56 Brand Management at HCL (Vishal)

UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI PROJECT ON

BRAND MANAGEMENT AT HCL.

SUBMITTED BY

VISHAL TOTLANI

PROJECT GUIDE

PROF. RAJWADE

BACHELOR OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES SEMESTER V (2009-2010)

V.E.S. COLLEGE OF ARTS, SCIENCE & COMMERCE, SINDHI COLONY, CHEMBUR – 400071

UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI PROJECT ON

BRAND MANAGEMENT AT HCL Submitted In Partial Fulfillment of the requirements For the Award of the Degree of Bachelor of Management By

VISHAL TOTLANI

PROJECT GUIDE

PROF. RAJWADE

BACHELOR OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES SEMESTER V (2009-2010)

V.E.S. COLLEGE OF ARTS, SCIENCE & COMMERCE, SINDHI COLONY, CHEMBUR – 400071

DECLARATION I, ____________________________, the student of Bachelor of Management Studies - Semester V (2009-10) hereby declare that I have completed this project on _________________________________

________. The information submitted is true & original to the best of my knowledge.

Student’s Signature (

)

CERTIFICATE This is to certify that Mr. _______________________________ of Bachelor of Management Studies - Semester V (2009-10) has successfully completed the project on ________________________

_______________________under the guidance of _____________ ___________.

Course Coordinator Mrs. A. MARTINA

Project Guide MR. RAJWADE

External Examiner

Principal Dr. (Mrs) J. K. PHADNIS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

OBJECTIVE “What is the purpose of this study?” and “what are the objectives of the research?” if these questions are not properly answered at the outset the study is likely to be misdirected and to pursue vague or obscure goals. The probable result will be that the collective data will not be valid and reliable as desired.

Objective of The Study: 1. To understand the concept of brand management. 2. Analyze how brand management is effective is today’s market. 3. Study the various aspects related to brand management. 4. Understand the depth of brand awareness 5. To position the brand in the mind of customer 6. Gathering and disseminating relevant information to customers. 7. Understanding and fulfilling the expressed and latent needs of customers buying behavior 8. To generate the business for the company while maintaining a balance with the store’s image.

METHODOLOGY This project report on “BRAND MANAGEMENT AT HCL The comprehensive information has been well arranged in order to give a correct guidance to the reader.

Collection and Sources of Data Primary Data: Primary data is being collected by designing the questionnaire and by the detail. The primary data will also help to understand the real facts and figures and to come out with a conclusion as accurate as possible. Secondary Data: Secondary data is being collected for other useful information towards completion of the project and other finding for useful information from the internet.  The collected data will be classified and tabulated for future mathematical operations for the presentation of the same data graphical techniques are used.  The analyzed data will be used for the final observation and findings.

SUMMARY Brand management is the application of marketing techniques to a specific product, product line, or brand. It seeks to increase the product's perceived value to the customer and thereby increase brand franchise and brand equity. Marketers see a brand as an implied promise that the level of quality people have come to expect from a brand will continue with future purchases of the same product. The value of the brand is determined by the amount of profit it generates for the manufacturer. Brand management will play a more significant role in future marketing competition, so research on the brand management is likely to become more meaningful and interesting. This thesis focuses on brand management. The research question here is if brand management can add value to firms, as well as how to connect brand management with value. HCL Info systems, India's premier information enabling and integration company, has received the ISO 9001:2000 certification specifies requirements for a quality management system where an organization needs to demonstrate its ability to consistently provide product and services that meets customer and applicable regulatory requirements. ISO 9001:2000 also aims to enhance customer satisfaction through the effective application of the system, including processes for continual improvement of the system and the assurance of conformity to customer and applicable regulatory requirement. The menu of HCL Insys global services broadly covers IT consulting and professional services in the area of vertical applications, technology integration, ERP implementation and software development. This also includes a complete portfolio of systems and network services for development. This also includes a complete portfolio of systems and network services for Facilities

Management,

Helpdesks,

Sysytems

Supports

and

network

and

Internet

Implementation. This project helps me to know various brand management strategy and how company is using this strategy to stagnant in the market.

INDEX

REVIEW OF LITERATURE BRAND “Brand creates VALUE for the Product. It allows selling it with the premium. It CREATES that relationship with the customers.” The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a Brand as a "name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers. Brand conveys six levels which help to succeed in the market that is listed below:•

Attributes

•

Benefits

•

Values

•

Cultural

•

Personality

•

User Brand is used by companies to gain maximum customer loyalty. A brand’s distinctive

capabilities are identified by customer based on their perceptions that have themselves been created by the marketer over a period of time. A collectively held idea of a company by its customers in reaction to the messages the company sends via advertising, product design and public relations. For example, Nokia, Unilever, Apple is well renowned brands. In technical speaking whenever a marketer creates a name logo symbol he or she has created a brand.

Brand management is the application of marketing techniques to a specific product, product line, or brand. It seeks to increase the product's perceived value to the customer and thereby increase brand franchise and brand equity. It may also enable the manufacturer to charge more for the product. The value of the brand is determined by the amount of profit it generates for the manufacturer. It will be helpful in increased sales and price or to reduced COGS (cost of goods sold), and reduced or more efficient marketing investment. Brand Managers often carry line-management accountability for a brand's P&L profitability in contrast to marketing staff manager roles which are allocated budgets. Brand Management is often viewed in organizations as a broader and more strategic role than Marketing alone. While forming a brand company has to go through certain procedures: •

Establishing a set of Brand policies

•

Identifying Brand promise

•

Implement measurement of Brand equity

Brand management has undergone a lot of development in recent times. For example, HLL and Proctor and Gamble these companies concentrate on particular set of brands. When a firm position a brand by giving someone cultural, actual, and historical relevance, people start looking at the brand with curiosity ensuring that the brand never loses its shine. Brand never bored the audience and will keep its freshness for years together. Brand management is necessary in all aspects of the brand that is: 

Developing the Brand



Maintaining and Extending the Brand



Protecting the Brand

BRAND MANAGEMENT ASPECTS:  Brand Equity: It is defined in terms of the marketing effects uniquely attributable to the brand. The brand equity concept stresses the importance of the brand in marketing strategies. It is the combination of assets and liabilities associated with a brand that enhances or depreciates the value of the brand. The brand equity has five major determinates are awareness, quality perception, loyalty, patents, trademark. For example, Parle-G, the biscuits major which caters to the mass market, is hoping the brand equity of biscuits in wheat flour (atta) market. Parle is selling atta under the same brand name as its biscuits. Parle-G has launched the atta under the same name to gain advantage from the brand equity of biscuits. Brand equity refers to the marketing effects or outcomes that accrue to a product with its brand name compared with those that would accrue if the same product did not have the brand name. And, at the root of these marketing effects is consumers' knowledge. In other words, consumers' knowledge about a brand makes consumers respond differently to the marketing of the brand. There are many ways to measure a brand. Some measurements approaches are at the firm level, some at the product level and still others are at the consumer level.

Examples, a) Lux Soaps: This brand has maintained its unique features as “beauty soap bar of the film’s stars”. This brand is making good contribution in the marketing due to its popularity among consumers which is a result of various factors such as attractive packages, quality, price, easy availability. b) Goderej Storewel: The company is popular among consumer even when many identical cupboards and competitors in the market. Brand equity is the incremental value of business over and above physical assets resulted from bringing together various elements such as brand name, packaging, advertisement, pricing and so on.

Brand positioning:It is the act of designing companies the company’s offer so that it occupies a distinct and valued place in the minds of customer. Brand positioning is a part of brand identity and value proposition that is to be actively communicated to the target audience and demonstrate an advantage over competing brands.

POSITIONING STRATEGY: 1. Positioning by price and quality: Good quality costs little more. The consumer selects the product at different level of price, offering different quality and decided which is more suitable. For example, this strategy commonly used in construction industry. 2. Positioning by user category: The product is associated with the specific user class of people. Famous personalities are used to influences the consumers.

3. Positioning by Product class: Some advertisers use class associations which are seen substitute to satisfy needs of the customer. For example, Cadbury dairy milk came with the chocolate box as a gift. 4. Positioning by benefit: Position on the basis of special benefit. For example, Maggi two minute noodles position itself with “Two minute positioning”, “Fast to cook good to eat”.

 Brand Sponsorship: It is form of publicity, which is done by supporting and linking the organization name with a particular event most commonly, sporting events or an activity that involves a large public gathering. Sponsorship of major events it’s a great opportunity for companies to gain publicity. The company should be cleared about the benefit it is trying to derive out of sponsoring a particular event. First, creating awareness of the brand during the event and developing association and relationship with the brand. Second, from the option available the firm should choose the event that will help to achieve its sponsoring objective. Third, brand easily gets associated with the event. Fourth, it is better to have long term relationship with the event rather the sponsor a new event every time. For examples, 'Coca-Cola' is one of the top global sponsors of sport. The rationale for sponsoring international and local sporting events is that it is "a natural fit". By matching the brand with world standard events 'Coca-Cola' benefits from the exposure and the associations made between it and the event being sponsored. Equally by ensuring that local events are sponsored the brand is exposed exclusively to a local market and will thus be seen as a local brand. 'Coca-Cola' meets its sponsorship objectives: •

To connect with teens in an interesting and fun way.

•

To create unforgettable teen moments linked to 'Coca-Cola'.

•

To communicate the dynamic and leading attributes of the brand.

•

To be seen as a national sponsor at a local level and global sponsor on an international level.

 Brand Leverage: When marketers leverage on brand equity by using the existing brand name for new products, it can be termed as Brand leverage. Marketers resort to this method so that consumers will perceive the new brand as having some of the characteristics of the existing brand. For example, Lux used its brand name to move into the liquid soap and shampoo market. Godrej Fairglow soap brand was extended to its fairness cream. For example, the manufacturer of Mr. Coffee, coffee makers used its brand name strength to launch Mr. Coffee brand coffee. While coffee machines and coffee beans are in different product categories, there is a strong enough correlation between the two items that the brand name has a powerful impact on consumers of both categories. Brand leveraging communicates valuable product information to consumers about new products. Consumers enter retail outlets equipped with pre-existing knowledge of a brand’s level of quality and consistently relate this knowledge to new products carrying the familiar brand. Generally, consumers maintain a consistent brand perception until disappointed – creating a risky advantage for established brands. Additional advantages of brand leveraging include: •

More products mean greater shelf space for the brand and more opportunities to make a sale.

•

The cost of introducing a brand leveraged product is less than introducing an independently new product due to a much smaller investment in brand development and advertising designed to gain brand recognition.

•

A full line permits coordination of product offerings, such as bagels and cream cheese, potato chips and ranch dip, peanut butter and jelly, etc.

•

A greater number of products increase efficiency of manufacturing facilities and raw materials.

A brand leveraging strategy will not work in every situation. A brand leveraging strategy can be extremely successful and profitable if it is correctly implemented and provides new products with the right image. There are important questions that should be considered in order to make the best decision for your brand: •

Does the new product fit into the established product family?

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Does the brand have attributes or features that easily and effectively carry into new categories?

•

Is the brand name strengthened or diluted by representing two (or more) differentiated products?

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Does your company have facilities necessary to manufacture and distribute a new and differentiated product?

•

Will sales of the new product cover the cost of product development and marketing?

Brand Personality: Two elements thus affect an individual's relationship with a brand. First, there is the relationship between the brand-as-person and the customer, which is analogous to the relationship between two people. Second, there is the brand personality--that is, the type of person the brand represents. The brand personality provides depth, feelings and liking to the relationship. Of course, a brand-customer relationship can also be based on a functional benefit, just as two people can have a strictly business relationship. It is the description of a brand in the terms human characteristics. Effective personality of a brand to its prospective customers in an idealized sense, It tends to create an identity of a brand with the person. It plays the role of a differentiator. It create link between brand and customer. It is also called AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) it is a strategic weapon in a cluttered marketplace. Advantages of brand personality:  It creates favorable brand image of a product.  It helps the advertiser to face brand wars and market competition effectively.  It acts as positive selling points.  It facilitates psychological satisfaction in specific segment.

 It facilitates selection of an appropriate advertising media. For example, Apple : Intelligent, Creative, IBM : Confident, Expert, Advisor Disney : family fun entertainment Google

: simplicity

Some famous Brand personalities • Pepsi: Pepsi built youth, spontaneity and irreverence as key elements of the brand personality. Sachin was shown smashing a windscreen and Azhar swiping a Pepsi. Coke has still a define a personality for itself. • MRF Tyres: Up market, sporty, powerful. Cellular Phone Personality: • Nokia:The charming European. A widely travelled global citizen, with a sense of humor. Practical technology. Likes to interact with the people, and explore what they expect, and fulfill those expectations. • Motorola:The live-wire America executives. Powerful as well as resourceful. He believes in hard sell. Command over technology.

 Brand Identity: Brand Identity is the unique set of brand associations that the brand strategist aspires to create or maintain. These associations represent what the brand stands for and imply a promise to customers for the organization members.

It is much more comprehensive than brand positioning which communicate to the consumer relevant value to the brand to distinguish from competitor’s brand. Brand Identity For Close Up Tooth Paste: Core Identity

: Oral freshness which allows young people to come closer to each other

Extended Identity

: quality products from Lever

Value Proposition

: It is a sweet gel, having bright colors. It is only cleanness but freshness the mouth

Brand Identity For Nycil: Core Identity

: A powder which takes care of prickly heat in summer

Extended Identity

: It is a sweat fighter. It is life style products.

Value Proposition

: Relief from prickly heat in tropical climate and summer. Make life comfortable.

BRAND IDENTITY Perspective Brand as product Organization

Dimension • Quality

Remarks Quality price relationship is kept in mind

•

Johnson and Johnson are for babies. Tata Stands for quality. Such an association is more

Users

Organization attributes

Symbol

•

visuals imagery

enduring than one based on product attributes Coca cola’s classic bottle

•

Metaphor

Kodak and Yellow pages

•

Heritage

The journey in palace on wheels, the coaches of which are the saloons of former Maharajas.

 Brand Loyalty: It can be considered as conscious or unconscious decision of consumers that is reflected in his expressed intent or behavior to purchase and repurchase it on a continuous basis. Consumer loyalty towards a brand can be attributed to his perception about the brand that it provides the right mix of features and quality. Behavioral scientists argue that brand loyalty

occurs because of reinforcement. Cognitive scientist states that brand loyalty is a problem solving behavior. It is aspects of marketers. Brand loyalty has been proclaimed by some to be the ultimate goal of marketing. In marketing, brand loyalty consists of a consumer's commitment to repurchase the brand and can be demonstrated by repeated buying of a product or service or other positive behaviors such as word of mouth advocacy. True brand loyalty implies that the consumer is willing, at least on occasion, to put aside their own desires in the interest of the brand. Brand loyalty is more than simple repurchasing, however. Customers may repurchase a brand due to situational constraints, a lack of viable alternatives, or out of convenience. Such loyalty is referred to as "spurious loyalty". True brand loyalty exists when customers have a high relative attitude toward the brand which is then exhibited through repurchase behavior. This type of loyalty can be a great asset to the firm: customers are willing to pay higher prices, they may cost less to serve, and can bring new customers to the firm. For example, if Joe has brand loyalty to Company A he will purchase Company A's products even if Company B's are cheaper and/or of a higher quality. Philip Kotler, again, defines four patterns of behavior: Hard Core Loyal: who buy the brand all the time Soft Core Loyal: loyal to two or three brands Shifting Loyal: moving from one brand to another Switchers: with no loyalty they are switching their brand constantly

BRAND IMAGE: A unique set of associations in the minds of customers concerning what a brand stands for and the implied promises the brand makes. The sum of all tangible & intangible traits. It represents all internal & external characteristics. It's anything & everything that influences how brand or a company is perceived by its target constituencies. It is the best, single marketable investment a company can make, Ideas, beliefs, values, culture, name, symbol, packaging, advertising, sales materials.

For example, when you listen to the song of U and I and when you see the red color you remember the brand Vodafone. That’s the brand image created by Vodafone on their customer. Brand image:

The image of a good or service which is formed in the customer’s mind

Company image:

The valued customers, potential customers, lost customers and other

groups of people connect with the organization The Importance of Image: 1. Image communicates expectations 2. Image is a filter influencing perceptions of the performance of the firm 3. Image is a function of expectations and experiences 4. Image has an internal impact on employees Research on image built through endorsement of celebrities show that there are three aspects that influence a consumer’s attitude of a brand. These are: •

Attractiveness

•

Trustworthiness

•

Expertise

Factors affecting Brand Image: I.

Contents of Advertisement: The quality of contents i.e. headlines, the color combination, words can give indented image to the brand. For example, if cheap humor is used in the ad, the brand may get cheap image.

II.

Media used:

The quality of media or programmes aponsors also affects the brand image. For example, Reid and Taylor advertised in business. III.

Price:

The price factor can generate image for the brands. For example, the premium pricing for Toyota has developed a rich image not only for company but for brand.

IV.

Packaging: The package must be properly designed in order to give a rich image to the brand as package is the face of the product.

V.

Distribution:

The type of distribution by a company may affect the image of the brand. For example, companies enjoy goodwill in the market can generate favorable image for their brands.

BRAND TYPES

• Premium: Cost more than other product in the category • Economic: Targeted to high price elasticity market segment. • Manufacturing: It is directly manufactured by manufacturers who have invested heavily on building them. For example, Surf, Rin, Lux, Colgate. • Generic brand: It is consumer products (often supermarket goods) are distinguished by the absence of a brand name. Generics brands are usually priced below those products sold by supermarkets under their own brand (frequently referred to as "store brands" or "own brands"). Generally they imitate these more expensive brands, competing on price. For example, Rice, wheat, Doormats, paper napkins.

BRAND STRATEGY Branding in essence is effective brand strategy. It's the application of sound research into brand communications, analytical techniques, and the development of an improved strategy for your brand. Strategy is all about brand positioning. It identifies the key elements of product brand and develops a branding action plan to implement it.

• LINE EXTENSION: In this strategy company introduces additional item in the same product category in the same brand name. This item may be different in size, packaging, color and so on. It is available through different specific mix of trade channels e.g. lower end products are available at general stores and higher end products. It offers a variety of products to the customer. Line extensions can be innovative. It also allows company to command more shelf-space at the retail level. Line extensions work only if the sales are taken away from the competitors.

For example, Coke in India means 300 ml. bottles it extended to 500 ml. and 1 ltr. Then can have introduced. Godrej had face cream with the name Fair glow fairness cream and came out with the fair glow toilet soap to cater the people who wished to use soap bar rather than cream.

• BRAND EXTENSION: Extending brand name is extended to a product being launched in a new product category. If new product is not satisfactory in performance, it might affect the reputation of the company’s other products. Most of the times, brand name may not be appropriate for the new product category. Brand extension advisable to see how the associations of the parent brand are consistent with the extended brand. For example, Bajaj is a brand name in the field of Scooters. The company used the same brand name for Electronics appliances, Motor cycles, Tempos. 1. Extending The Brand: Colgate is available in both toothpaste and toothpowder. Similarly Vim bar extended to the powder. 2. Product Line Extension: Additional product is added under same brand name. For example, HLL extended its Flora brand of Sunflower oil to the gingelly oil segment of the edible oil category. 3. Reaching Out To A New Category: When the brand has potential of providing benefit in another category either through chosen brand name or through its wide acceptance in a category, this form of extension is followed.

• BRAND RELAUNCH:It is the process of launching the brand after certain time gap. Companies try to acquire a brand from other companies and relaunch it with necessary modification. For example, Glaxosmithline acquired Viva a Maltova from Jagatjit industries in 2000, but could not secure the expected benefit. HLL acquired Kwality ice cream in the mid- nineties it as Kwality Walls.

• MULTIBRANDS:This kind of strategy is employed to saturate the market. Additional brands are introduced to cater to the different segment. Multibrands strategy may not allow company to focus on company’s resources. Because of this profitability get affected. Competitors brand get affected by the product and sometime own brand also get affected. For example, P&G’s tide is for solied clothes and dreft is for gentle clothes. P&G products nine different brands of detergent. Coco- Cola came with Thumps Up, Gold spot, Limca brands.

• NEW BRAND NAME: To make brand name more appropriate, a company puts a new brand name when it enters a new product category. A new brand again has to be built up, and this is quite expensive. It should be considered whether the sales and profit estimated from the new brand. For example, Manikchand entered the mineral water segment with the brand name Oxyrich. Using same brand hamper the sale of mineral water. When Manikchand atta were launched, it did not succeed in the market.

COMPONENTS OF BRAND MANAGEMENT: •

Brand Awareness: Brand awareness is the starting point in the development of brand equity. It represents the

consumer's ability to recall a brand name when given a product category (Aaker, 1991). For example, when a person is asked to name a brand of basketball shoes, they are more likely to mention Nike, Reebok, Converse or Adidas than they are to name LA Gear or Spalding. According to Keller (1998), brand awareness is important to brand strategy for two reasons. First, awareness of the brand ensures the brand enters the consumer's consideration set when looking to make a purchase. Second, brand awareness can affect choices within the consideration set. If one brand has a larger presence through advertising, it may be considered more favorably. Third, awareness can impact the development and salience of associations with the brand.

For example, when anyone says, about Computer Company you remember about IBM. When anyone says, about detergent u remember popular brand like Tide, Surf, Ariel and so on.

• Perceiver Quality:Perceived quality represents a consumer's judgments of a product's overall excellence relative to its intended purpose. For example, given its rich heritage with the sport of football Adidas is commonly perceived to produce a high-quality football shoes. Because it has been shown to drive financial performance (return-on-investment), perceived quality is often the focal point of corporate strategy. Besides the actual make-up of the product, pricing strategies may impact a consumer's perception of quality. Therefore, in athletic footwear, as in many other industries, higher price may connote higher quality. • Slogan: For example, Maggi noodles, it positioned their products as healthy fast food with the slogan 2 minute noodles. Slogan based on 2 minutes it help mother with promise of ‘food to cook and great to eat’. This slogan specifies u can prepare food within 2 minute and it will not harm to your health.

• Brand association: It is associate brand with certain tangible and intangible attributes, a celebrity endorser or a visual symbol. Most of this association are derived from brand identity and brand image. Each organization has to carve a brand identity and develop it further to build strong brands.

• Logo and symbol: Along with the brand name, companies also use a logo for visual identification. A logo is pictorial symbol indented to communicate with the consumers. Flags, pictures, graphical designs and alphabets are all used as logos. It is the piece of creativity. Logo is a relatively permanent entity for a company.

For example, logo of the Aditya Birla group of companies in India is a Rising Sun. according to the company, the logo represent the company’s outlook, which is positive thinking and also a stress on values such as interity, quality, and performances.

• Characters: Brand characters typically are introduced through advertising and can play a central role in these and subsequent ad campaigns. Brand characters come in many different forms. Some brand characters are animated where as others are live-action figures. Consequently brand characters can be quite useful for creating brand awareness. Characters often must be updated over time so that their image and personality remains relevant to the target market. For example, An Asian paint is another that has created a wining logo. When you look for Asian paints, you catch sight of Gattu- the impish little boy with a paintbrush in one hand a dripping can of paints in the other. In many towns of North India, buyer asks for Asian Paints, by asking for the “bacha chaap paint”.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY In law, intellectual property (IP) is an umbrella term for various legal entitlements which attach to certain types of information, ideas, or other intangibles in their expressed form. The holder of this legal entitlement is generally entitled to exercise various exclusive rights in relation to the subject matter of the IP. The term intellectual property reflects the idea that this subject matter is the product of the mind or the intellect, and that IP rights may be protected at law in the same way as any other form of property. Intellectual property laws vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, such that the acquisition, registration or enforcement of IP rights must be pursued or obtained separately in each territory of interest. However, these laws are becoming increasingly harmonized through the effects of international treaties such as the 1994 World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on TradeRelated Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs), while other treaties may facilitate registration in more than one jurisdiction at a time. IP, protected through law, like any other form of property can be a matter of trade, that is, it can be owned, bequeathed, sold or bought. The major features that distinguish it from other forms are their intangibility and non-exhaustion by consumption. IP is the foundation of knowledge-based economy. It pervades all sectors of economy and is increasingly becoming important for ensuring competitiveness of the enterprises. These could be in the form of Patents; Trademarks; Geographical Indications; Industrial Designs; Layout-Designs (Topographies) of Integrated Circuits; Plant Variety Protection and Copyright. IP, protected through law, like any other form of property can be a matter of trade, that is, it can be owned, bequeathed, sold or bought.

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COPYRIGHTS India’s copyright law, laid down in the Indian Copyright Act,

1957 as amended by Copyright (Amendment) Act, 1999, fully reflects the Berne Convention on Copyrights, to which India is a party. Additionally, India is party to the Geneva Convention for the Protection of rights of Producers of Phonograms and to the Universal Copyright Convention. India is also an active member of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), Geneva and UNESCO. The copyright law has been amended periodically to keep pace with changing requirements. The recent amendment to the copyright law, which came into force in May 1995, has ushered in comprehensive changes and brought the copyright law in line with the developments in satellite broadcasting, computer software and digital technology. The amended law has made provisions for the first time, to protect performer’s rights as envisaged in the Rome Convention

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TRADE MARKS Trademarks have been defined as any sign, or any

combination of signs capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one undertaking from those of other undertakings. Such distinguishing marks constitute protectable subject matter under the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement. The Agreement provides that initial registration and each renewal of registration shall be for a term of not less than 7 years and the registration shall be renewable indefinitely. Compulsory licensing of trademarks is not permitted. Keeping in view the changes in trade and commercial practices, globalization of trade, need for simplification and harmonization of trademarks registration systems etc., a comprehensive review of the Trade and Merchandise Marks Act, 1958 was made and a Bill to repeal and replace the 1958 Act has since been passed by Parliament and notified in the Gazette on 30.12.1999.

The Windows logo is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. The Sun logo is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. The Red Hat logo is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc. The hp logo is a registered trademark of the Hewlett-Packard Company. The AiX logo is a registered trademark of IBM Corporation. The NetApp logo is a registered trademark of Network Appliance, Inc. The EMC Legato logo is a trademark of EMC Corporation. The Tivoli Storage Manager logo is a trademark to IBM Corporation. The Veritas logo is a trademark of Veritas Corporation.

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GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS The Agreement contains a general obligation that parties shall provide the legal means

for interested parties to prevent the use of any means in the designation or presentation of a good that indicates or suggests that the good in question originates in a geographical area other than the true place of origin in a manner which misleads the public as to the geographical origin of the goo. There is no obligation under the Agreement to protect geographical indications which are not protected in their country or origin or which have fall en into disuse in that country.

A new law for the protection of geographical indications, viz. the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and the Protection) Act, 1999 has also been passed by the Parliament and notified on 30.12.1999 and the rules made thee under notified on 8-3-2002.

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INDUSTRIAL DESIGNS Obligations envisaged in respect of industrial designs are that independently created

designs that are new or original shall be protected. Individual governments have been given the option to exclude from protection, designs dictated by technical or functional considerations, as against aesthetic consideration which constitutes the coverage of industrial designs. The right accruing to the right holder is the right to prevent third parties not having his consent from making, selling or importing articles being or embodying a design, which is a copy or substantially a copy of the protected design when such acts are undertaken for commercial purposes. The duration of protection is to be not less than 10 years. A new designs law repealing and replacing the Designs Act, 1911 has been passed by Parliament in the Budget Session, 2000. This Act has been brought into force from 11.5.2001.

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PATENTS The term patent usually refers to a right granted to anyone who invents or discovers any

new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof. A patent is not a right to practice or use the invention. Rather, a patent provides the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the patented invention for the term of the patent. A patent is, in effect, a limited property right that the government offers to inventors in exchange for their agreement to share the details of their inventions with the public. Like any other property right, it may be sold, licensed, mortgaged, assigned or transferred, given away, or simply abandoned. A patent being an exclusionary right does not, however, necessarily give the owner of the patent the right to exploit the patent.

INDUSTRY PROFILE

RESEARCH COMPANY HCL is a leading global Technology and IT Enterprise with annual revenues of US$ 5 billion. The HCL Enterprise comprises two companies listed in India, HCL Technologies ( www.hcltech.com ) and HCL Info systems (www.hclinfosystems.in) The 3 decade old enterprise, founded in 1976, is one of India's original IT garage start ups. Its range of offerings span R&D and Technology Services, Enterprise and Applications Consulting, Remote Infrastructure Management, BPO services, IT Hardware, Systems Integration and Distribution of Technology and Telecom products in India. The HCL team comprises 56,000 professionals of diverse nationalities, operating across 19 countries including 360 points of presence in India. HCL has global partnerships with several leading Fortune 1000 firms, including several IT and Technology majors. 01) Touching Lives: From aeronautics to life sciences, HCL touches millions of people through technology across the world everyday. At HCL, we work on varied applications of technology right from the aerospace industry to medicine and BPO. There are no boundaries with which we operate. Be it in technology that helps one of the world's biggest aircraft manufacturers navigate and land aircrafts in poor visibility or designing futuristic computer chips, we believe that technology touches each ones life.

Technology that touches lives ' campaign VIDEO: Touch Technology Campaign. Campaign essence: Technology is the heartbeat of HCL. In 2005, we showcased our expertise in technology through the "Talking Numbers" campaign using the voices of 0 & 1, the building blocks of the binary universe. Though technology on its own is just an enabler, its power can be felt when one sees the immense impact it has in various walks of everyday life.

This, for the company, became the road ahead. They set out to show their stakeholders, across the globe, the width and depth of our technology, and its ability to touch lives everywhere. Technology that touches lives:

The brief was simple - show the reach and importance of our technology in everyday life. The hard part was making it brief, 60 seconds to be precise. Then, suddenly, a light bulb sparked to life. The idea was to see the world from the eyes of a common man, someone who isn’t completely aware of our presence. But as the film unfolds, he finds out that we are almost everywhere, and that many of the things that he took for granted are in fact powered by our technology. In order to initiate this process and give the brand a face, a protagonist was introduced - the HCL employee. And thus the ad becomes a chance encounter of two people from different ends of the same spectrum. It’s the story of - The Hitchhiker. And the campaign became the "Technology that touches lives."

PRINT: While television brings the brand to life in a powerful way, it is the role of print to expand and give depth to the message. Thus we did a print campaign where various examples of the way HCL touches lives are presented. Each ad addressed a specific target

group and

highlights the facts relevant to that target group. The entire campaign had a consistent HCL signature look.

SURROUND In our current campaign, "surround" plays an integral role in reaching out to our consumers and employees in their daily life. Outdoor advertising is primarily used as a reminder medium for the entire campaign, with a consistent message of "Technology That Touches lives" and” HCL : A $ 5 Billion Enterprise”. Other elements of "surround", such as Posters, Mugs and T-Shirts, are used to highlight the message internally to all our employees.

VIRAL: The viral helped bring in the humour element to the whole campaign. Very successful as an email forward, the viral represents a new medium and added a quick burst of laughs across the audience.

02)

Future Proofing The World: One of the pioneers in modern computing , our expertise spans globally and we make a

difference.  Innovative Services & Global Delivery Models Myriad hues A sunrise is one of the most glorious of sights. The myriad hues that travel the sky and penetrate the earth transforms each and every life it touches. At a very quick pace. And it touches everyone. Just like that, we believe that technology is transforming lives across the world today. HCL today makes a difference to the way corporations across the world operate. Outcome-based pricing, multi-service delivery and the creation of new services like Remote Infrastructure Management and Enterprise Transformation Services are some of these innovative strategies which help companies stay steps ahead. Infrastructure Management Infrastructure Management is in the HCL DNA. With a 30 year expertise in Engineering and Product development, HCL has paved the way for innovations in every space. While it was

vision that made us pioneers in IT infrastructure, we continue to maintain the top slot because of innovation.

03)

PIONEERING HERITEDGE: They are proud of their pioneering heritage in India and take forward the pioneering spirit

to all our ventures Our Heritedge Usually the word heritage is associated with one's roots - the very foundation from which anything springs up. To HCL, the roots are the qualities of pioneering spirit and guts. The guiding principles always remain and help the company stay on top - and the heritage of the company is converted into 'heritegde' and allows people to grow and work in an environment that will always provide the cutting edge. HCL has strong businesses aligned to grow with the market trends of today and tomorrow. It is a result of its ability to adapt itself ahead and make strategic investment in each business over time - ahead of external realities or market inflexion points.

INVESTORS: HCL has strong businesses aligned to grow with the market trends of today and tomorrow. It is a result of its ability to adapt itself ahead and make strategic investment in each business over time - ahead of external realities or market inflexion points.

HCL DNA The TIME magazine has referred to HCL as an "intellectual clean room where its employees could imagine endless possibilities". The fact is, over the last thirty years that HCL has been operational; the company has stood by its values and core philosophy. Fueled by the entrepreneurial zeal of its founders, HCL developed the first indigenous micro-computer in 1978, at the same time as Apple. Since then, HCL has had a 3 decade rich history of inventions and innovations. Intrapreneur is the term that best describes the HCL employees. Ever since HCL entered into an alliance in 1970s, partnerships and HCL have been inseparable. Bonds have been forged with partners to co - create value. Strong inorganic growth is a testimony to the spirit of partnerships. This entrepreneurial and win-win relationship driven culture continues to guide HCL in all its endeavors.

LEADERSHIP: At a time when India had a total of 250 computers, Shiv Nadar led a young team which passionately believed in and bet on the growth of the IT industry. That vision in 1976, born out of a Delhi "barsaati" (akin to a garage start up), has resulted 3 decades later in creating a $ 5 billion global Enterprise. From designing India's first PC at the same time as global IT peers in 1978; to working on the Boeing Dreamliner's Flight Management Systems today, HCL has stayed a true Pioneer of Modern Computing. HCL now employs over 56,000 professionals, with a global presence in 19 countries and a pan India presence across 360 locations. HCL's business spans IT Hardware manufacturing & distribution, System Integration, Technology & Software services, Business Process Outsourcing, and Infrastructure Management. Acknowledged as a visionary by the IT industry and his peers, Shiv Nadar has often made daring forays based on his conviction of the future. At a time when hardware was the name of the game, Nadar foresaw the huge potential in the area of IT education & learning from which NIIT was born. Albeit a more recent entrant in the software services space, since its listing in

2000, HCL is already among top Indian IT software majors and a force to reckon with for global technology giants. Shiv Nadar firmly believes that, "If you want to empower people, give them the tools. There's enough entrepreneurship in this country to take care of the rest." He is quick to grasp new opportunities, select a team to transform his ideas into reality and delegate the project to competent professionals. In January 2005 Shiv Nadar received the CNBC Business Excellence award from the Prime Minister of India. In February 2005 he was listed by "India Today" in the Power List of India's leaders from all walks of life, for building a global IT Enterprise from scratch in 3 decades, creating valuable JVs with marquee partners such as Deutsche Bank, and creating jobs in Belfast when India was being criticized for just the opposite. More recently, Shiv Nadar received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2007 in the 'Services' category for being "a doyen of the Indian IT industry and perhaps its chief architect". The University of Madras awarded him an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Science in November 2007, for his contribution to not just the IT industry in India, but also for his "transformation of technological culture globally" Shiv Nadar has been conferred the Padma Bhushan Award - the third highest civilian honor conferred by the President of India - in January 2008, in recognition of not just his contribution to trade & industry in India but also his deep commitment to public good. Determined to give back to the society that nurtured him, Shiv Nadar has been quietly supporting many critical social causes. He founded the not-for-profit SSN College of Engineering in Chennai, which is today among the top ten private engineering colleges in India, enabling world class higher education for students across socio-economic strata. Shiv Nadar is also building "VidyaGyan" public schools in Uttar Pradesh that will provide free, world class education to rural children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. His belief is that quality education to a select few will take the positive impact of education to where it can truly uplift & transform lives and help narrow the socio-economic divide. He is an active member of the Executive Board of the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad. Concerned with the public health issues in India, Shiv Nadar is involved with the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) - working to establish standards in public health education and to create a network of innovative world class

India-relevant institutes of public health. He also supports initiatives for the girl child and the empowerment of women. Shiv Nadar currently resides in Delhi with wife, Kiran and daughter, Roshni.

HISTORY: THE INITIAL YEARS: Developed the first indigenous micro-computer at the same time as Apple and 3 years before IBM's PC – in 1978. This micro-computer virtually gave birth to the Indian computer industry. HCL's in-depth knowledge of Unix led to the development of a fine grained multiprocessor Unix in 1988, three years ahead of Sun and HP.

THE GROWTH PHASE: Along with the swiftly growing software technology industry, HCL, which was hitherto known as the pioneer in modern computing made the advent into software development. HCL's R&D was spun off as HCL Technologies in 1997 to mark their advent into the software services arena.

THE WORLD PHASE: Today, HCL sells more PCs in India than any other brand, runs Northern Ireland's largest BPO operation, and manages the network for Asia's largest stock exchange network apart from designing zero visibility landing systems to land the world's most popular airplane. And this it does across 19 countries and across 360 service locations in India.

YEARS OF GROWTH 1976

Hindustan Computers Limited (HCL) is born.

1977

Forms Distribution Alliance with Toshiba for Copiers and notebooks

1978

HCL Successfully ships in-house designed Micro-computer at the same time as Apple.

1983

Indigenously develops an RDBMS, a Networking OS and a Client server architecture, at the same time as global IT peers.

1986

HCL becomes the largest IT company in India.

1989

Introduces fine-grained multi-processor Unix 3 Years ahead of “SUN” & “HP”. HCL-Hewlett Packard JV develops multi-processor Unix for HP and heralds HCL’s

1991

entry into contract R&D.

1994

Forges distribution Alliances with Ericsson Switches and Nokia Cell Phones.

1997

HCL’s R&D spun-off as HCL Technologies – marks advent into software services.  Joint Venture with Deutsche Bank.

2001 2003

 Acquires British Telecom’s Apollo Contact Center in Belfast, Northern Ireland. HCL becomes the first company to cross the 100,000 unit milestone in the Indian desktop PC market.  HCL Technologies get accorded by MetaSpectrum with Leaders status in offshore

2004

outsourcing.  HCL Info systems continues to be the largest manufacturer of PC’s in India.  Joint Venture with NEC, Japan.

2005

 HCL sets up first Power PC architecture design center outside of IBM.  HCL Infosystems launches sub Rs.10000 PC.

2006

 HCL ties up with Apple for iPod distribution.  HCL Technologies signs largest ever software services deal with DSG.

 HCL as an enterprise crosses $4 billion watermark.  HCL announces opening of its second European outsourcing facility in June with the establishment of a delivery center in Krakow, Poland.  HCL enters a US$30 mn partnership with Konica Minolta Group (KM), to provide 2007

software Services. This is one of the largest engagements in the country, with a Japanese Company.  HCL commences production in its ISO 14001 and ISO 9001:2000 certified – second manufacturing facility in Rudrapur,Uttaranchal HCL Infosystems wins CNBC Awaaaz consumer award for desktops HCL BPO is world’s first BPO to get PCMM certified.

AWARDS CORPORATE AWARDS: India's Most Preferred Personal Computer Brand by CNBC AWAAZ Consumer Award 2007  India's 'No. 1 PC Vendor' consecutively for six years.  HCL among the Top 3 IT companies for the last 3 years, DQ & IDC, Best Employer Survey, 'Best employer 2005' with Five Star Ratings.

'Top 50 in ET Top 500 Companies' Listings for 2006”

Top 21 companies in Business Standard 1000 Ranking 2006

Top 50 Fastest Growing Technology Companies in India & 'Top 500 Fastest Growing Technology Companies in Asia Pacific' by 'Deloitte & Touche' 'The Most Responsive Company 2005' - IT Hardware Category by The Economic Times - Avaya GlobalConnect

'7th IETE - Corporate Award 2005' for performance excellence in the field of Computer & Telecommunications Systems

GLOBAL RECOGNITION Cover story on HCL in Forbes Asia in June 2007

'The world's most modern management " with reference to Employee First

HCL Technologies ranks 76 in the list of Fastest Growing Global Technology Companies

Case study on HCL is now taught at Harvard.

The case study focuses on HCL's unique transformation over the last 2 years, and highlights HCL's Employee First philosophy.

The TIME magazine has referred to HCL as an "intellectual clean room where its employees could imagine endless possibilities."

PARTNERSHIPS: HCL has always prided itself on its partnership engagements. Partner models are also evolving in the technology industry. Innovation has extended into the ecosystem and community based engagements are coming into play. HCL has also enhanced its relationships with partners and is creating a variety of innovative partnership models, with various approaches to riskreward sharing. Some of the notable partner engagements

1977 Leading position on office Automation and Laptops in India

1981 Scripting an era of computing across the Microprocessor

1985 Strategic relationship that has seen the computer evolve from a computing device

1996 Dominant position in mobile handset market in India

2004 Partnering in computing and providing IT Services

1991 - 96 Created the HP brand for computers in India

1996 - 2003 Significant IT Services with quarter billion dollar enterprise value 2001 - 2005 First Indian BPO Global Delivery Centre, currently employing 2000 UK nationals 2001 - 2005 First Indian BPO Global

Delivery Centre, currently

employing 2000 UK nationals 2005 First Japan- India hi-tech JV for Product Engineering Services 2006 Industry First "End-To End" Product Lifecycle Solution for OEMs 1996 Cisco on cutting edge networking technologies in an Industry leading Risk Reward model. This is the largest development center for Cisco outside of Cisco, with 1600+ Software Engineers. 47 patents from this center have been filed by Cisco. 1996 - 2003 HCL partnered with Nokia to distribute their mobile phones in the burgeoning Indian market.

Nokia today has more than 70%

market share and the best service network in the country. 2001 - 2005 HCL set up the first Indian BPO Global Delivery Centre in Northern Ireland. It currently employs 2000 UK nationals. 2001 - 2005 HCL partnered with DB to create a large delivery center at Bangalore. This center offers the widest range of Capital Market Services. 2005 HCL is working with Boeing for the 787 Dream liner program. In addition, across its aerospace practice, HCL works with 20 of the world's leading aviation companies. 2006 HCL has set up a center for IBM which is the First Power PC architecture design center outside of IBM. HCL has the license to use the Power PC architecture to build new products. 2005 HCL has a Joint Venture with NEC, and this is the only one of its kind between an Indian IT major and a global Japanese conglomerate.

Core engineering work in the area of High-Performance Computing and Grid Computing is the key focus of this JV.

Market Analysis: India has one of the lowest PC penetration rates in the world at less than 3% as per latest available reports from of Information Technology, GOI. Other developed and emerging economies have much higher PC penetration rate

COUNTRY

PC PENETRATION

INDIA

02/1000

CHINA

11/1000

USA

60/1000

NORWAY

110/1000

India is expected to sell around 4.7 million PCs as compared to 21 million for China. In order to reach at China’s PC penetration levels India needs to grow its PC manufacturing at CAGR of ~30% for next 5 years. With rising income level, increasing awareness about computers through school level education combined with GOI project the penetration level in India is set to grow many fold ‘s readiness project the penetration level in India is set to grow many folds in coming years. PC manufacturing industry in India is dominated by three kinds of players:



Indian Manufacturers (Zenith, HCL, Wipro etc)



MNCs (HP, Lenovo, Dell, Sony etc)

 Unorganized assembled India is expected to sell around 4.7 million desktops in FY2005 3.6 million in FY2004FY2004-05. The desktop assembled brands, which account for ~40% of sales followed

by MNC brands and Indian Laptop market is showing very high growth in recent years due to increased usage in higher education segment (MBA colleges institutes) and surge in home usage. Business segment does not contribute much to growth because of data insecurity issues shown a CAGR of ~100% over last 2 years. not have an unorganized assembled market. All the sales are accounted for by MNC and Indian brands. Absence of unorganized market gives this segment high pricing power as compared togives India is expected to sell around 4.7 million desktops in FY2005 05 as compared to 3.6 million inFY2005- FY2004-05. The desktop market is dominated by unorganized assembled brands, which account for ~40% of sales followed by MNC brands and showing very high growth in recent years due toes increased usage in higher education segment (MBA colleges and other such educational institutes) and surge in home usage. Business segment does not contribute much to because of data insecurity issues related to a laptop. The laptop market has shown a CAGR of ~100% over last 2 years. Unlike desktops, laptop market does not have an unorganized assembled market. All the sales are accounted for MNC’s and Indian brands. Absence of unorganized market gives branded players in this segment unorganized high pricing power as compared to desktop segment.

CAGR%

2006

2011

HARDWARE (%)

54.9

50.9

18.5

SOFTWARE (%)

5.9

5.0

17.8

SERVICES (%)

39.3

44.1

23.2

9,632

24,313

20.4

TOTAL ICT MARKET ($M)

2006-11

Profitability of the segment India: hardware, software and service share of domestic IT market, 2006-2011 Source-Gartner

DesktopCost Structure 21% 35%

Monitor Keyboard Casing

6%

Motherboard

9% 4%

Memory

21% Harddisk

Manufacturing PC is essentially a business of assembling components from OEMs like Intel, AMD, Seagate etc and branding the manufactured unit for end customers. The cost of components is the major cost element in the price of PC to the tune of around 80%. The margin for a business dependent on the manufacturer relation with OEMs, which determine the cost of component for him. Apart from this margin depends on branding power of the manufacturer. Prices of hard disk, memory, and processor constitute majority of the total cost. Thus relationship with OEMs of these majority components is very important for any player to determine the overall margin for its final product.

There is substantial difference between costs of same component for a laptop as compared to the same component of Desktop. Majority of difference lies in costs of hard disk and processor. Overall the cost differential between a laptop and desktop based on components only is around 30% for the same configuration. At the same time difference between a laptop and desktop of the same configuration stands at around 60%. This enables players to have better margins in case of higher players proportion of laptop. Absence of an unorganized assembled market in laptop segment enables. players to have more pricing and branding power as compared to a desktop product. This also helps in commanding better margins in laptop business.

Lenovo: Lenovo is an Innovative, international technology company formed as a result of the acquisition by the Lenovo Group of the IBM Personal Computing division. As a global leader in the PC market, they develop, manufacture and market cutting-edge, reliable, high quality PC products and value-added professional provide customers around the world with smarter ways to be productive and they can be ascertained as a bitter rival of HCL.

Compaq & HP: Compaq India is a subsidiary of Compaq that was founded in 1982 in Houston, USA. Compaq in India has huge market even after its merger with Hellwet Packard (hp). Compaq's desktop, notebooks and accessories are the main products manufactured by Compaq in India. The Hoston based company works with main focus on computers and servers. It captures about 25% of Indian hardware market. The two IT giants can pose a threat to domestic conglomerates like Infosys, Satyam Computers etc. In Bangalore Compact Computer Corporation has launch an online store launched This facility will be used by Compaq India to sell its products like the Presario range Notebooks Laptops, iPaq Desktops SB Series, fingerprint ID and smart card reader in the online store. The e- store is of great help to the customer

HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing for consumers, enterprises and small and medium businesses. HP itself isand not a great threat to HCL but its subsidiary Compaq has emerged as arch rival for HCL, its online store can be a strategy that is very important to check. HCL‘s Digilife is good step but it needs a close watch.

ACER Acer Incorporated founded by Stan Shih, his wife Carolyn Yeh, and a group of five others in 1976, was renamed Acer in 1987.It is a Taiwanese multinational electronics manufacturer. It owns the largest franchised computer retail chain in Taipei, Taiwan. Acer is the third largest computer manufacturer in the world (by sales) after HP and Dell Inc. and its product line-up includes desktop product and mobile PCs (laptops),as well as personal digital assistants (PDAs), servers and storage, displays,),as peripherals, and e-business services for business, government, education, and home users. Its product business range has Desktop computers Notebook computers: Travel Mate, Tablet PCs, Aspre series, Extensa computers: series and Ferrari series.

Sony One of the most recognized brand names in the world today, Sony Corporation, Japan, established its India operations in November 1994, focusing on the sales and marketing of Sony products in the country. In a span of 12 years Sony India has exemplified the quest for excellence in the world of digital lifestyle becoming the country’s forem consumer electronics brand, with relentless fore most electronics commitment to quality, consistent dedication to customer satisfaction and unparalleled standards of service. Sony India is recognized as a benchmark for new age technology, superior quality, digital concepts and personalized serviced With brands names such as BRAVIA, Xplod, Sony hi Handy cam, cyber hi-fi, cyber-shot, WEGA, VAIO, Walkman, Memory stick‚ PlayStation an AIWA, Sony has as a value leader across its various product categories of Audio/Visual Entertainment products, Information and Communications, recording media, business and professional products. Sony cannot be considered as major

problemecording for HCL as its target segment is different than that of HCL but very soon in the future HCL can easily upgrade to cater the need of this segment.

Dell Dell, Inc. is a multinational company based in Round Rock, Texas struggling to settle down in Indian market and it develops, manufactures, sells, and supports personal computers and other computer- related products. it held the second spot in computerecomputer-sales within the industry behind the Hewlett- Packard Company. The company currently sells personal computers, servers data storage devices,.servers, network switches, software, computer peripherals and televisions. Inspiron, Studio, XPS, Alienware, are some brands from Dell.

Fujitsu Fujitsu is a company, that is a new entrant in Indian Market, specializing in semiconductors, computers (supercomputers, personal computers servers), telecommunications and services, and is computers telecommunications, headquartered in Tokyo. Internationally, Fujitsu considers IBM to be its main competitor. Some of its major products are Lifebook notebook computers, Mobile Phones. Tablet personal computers, pen based computers.

HCL BRAND STRATEGY

Common branding and rationalization helped the HCL duo clarify their focus, even as handsets continued to dominate revenues Group HCL went back to its roots in 2004-05, becoming a unified brand through project Heartbeat. The following year saw no real impact of the unification on business or stock price (which is anyway down). Company sources say the branding was a success, though: it helped in strengthening employee pride and streamlining some processes--and perhaps arresting attrition.

Overall, the two entities continued to be very distinct, though the process may have helped them focus better. HCL Infosystems (HCLI) sells 'infrastructure, services, solutions' for the domestic market, having handed over its exports ops to HCL Tech in 2004. Of the services it sells in India, application services are delivered by HCL Tech. It has always been an asking task to give a human face to technology. But for the Indian technology giant, HCL Technologies, it wasn't very difficult to showcase how over the years, the company had unwittingly become an integral part of its consumers life. After all, HCL has been India's sole hardware brand for decades. So, in April 2007, when HCL decided to give itself a modern and global face, the domestic tech giant picked its own employee to make a communication splash. With a telling tag line, Technology that touches life, the commercial began with a hitchhiker (an employee of HCL) taking a lift from an investment banker. During the journey, the hitchhiker explains how HCL Technology is an integral part of everyone's life. Exactly a year later in April 2008, HCL technologies came up with a sequel to the ad in which the world is shown coming to the employee and talking about HCL making an impact in their lives. If you are still wondering why an employee was the chosen one for this task, ask M. Sundararajan, associate vice-president, marketing, HCL Technologies. "HCL's 55,000 employees are the very heart of the company and key among HCL's stakeholders and HCL's catch phrase. What better route therefore than to use the HCL employee as the protagonist, which instills a sense of pride and a strong connect with the brand," says Sundararajan. Small wonder that unlike MNCs in the domain, the brand has steered clear of roping in a celebrity ambassador till date. And the strategy has indeed paid off. A brand tracking research conducted by IMBR, revealed that HCL leads in the 'Top of The Mind Recall' amongst IT companies and has an equally high 'Spontaneous recall'. Before 2005, HCL Technologies had largely focused on product based advertising, given the dominating nature of its enterprise business. In January 2005, they began working on a global

branding initiative with an objective to unify the global enterprise and connect with all stakeholders. That was when they launched the 'Fearless' campaign – a print-led TV campaign, which brought out the core HCL values of Guts, Courage and Passion. A year later, HCL entered the second phase that was the 'Talking Numbers' campaign, 0 and 1 (the binary digits) were taken as HCL's brand ambassadors. This is currently the third phase of the advertising strategy for HCL, 'Touch Technology' where the brand communication has a single thread – HCL expressing technology in many different ways. From a fuddy duddy image to an energised technology giant hurtling with speed and connecting with the global Indian, HCL has indeed begun to touch lives, at least the 30-second variety.

HCL Peripherals, A Strong Brand Name across India:

Successful product(s) and company names may appear to have been reaching their coveted ame positions by luck or magic, but in fact they have been strenuously managed and nurtured in a planned and strategic way. It is possible to evolve Companies and Brands to be dynamic, effective and fully leveraged to its brand’s potential if one has the right process in place. A process that is clear, insightful, logical and focussed will lead to a name and tagline that are powerful components of your brand strategy, and pave the way for business success and lead brand equity.

Building a brand image is more important for IT companies than mere branding. You launch a new product on the shelves, and your competitors will have a similar one, possibly an improved one, in a relatively short span of time. Moreover, the cautious nature of a consumer in taking a final decision with regard to a technology product makes life more difficult when persuading them to buy. In such circumstances, the brand equity and the act of image building assumes more importance. It is the brand, which can make you stand out in the crowd. Hence, brand image is everything. The company wants the brand to be seen and relate itself to its target audience. The objective should be to command a lead brand equity and be a market leader in each of the markets one serves. Then, one will strategise their business by providing their VARs (Value Added Resellers), VAPs (Value Added Partners) and end- customers; innovative, highquality, cost-effective and environment-friendly products. Later, the corporates will add value to these products by providing customer service through their uncompromising commitments to ensure customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. Working on the same lines is the company HCL Peripherals, based in Chennai (India). Though HCL is a three-decade-old enterprise and is India’s original IT garage start-up, HCL Peripherals had its inception in 1983 as a Strategic Business Unit of HCL Infosystems Ltd., and, since then, it has grown by leaps and bounds and has emerged as a leader in its business verticals. HCL Peripherals started its operations primarily with an objective to manufacture very competent and state-of-the-art quality products for the captive consumption of HCL. Thus, it all started as a manufacturing unit for the production of monitors, keyboards and later ventured into OEM business making the best use of its Global Standard Manufacturing facility. Later on, steadily the company further expanded its operations and made an entry into channel business too. Meanwhile, in the due process, the company was also having customized products like Unix Terminals, Terminal Servers for Indian Railways, Telecom etal. Steadily, the company diversified into Embedded Technology and Networking products/project implementations. The company’s core competency lies in strong technology-centric domain knowledge and expertise in IT products and IT-enabled Services.

HCL Peripherals product-mix encompasses: Technology Products: Thin Clients, UNIX Terminals, Terminal Servers, Remote Access Servers, ATVM (Automatic Ticket Vending Machines)

Display Products: CRT/TFT Monitors, Mechanical/Bilingual Keyboards, Industrial Touch Screens and Display Management Dsevices.

Networking Products & Solutions: LAN, WAN, MAN, Security, Storage & Wireless Solutions, RAS & RAS Mgt., Structured Cabling Solutions (Copper & Fiber), N/W Racks, KVM Switches; Networking Services: N/W Integration; System Integration; AMC

Networking Racks: Wall Mount Racks, Floor Standing Racks, CPU Stands and Custom- made Server Racks, KVM Switches (IP / Non- IP). Kiosks: Communication Kiosk, Interactive Kiosk.

Marketing and R&D Strategy: To support HCL Peripherals aggressive marketing and R&D strategy, the company has manufacturing units at Pondicherry and Chennai. These facilities are equipped with state-of-theart machineries; both Pondy and Chennai plants have been awarded with ISO 9001:2000 certifications for manufacturing global standard quality products. HCL Peripherals has executed many branding exercises, including branding advertisements on a 360-degree perspective, hoardings, signages, channel & end-user schemes;

conducting seminars, road shows and events that are intertwined around specific occasions/ festivities and sales-melas. Those things apart, branded e-mailers/EDMs are also sent to the target audience, POP/POS Branding and a few novel promo-tools and techniques are also taken up by the company. The parent company HCL Enterprise is a leading global $4.8 billion enterprise and it comprises of two companies listed in India - HCL Technologies and HCL Infosystems. The 3decade-old enterprise was founded in 1976. Its range of offerings span Product Engineering, Custom & Package Applications, BPO, IT Infrastructure Services, IT Hardware, Systems Integration, and distribution of ICT products. The HCL team comprises over 55,000 professionals of diverse nationalities, who operate from 18 countries, including 360 points of presence in India. HCL has global partnerships with several leading Fortune 1000 firms, including leading IT and Technology firms. As a brand, HCL is present in over 360 locations across the country, including the cities like Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Baroda, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Cochin, Coimbatore, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kanpur, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Madurai, Mumbai, Nagpur, Noida, Patna, Pune, Raipur, Ranchi, Thiruvananthapuram, Trichy, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, etc. “Powerful brands have distinct personalities. But even dominant brands can fade if they fall prey to multiple personality disorder. Establishing a clear brand position and most importantly being consistent and ensuring the brand campaign always retains its fresh appeal is what makes the brand grow big and remain to have a top-mind-share,”

Finally… For 2008, the company is investing to expand its reach and strengthen the channels/business associates and the customer’s HCL brand mind share through various Brand promos, events, customer/channel-based activities and programmes.

SWOT ANALYSIS OF HCL STRENGTHS: HCL’s strengths are many, to mention a few:

a)

Global Presence:

• Its collaborations and joint ventures with international companies such as Perot System, and partnership with world leaders like Ericsson, Toshiba, Nokia, Oracle and Microsoft, enable it to bring the best technology available world wide to its consumers.

• b)

24 locations in 16 countries.

Fast paced and flexible work culture which provides its employees autonomy to accomplish the task without much pressure from the higher authorities. Thus, employees are motivated to give their best to the organization.

c)

The core strength of HCL is the talent and innovativeness of its people which enables to provide the “right solution at the right time.”

d)

The mass markets handled through a chain of dealers, resellers and retailers which helps bring technology usage closer to the individual. It has very strong distribution network.

e)

Its pool of competencies: Hardware, Software, Training, Networking, Telecom and System Integration.

f)

Ability to understand customer's business and offer right technology.

g)

Long standing relationship with customers.

h)

Pan India support & service infrastructure.

i)

Best-value-for-money offerings.

WEAKNESSES: a)

After sales service.

b)

Less promotional campaigns.

OPPORTUNITIES: a)

IT industry booming at a rate of 45% every year.

b)

Increasing consumer awareness about IT and its use.

c)

Tremendous untapped potential of IT products in India.

d)

Increasing competition.

e)

Tie ups with various MNCs enable to extract their core competencies.

THREATS: a)

Local assemblers are biggest menace for the company.

b)

Entry of MNCs i.e. IBM, Compaq giving direct competition.

c)

Govt. instability has a long term repercussions affecting company’s policies & its growth.

d)

Technological shift as a result of research & development. Daily new technologies are emerging. Concluding the S.W.O.T. analysis in words that prosperity lies ahead for HCL. In order

to retain its position as India’s No. 1 IT conglomerate, it has to come out with the state of art as well as futuristic technologies to its consumers well before time.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM) WHAT IS CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM)? CRM is a term that is often referred to in marketing. However, there is no complete agreement upon a single definition. This is because CRM can be considered from a number of perspectives. In summary, the three perspectives are: 1. CRM from the Information Technology Perspective. From the technology perspective, companies often buy into software that will help to achieve their business goals. For many, CRM is far more than a new software package, the renaming of traditional customer services, or an IT-based customer management system to support sales people. However, IT is vital since it underpins CRM, and has the payoffs associated with modern technology, such as speed, ease of use, power and memory, and so on. 2. CRM from the Customer Life Cycle (CLC) Perspective. The Customer Life Cycle (CLC) has obvious similarities with the Product Life Cycle (PLC). However, CLC focuses upon the creation of and delivery of lifetime value to the customer i.e. looks at the products of services that customers need throughout their lives. It is marketing orientated rather than product orientated. Essentially, CLC is a summary of the key stages in a customer's relationship with an organization. 3. CRM from the Business Strategy Perspective. The Business Strategy perspective has most in common with many of the lessons and topics contained on this website, and indeed within the field of marketing itself. The diagram below shows the Marketing Teacher Model of CRM and Business Strategy. Our model contains three key phases - customer acquisition, customer retention and customer extension, and three contextual factors - marketing orientation, value creation and innovative IT.

CRM MODEL

A commonly cited definition of CRM is that of CRM (UK) Ltd (2002), as follows: Customer Relationship Management is the establishment, development, maintenance and optimization of long-term mutually valuable relationships between consumers and organizations. The relationship delivers value to customers, and profits to companies. The relationship is supported (but not driven) by cutting edge IT. The business strategy is based upon the recruitment, retention and extension of products, services, solutions or experiences to customers. This is the core of CRM.

Sources and methods of data collection Data that is collected for the project on the basis of Judgemental sampling method respondents were asked to fill up a questionnaire. Later an analysis of the response is done so that we can understand the basic buying behaviour, their needs, their demand, awareness, and

expectation they have with the Brand.

Key Findings: I came to know that marketing not only comprises of 4P’s (Price, Place, Product, Promotion) but there is still scope for more. Secondly a huge price pressure is there, one can easily watch how 4P’s is applicable in market. Marketing also comprises of 4A’s (Analysis, Attention, Acceptance, Action) as follows:

Analysis: Time needs to be earmarked to determine the drivers, emotional and logical needs, and traditional and psycho graphic nuances of the intended audience. This step allows focus and micro- segmentation and a significant decrease in marketing cost.

Attention: Once you've identified who are the core prospect for your products or services is, creative. efforts must be taken to get and maintain their attention.

Accept: You must use the tools of copy, design, social networks psychology and repetition to get the intended audience to accept that your solution is the best one to take. This acceptance must take place despite the fact that your solution is just one of many options available in an increasingly saturated marketplace.

Action: The prospect has to act on their acceptance of your proposition by doing whatever it is you want them to do Generally, this might be making one or more purchases (be sure your marketing strategy includes opportunities for buyers to evangelize their positive purchasing experiences to others). It may also be picking up a phone or responding to a direct mail offer or fundraising effort or petition drive. The 4As, used correctly and consistently, result in

measurable, traceable return on marketing investment

Result of survey Male Preserve: The fact that over 82% (compared to 18%) of the respondents were male shows that respondents computers are still largely a male preserve. 0 0 18% 82%

Male Female

Computers – The Technology of the Youth: 50% of the respondents were under 24 and 22% between 25 and 30 years. Clearly, then, computer use based knowledge is limited to the young and very young. In terms of marital status, 63% of the respondents are single and 36% are married—yet another statistics that youth.

Expertise: About 27% of the respondents consider themselves as “expert” users, while another 53% say they are quite “knowledgeable” about computers.

0 20%

27%

Expert Knowledgeable

53%

??????

Desktop versus Laptop: 73.9% respondents like to buy laptops than desktop as there is very less price difference in between them.

Hours of Use per Week: According to the self report data, the household uses the computer on an average 27 hours per week. However more than 50% of the computer using households use it for more than 20 hours per week.

Internet Use: The Internet is most frequently used for sending and receiving e-mail. Gender differences in the usage of Internet exist in the areas of online chatting, which is significantly higher for women. Men on the other hand exhibit higher usage for sports information and also to do job related work, sending faxes etc.

Computer Non-Owners: About 42% of the households who do not own a computer currently intend to buy computer in the near future. Among those intending to buy, about 55% intend make a purchase within the next 6 months.

Rating of HCL as a brand: About 52% of respondents rated HCL as a good brand whereas 30% said it as a very good brand

Effect of configuration: about 44% respondents said the configuration matters highly for them whereas 18% said it doesn’t matters.

Mode of payment: Around 65% of the people said that they will buy laptop if price of the laptop can be paid in installments.

After sales services: 65% respondent feels that after sales service plays a very important role in purchase of computer.

Looks and price: Majority of people said that there choice of laptop doesn’t depend on look but it depends on price

Attitude toward Computers: The commonly held attitudes / belief’s among all computer owners with regard to the role of computers at home are: •

Knowledge of computers is essential to keep-up with the changes.

•

Computers are not at all difficult to use and contribute time savings at home.

•

Computers have become part of the daily routine in the family and are essential as any other as any other appliance at home

•

It is difficult to imagine life without computers at home.

Discussion: Marketing has got four pillars on which it is standing but no structure can stand only on foundation but it needs several more things that makes a building live and four more thing encompass 4A’s that is analysis, attention, accept, action these four A’s are verb that must be considered by every marketer 4P’s are noun that make him to understand the quality, but only thinking had never taken anyone to anywhere. Understanding must be accompanied by appropriate action. First three ,analysis, attention, accept are invisible but before taking any action it must be proceeded by understanding the problem, thinking about all the alternatives attentively and then taking appropriate action. No two problems are exactly alike one must see all the available option. Another model to decide about the charm of any industry is given by well known management guru, Michael Porter and it is famous in the world of management as “Michael Porter's Five Forces of Competitive Position Model”

Let us first understand what this model says:

The Competitive Forces analysis is made by the identification of 5 fundamental competitive forces:  Entry of competitors: How easy or difficult is it for new entrants to start competing, which barriers do exist.  Threat of substitutes: How easy can a product or service be substituted, especially made cheaper.  Bargaining power of buyers: How strong is the position of buyers? Can they work together in ordering large volumes.

 Bargaining power of suppliers: How strong is the position of sellers? Do many potential suppliers exist or only few potential suppliers, monopoly?  Rivalry among the existing players: Does a strong competition between the existing players exist? Is one player very dominant or are all equal in strength and size.  Threat of New Entrants depends on: Economies of scale, Capital / investment requirements, Customer switching costs, Access to industry distribution channels, Access to technology. Brand loyalty. Are customers loyal? The likelihood of retaliation from existing industry players. Government regulations. Can new entrants get subsidies?  Threat of Substitutes depends on: Quality, Is a substitute better? Buyers' willingness to substitute. The relative price and performance of substitutes. The costs of switching to substitutes. Is it easy to change to another product?  Bargaining Power of Suppliers depends on: Concentration of suppliers. Are there many buyers and few dominant suppliers? Branding, is the brand of the supplier strong? Profitability of suppliers. Are suppliers forced to raise prices? Suppliers threaten to integrate forward into the industry. Buyers do not threaten to integrate backwards into supply. Role of quality and service. The industry is not a key customer group to the suppliers. Switching costs. Is it easy for suppliers to find new customers?

 Bargaining Power of Buyers depends on: Concentration of buyers. Are there a few dominant buyers and many sellers in the industry? Differentiation, are products standardized? Profitability of buyers. Are buyers forced to be tough? Role of quality and service. Threat of backward and forward integration into the industry. Switching costs. Is it easy for buyers to switch their supplier?

 Intensity of Rivalry depends on: The structure of competition. Rivalry will be more intense if there are lots of small or equally sized competitors; rivalry will be less if an industry has a clear market leader. The structure of industry costs. Industries with high fixed costs encourage competitors to Industries manufacture at full capacity by cutting prices if needed. Degree of product differentiation. Industries where products are commodities (e.g. steel, coal) typically have greater rivalry. Switching costs. Rivalry is reduced when buyers have high switching costs. Strategic objectives. If competitors pursue aggressive growth strategies, rivalry will be more intense. If competitors are merely "milking" profits in a mature industry, the degree of rivalry is typically low. Exit barriers. When barriers to leaving an industry are high, competitors tend to exhibit greater rivalry. Now let us see how porter model works in real life situations.

 Entry of competitors: A PC maker does not require very high investment because the parts of desktops are procured from other manufactures most of the unorganised assemblers does this thing only. Therefore we can say that the entry barrier for this industry is low. Secondly after liberalisation of Indian economy various MNCs have entered in India they have huge pool of resources resulting a tough competition is laid this has made the Indian economic very turbulent.  Threat of substitutes: Technology changes very rapidly in some of sectors and personal computing is one among them, the product life cycle in this type of industry are very small therefore no one can guess when the current technology is going to be outdated and a substitute can replace the product.  Bargaining power of buyers: Every organization whether government, public or private is going for computerization hence they require PCs in bulk so they have high bargaining power. Individual customers are also there but they have low bargaining power results a balance in the market.

 Bargaining power of suppliers: Supplier also have high bargaining power as the number of players are less and plc is low since

manufacturing requires heavy investment, so these companies i.e. OEMs creates extra pressure over the PC makers.  Rivalry among the existing players: Since the margin in this sector especially, laptops and notebooks, is quite good therefore this sectors have many players. And presences of many players create a cut throat competition among players and because of tough rivalry the amount of margin are going lower day by day.  Application of Five Forces on Retail Store: While working in retail store again we can realize the validity of “Five Forces”. Retail store is once again much lower investment therefore each day there is possibility of neighborhood jumping in the same business as yours. Secondly big Malls and Super Stores are also posing great challenge to the retailers and many time the company owned showrooms also opened whose wide recourses can cause fatality to small retailers. Being a small retailer they don’t have much threat for substitute as the exit barrier is low for them. But the company whose retailer was he might come in problem as the loyalty of retailer is changed, this may cause important information to be passed to the competitor of the company. Being a retailer they don’t get the benefit of economy of scale resulting the overall cost is not as low as it is with big retail store chain or with company owned shops. Therefore the end user or customer has much more bargaining power. This results lowering the margin and again the chances of switching the loyalty or either to quitting the business becomes more. Since the retailer is small they have very less bargaining power against the company that looks like giants in front of them. Most of the companies don’t give price protection to them. Many small accessory are required with a personal computer therefore the retailer has chance to utilize the impulse buying behavior, that can be seen very commonly in any retail store, therefore he needs some products as mouse, pen drives headphone etc.

 Types of customer and Non customers: To succeed in any business a firm should understand the psycho of customers, they should understand what is going inside the mind of customer because marketing is a game of brain where heart can also be combined to see the full scale application of various principle. A customer should be offered a product that makes him delighted. Every company should

understand why a customer is switching towards the products of another company. Human psychology tells that it resist change that means humans mind resist any type of change, therefore we can conclude that customer turning towards other company is not satisfied with the current offering of company, his requirements as not met. Then a question arises how one can find what customer wants? The answer to this question is hidden in market research. It reveals the various attributes of demands by customer and company should align itself and its product in that direction similar to thinking of customer For e.g. Sony offers its laptop in different colours where as customer. all the products of HCL are in one single colour (with different shades of it) but our survey pointed out with that customer is highly conscious about the looks of notebook. When Dell understood this requirement of customer they introduced XPS series of notebook in various colors. When a company takes such type of steps customers think that company is taking care of them and it create a feeling of association in the customer’s mind. Now let us talk about noncustomers, these are those people who don’t buy product of our company. They can be segmented into three tiers first tier is the group of people who are actually our customer but they are on verge of being lost as they can switch any time to our competitor if this segment is not taken due care the company is going to lose them at any momentum we all know that retaining old customer is 8 times less costly than getting new customer. Therefore company must consider seriously why they are in first tier.

The Three Tiers of Noncustomers First Tier: “Soon-to-be” noncustomers who are on the edge of your market, waiting to jump ship. Second Tier: “Refusing” noncustomers who consciously choose against your market. Third Tier: “Unexplored” noncustomers who are in markets distant from yours. Second Tier are those customer who had never tried our product since they are the refusers consciously choose against our product therefore they are the segment that cannot be convinced as whatever our offering will be they will surly find some of the other fault in it. They are the most difficult to convince hence they will eat up most of the resource of company therefore in the favour of company it is better to leave them. The third Tier is the most promising segment as they are the unexplored customer distant or far from the company and they are required to be explored or developed. This is called the market space generation that is reaching to those segments who have never been offered anything from us. It can be compared with the Blue Ocean strategy by W. ChanKim Renée Mauborgne who suggested that the blue ocean has the lowest rivalry resulting a better

opportunity for the growth. As it reduces some of the forces in porter’s model up to substantial degree therefore the growth of company is revitalise. Another benefit is that we gain a large portion of customer loyalty in favour of us. Chances are there that we can also gain the first mover advantage.

SUGGESTION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 

HCL says that it has got a wide network of service centre and they can solve any problem within six hours but they fails on this commitment, this act make the customer to lose his trust



HCL should understand that push strategy is not always good but they should try to win the confidence and heart of customers by providing them value for money.

 Promotional activities are very less therefore they should invest a considerable amount in advertisement and as a result their brand awareness will be created or will increases

 Brand Image of HCL is very low and it is considered as cheap brand with lower quality.  HCL

is an Indian company and they should design their product according to the

customer’s requirements of India .i.e. reliability should be considered as major attribute as we Indian like the things that last long

 Most of their products of HCL are standard product whereas now the age of customise product is coming, its competitors a trying to provide customised productsare

 HCL should try hard to increase its Brand Equity.  HCL should make strategic alliance with several financial organisations that can provide instalment facilities to the customer as it can be seen from the results of survey that customers are generally interested buying PC on installment.

 ISD (In Store Demonstrator) provided by HCL must be given some type of sales based incentives and also training so that so that he can be motivated for more selling.

 HCL should create some factors that the industry never offers such as free training about

using the product, as most of customers don’t know how to use the computer this will definitely creates a brand differentiation or customers can be given subsidize Admission in HCL CDC.

 HCL should try to raise at least some attributes of PCs that can be projected as best buy. For e.g. sound or graphic or any other part of the visible system.

 HCL can come up some new exiting brand name that should sound technical or jazz. This type of brand name will enable HCL to stand in front of Sony VIAO or DELL’s XPS

 HCL should add a good tag line to its name that can make the association of customer to the company

 Company

should tie up with some event management company to organize various

promotional activities like canopy, Carnival.



Proper attention should be paid for advertisement planning otherwise it may lead to problem for dealer as well as for company

 Company should make policy for fixed end user price for all dealers will be played & dealer would not to compromise on their margin.

so that fair game

CONCLUSION  Brand management play vital role for any company weather it is services or product industry. It differ one company’s product to other and it create value for the customer.  From the techno giant HCL it can be concluded that other way to succeed in the business is to make succeed the distribution channel very efficient that each individuals unit can push the product in the market and ultimately results in a higher sale. By following this strategy HCL had managed to get on rank two with HP at number one  HCL is also trying to gain the in-depth insight of retailing for the promotion of its DIGILIFE stores this step of HCL will reduce its dependency on individual retailers and will also increase its bargaining power over its distribution channel. But this can create a channel conflict resulting the faith of retailers will go down as they can see HCL itself as threat against them.  A better margin will provide a boost to retailers for selling the product of HCL as much as they can.  The major drawback in HCL’s marketing plan is that do nothing to aware their customer about their products.  HCL’s current position is at number 2 but if they don’t take any action soon they will be shifted to lower ranks and history proves this, when BSNL was the largest they didn’t thought to accommodate with the changing business environment and they lost their number one position within a short span of time and they are now not within the top three At last from the project that I can conclude that to succeed in the business we must not only depend on 4p’s that is Product Price Place and Promotion but also develop a way to differentiate we must try to develop a new value curve and if this is achieved the whole exercise to differentiate will give its fruit in term of higher sales

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