TCS bets $10 mn on brand building to move ahead
The Hindu — October 4, 2007

From a company that grew by word of mouth back in the 1970s, the USD 4 billion Tata Consultancy Services has come a long way and will be spending about USD 10 million on brand building to travel farther ahead from here.

"It (brand building exercise) is a major step ahead for TCS for making its brand name visible across the world... It is probably the first from any Indian company," TCS director marketing (UK) Keith Sharp said.

When asked to comment on the 10 million dollar investment in this exercise, he said it would be on the vicinity of that.

"This is for the current fiscal year and it is just the tip of the iceberg," he added.

He said that companies like IBM and Accenture are way ahead of us but we are catching up fast.

"The initial focus has been on what we are doing but now we have started to focus on brand positioning as well. From a business perspective, on time delivery is must for our customers," TCS VP and country head (UK and Ireland) AS Lakshminarayanan said.

In 1975, people had all kinds of perception as to what a company can do and cannot. The perception is improving but still not many know that TCS is working on some very critical projects, he said.

"But word of mouth became engine of our growth with one client telling the other that TCS is good. Still a lot needs to be done to change this perception.

"Customers keep coming back to us. It is our strength and many clients have been with us for decades," Lakshminarayanan said.