marketing in the Internet era, H-P is seeking to turn its retirees into an asset that other, younger tech companies lack.

Founded in 1939 before there even was a Silicon Valley, H-P has tens of thousands of alumni, many who spent decades at the company, based in Palo Alto, Calif. Old-timers express a familial loyalty, telling stories of eating meals and drinking coffee with the founders--David Packard and William Hewlett--or receiving a baby blanket from Packard's wife, Lucile, on the birth of a child.

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