Branding and Positioning in the IT Industry

[Kalyan]

Branding and Positioning in the IT Industry

Positioning and Branding which were not really considered essential in the IT Industry have clearly become a part and parcel of the IT sector today. There is clearly a sea-change in the attitude of the people in the way Marketing has come to be defined in the IT industry.

The evolution of the IT industry essentially began in the 70's and 80's when the market demand patterns indicated a trend that was to obtain more hands but at a lower cost. Thus people went onsite and worked.

Then in the late 90's, after the Y2k, there was a lot of technology seen around and the trend shifted to one where people started searching for newer skills. The Global Delivery Model took shape in the meantime and thus was born the idea of delivering from India itself. And this marked a change and Branding and Positioning became key areas that the IT sector sat up and took note of.

How can Marketing play a crucial role here?

Well, Marketing for one can be used to generate leads, create more openings, work to convert suspects into prospects and prospects into customers as you reach out to them with a gamut of services that they can choose from.

Also today there is a lot of stress on proactively identifying the potential customer's problems and positioning a solution or offering to them. And this has basically led to the entire business developing into a mindshare business.

Marketing in IT is now all about educating the market about the potential of technology and that need not be on a purely technological basis but in a way that when there is an offering ready, there is a market ready to go for it.

Marketing would thus essentially boil down to building a presence, achieving the brand confidence and then gaining and sustaining leadership, all in that order. All this comes from coming out with an offering at the right time, one that has a Value Proposition and creates a basic Differentiation, something that spells out the unique character of the offering.

Marketing, thus should be focused towards not just making the customers invest more and still more in technology but helping them get the maximum returns from the existing investments. Advertising can play a role but that should be supplemental. There would be no point in simply creating a series of campaigns to tell them how to leverage more if it is not really experiential and they do not feel the difference. Thus, it all settles into Customization.

Indian Software houses are more or less positioned on the 'Cost Effective' premise. This definitely implies that we are becoming more and more 'Competitive'. But in its limited sense it is only short term value that will be created.

It cannot be sustained singularly and must be combined with value. And value creation is what will bring in rapid differentiation and rapid growth for the organization. This is all about proactively identifying the needs on an ongoing basis which essentially boils down to building solutions thus demonstrating value to the shareholders. At the same time from the organization's point of view it is a strategic move as they build on to their capabilities.