Brand power

Do you remember the last time you went to a shop and asked for a
chocolate? Chances are that you might have asked for a Cadbury or a Hershey's
instead. Similarly, if you want bottled water, you ask for a Bisleri. A
photocopier machine anywhere in India is called a Xerox, and people don't ask
for toothpaste, they ask for Colgate.

This shows the power of branding which has pervaded our daily
lives to such an extent that we associate brand names with the products we use.
And this is now visible even in the IT industry. Vendors are pouring in lots of
money to create a brand identity so distinct that customers will immediately
relate to it. The reason is simple. The brand that has the highest recall will
have the highest sales too.

So what is branding all about? And is it only for the bigger
companies? Can the channel also start considering branding as a strategy that
can help them bring in more business?

Why consider branding

Positioning of a product is very important. Different brands to be
positioned at different levels.

Once you know where you want to fit yourself, then the rest of
the process will follow-in terms of the product that you are offering. Or it
could be the other way around, where a company will say that these are its
strengths and that it can make these products, and then look at where it can be
positioned.

Supertron Electronics' VK Bhandari pays an equal importance to
brand and has been successful in establishing Supercomp as a well-known brand,
especially in the eastern market. Bhandari said, "Personally, I think that
branding is the most important asset which any organization can create over a
period of time. A brand is not only for the product, the brand represents the
company as a whole."

On the question of how Bhandari distinguish his product from
those of his competitors and other bigger vendor, Bhandari said, "Every
brand has its own positioning. Our brand-Supercomp, is positioned as a quality
brand and as a value for money brand. It is seen that in every market there is
space for all brands to operate."

Branding is not enough

Sanjeev Soni, Country Manager-India, Amconics Infotech Solutions too has been
working on creating a brand recall for his products.

But at the same time he maintains that merely having a brand is
not enough to establish one's company in the marketplace. "In today's
world, a brand name is not that important. What is more important is customer
satisfaction," he pointed out.

Also, he felt that a prerequisite for any brand doing well is
for the brand name to be in sync with the services and quality that it stands
for. Soni elaborated, "We have to keep on engaging with out channel
partners in order to promote our brand. Channel knocking, in terms of roadshows,
events, demonstrations, and other promotional events have to be undertaken in an
ongoing process." In the case of Amconics, consumer knocking is not done,
as Amconics goes entirely through its channel partners to the end-users.
Further, Soni added further, "We are currently concentrating only on
building our brand image among the channel community. However, very soon we will
also start interaction with the end-users."

This brings another important facet to branding, and that is of
brand positioning. It is important to come up with a brand positioning strategy
after a lot of consideration to future growth plans.

Brand perception

Altering brand perception is a slow process that cannot happen overnight,
unless you are pumping in a lot of money on advertisements and activities that
will grab your customer's attention. Parasrampuria said, "It is a very
slow process, which will take its own time. It depends on how the channel and
the users perceive it."

Alteration in branding is also a conscious decision that has to
be taken after much thought and depends on where the company sees itself in the
next few years. The entrepreneur has to be very clear as to how he wants to see
the brand. That is where positioning, type of logo, and packaging comes into
play.

In the past one decade, Nokia has emerged as one of the most
recognized brands in India, surpassing some of the Indian business conglomerates
in terms of revenues. Nokia entered the Indian market in 1994. It was an early
mover and the country's first cell phone call was made on one of its handsets.

Nokia has succeeded in lending personality to its products,
without even giving them names. In other words, it has not created any
sub-brands but has concentrated on the corporate brand, giving individual
products a generic brand personality. Only numeric descriptors are used for the
products, which do not even appear on the product. Such is the strength of the
corporate brand.

Once you create a brand, you have to keep watering it to keep it
alive and thriving. There is also air and ground support. Air support includes
advertising, roadshows, etc, which is external or is done for the mass, while
ground support is visiting people and creating awareness, as well as a market,
for the products.

The channel angle

While it has been agreed that branding is an important exercise for the
well-being of a company, it is surprising to note that very few solution
providers have actually taken the trouble to create and maintain their own
brands. Mumbai-based Xpress Computers is one such company. The company places a
lot of importance on branding, as it signifies a distinct message to its
customers. All communication material, including products, flyers, catalogues
etc, clearly communicate the company's brand message to its customers.

As far as distinguishing Xpress Computers' brand from those of
other big vendors, Chetan Shah of Xpress Computers said, "The brand image
we have tried to create for ourselves is that of a high quality system
integrator and system builder. Hence we follow strict quality control guidelines
to ensure that we meet customer expectations and deliver on our promise of high
quality. Also we have built a solid infrastructure to deliver reliable
support."

Promotional material such as brochures and flyers play an
important role in creating a brand image. The most important ingredient is
having the right people in place and the right client list.

Over the past three years, Sogo Computers has spent a lot of
money on creating a brand image for its own brand of PCs. Sogo Computers'
unique selling proposition is that Sogo PCs are priced at rates lower than those
of its competitors and are backed by a one-year warranty.

It is necessary to have a clear branding agenda, without which
any marketing strategy is incomplete. "Ever since we started taking our
growth seriously, we started taking branding seriously," said Ranjan
Chopra, CMD, Team Computers. Team Computers' new logo 't:' and tagline 'beyond
the box' reflects the changes in the organization. This restates the
importance of a company with a brand name that is sync with the services
provided by the company.

Some are not convinced

Not everyone is convinced about branding being a great conduit into the
customer's wallet. Avinash Kodwaney, Assistant VP-Marketing, Lauren
Information Technologies said that today their customers, who include corporate,
multinationals and SMB clients, know Lauren as a brand through the services it
provides them. But most of this recall is based on word of mouth publicity.

But he agrees that it is important that they are never away from
the customer's thoughts and recall. This is why the company organizes end-user
events at regular intervals and sends mailers to its customers. These are either
technology mailers or promotional mailers.

Other than this the company leverages on its direct sales team
to get new customers. But with the increased competition it is now thinking of
investing in advertisements to retain brand recall.

At the same time, branding is not the be all and end all for any
successful business. It is only one component of the entire business operation.
Unless your products and services are not in sync with what you want to do or
with how the user wants it to be, then no branding exercise will yield the
desired results.

One can safely conclude that it would be a big mistake to
undermine the power of brands. What the Cadburys and Bisleris of the world have
achieved is quite commendable and even enviable. It might be a long and arduous
process to reach brand immortality and many companies might not even get that
far, yet the fact is that everyone must aim for the stars so that they at least
get the moon.

Ravish Khapra

ravishk@cybermedia.co.in