The Hindu Business Line : `IT cos must focus on brand image, marketing'

THE challenges and threats confronting Indian IT companies today can be adequately met, if they broaden their focus from project management and quality control to extensive brand imaging and marketing as well.

The deliberations of the Annual Management Seminar of the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, concluded that India is no longer an obscure place on the map that people struggle to find, and it is not the land of snake charmers any more; but it is a bustling centre of cutting edge research and technology. These successes should not make us apologetic about Brand India, but ought to make us sensitive to sentiments of the communities where our clients are, and we ought to learn to handle issues better.

Inaugurating the seminar, `Marketing of IT solutions,' Dr Krishna Kumar, Director of IIM Kozhikode, said that the institute is on the growth path towards becoming a national institute of international reckoning.

In his keynote address, Mr Arun Seth, Chairman, BT India and Chairman, ITeS-BPO forum, National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), talked of the need to sell the advantage of having a unique model of co-existing IT and BPO services. He also focused on the role of Nasscom towards not only lobbying with the Government , but also to develop India as the preferred destination for the world IT market.

In his presentation, Mr Sam Iyengar, Senior Advisor, IT Services and Marketing Association (ITSMA), emphasised the need to shift from tactical to strategic marketing that will finally take India IT Inc up the value chain. Mr Iyengar pointed out that the focus should now be on a proactive solutions portfolio, which is backed by good PR and value pricing models to achieve long-term growth in the targeted market segments.

Talking about the service management aspect of the IT industry, Mr M.V. Sarma of the Computer Sciences Corporation called for a focus on increasingly stringent downtimes in the global arena. He mentioned that the inherent quality advantage of India, backed with a four- pronged approach to maximise, measure, maintain, and market customer satisfaction, would lead to a more service-oriented IT sector.

Mr Deepak Khosla, GM (Central Marketing), Patni, stressed on the basics and the methodology required to carve out markets. He said that the Indian IT companies should develop their brand by orienting their entire organisation towards the marketing approach. He explained that different positioning propositions have to be put up to different customers through suitable media so that Indian IT companies can provide a value proposition that goes beyond just labour arbitrage and skill availability.

Mr Subhash Dhar of Infosys Technologies Ltd stressed the need for building upon what we have and not to be apologetic about it. Mr Dhar, head of the Communications Services business of Infosys, said that the emphasis of marketing Indian IT companies should shift from the commonly understood values to those value propositions that the Indian companies make but do not highlight.

Enumerating from the experiences of Wipro, Ms Sangita Singh, Chief Marketing Officer of Wipro Technologies, called for greater brand differentiation rather than focusing on brand awareness. Ms Singh pointed out that identifying, gaining insights, targeting and measuring opportunities for growth are important for the success of any marketing programme. In his address, Mr Ramakumar Ramamoorthy, Senior Manager, Corporate Marketing and Communication, Congnizant, emphasised the importance of being global and yet staying local. He shared with the audience how Cognizant took a lead in its strategy by moving its executive management to client locations and using dominance marketing to grow in the big league, despite being a relatively smaller company.