THESE are excerpts from the recent corporate campaign launched by HCL Technologies. It has released a series of five print advertisements, all of which hail HCL as a fearless and gutsy company that has many firsts to its credit. And, the baseline says, `Fearless HCL.'

Saurabh Adhikari, Corporate Vice-President (Strategy), HCL Technologies, says the campaign is an effort to consolidate the group's various divisions under one umbrella.

"Most IT companies today try to create their brands through PR, and we felt the need to create brand salience."

And the "fearless" route, says Adhikari, was the ideal way to capture the heritage of HCL. "The fact that HCL is a 30-year-old Indian IT company is an achievement in itself. It was a brave decision to pioneer an IT company way back in 1976 and live with it," he says.

Arvind Wable, Executive Director, FCB-Ulka, says the challenge was to create a single face and voice for the HCL group. "We had to talk about what HCL as a brand stands for, to its stakeholders, customers, employees and also its prospective employees."

The agency, during the course of its research, spoke to a number of existing as well as former employees, the outcome of which, says Wable, was rich with anecdotes. "There were people who recalled their stint at HCL as the most challenging in their career, while some talked about how they were asked to set up offices in various cities within months of joining the company. These anecdotes, along with the many firsts the company has to its credit (such as the first company to enter the $2-billion club and so on), led us to the `HCL Fearless' positioning."

However, Suguna Swamy, Former Creative Director, Ogilvy and Mather, says the campaign would have been more realistic had it got its stakeholders to speak for it or quoted some classic case studies, instead of thumping its own chest by calling itself gutsy and fearless.

While the first phase of the campaign talks about the HCL brand and its heritage, the second phase, according to Adhikari, will talk about the reasons why one should use the HCL brand. "We need to tell our stakeholders and customers why they should invest in us." The second phase would also see the launch of a TV campaign.

With a communication budget close to Rs 10 crore for the year, the company is also planning a lot of surround activities such as outdoor, e-mail marketing and so on.

Adhikari says it also plans a series of PR activities and events to celebrate the company's 30th year of existence, which would begin from August 11. "We are going to lift our purdah and start communicating aggressively as to who we are."

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page