Branding IT Outsourcing Services: New Era Demands New Approach	3.0/5.0 (2 votes total) Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
Vera a leonik October 09, 2007

Today the most widespread marketing problem for outsourcing providers is the absence of strong branding. There are great many companies in outsourcing industry based in locations with competitive cost advantages. Companies in such situations usually face challenging doubts about strategy and techniques of branding. Selection of brand and its application practices was not at hot button speed. Nowadays choosing a brand looks like searching for what you like in a supermarket.

“The dog barks, but the caravan moves on" is an old proverb that in many ways characterizes the way of growing outsourcing field. Over a long period of time packs of dogs have barked and yet the outsourcing trends have moved on, continuing to grow despite many challenges. Beginning with market crashes, fears of pandemics and terrorism, to war, accounting scandals, nothing has stopped the company from growing. And that growth was not confined to the United States, Russia and Europe - the past five years showed more aggregate global outsourcing growth everywhere. Stronger economy - lots of strong outsourcing partners. There are lots of companies with a strong brand or completely without it.

A good, persuasive brand can provide competitive advantages, especially in a buyer's global market. A brand can and should encourage buyers, consumers, partners to make positive associations with a vendor-company. In other words, the definition of "brand" can extend beyond the name of a company or its services. Brands are usually expressed in a graphic logos, slogans and color schemes.

No wonder that the best world’s gurus of branding have developed rules and regulations for companies to follow. If not – they fear to be lost in the competitive brand world. Any company that violates one of these rules will have to spend more money on sales and marketing to compensate for poor branding choices.

1. Target your Markets
A brand has to work well in a company's target markets. This rule is often ignored.
2. Don't Crave for Another's Brand
A brand should never be borrowed. Only unique variants are possible.

3. Identify yourself with Domain Names
A brand has to match domain name in order to reach the audience.

4. Do not Violate Rules
Do not violate rules of grammar including the use of capital letters. When your company becomes bigger than eBay for example, then this rule can be broken.

5. Say “NO” to Negative Connotations
Brands should not carry confusing or negative connotations for people in target markets.

6. Why not to make Brand Memorable
That stands for easy spelling. The exact name of a company and its brands need to be accepted within and communicated throughout the organization.

7. Test before Deployment
Only after going through all that procedures you can rest assured in success of your Brand name.
And if business will not be so prosperous at least Brand name is great.


Today there are not so many real IT brands in the world. The largest are Microsoft, General Electric, Intel and IBM. What can be the reason for a small amount of first-class IT Brands?
One of the answers here is that IT companies are trying to establish their brands during one year- budget frame but brand creation stands for lots of time, effort and spent money. But in a well – organized brand campaign all energies worth it. There are few companies that were able to grow from a small organization into a big one. Most of them just got off the distance ahead of schedule.
Brand at IT market

The notion of IT Brand has appeared quite recently on the IT market. A new rapid pace of life has created the possibility to step forward a new level of consuming goods. Everybody wants and needs to KNOW and UNDERSTAND the brand essence.

IT development influences the growth of all other spheres of life as it provides information and technical ways and facilities of getting it. Branding has its own stages of development as well when firstly has appeared on consumer market and then transforming to IT domain.

The core thing in the IT branding is creation of an IT product or quality solution. Terms are determined by the complexity of a task assigned. Design, development and a brand choice take 6- 9 months, its distribution – 2- 3 months, advertising – 3 months, its PR and adaptation – 4- 6 months. So usually it takes more that a year – 15 – 22 months. Besides in the overwhelming majority of cases financing of a brand campaign is not enough. In Europe and Russia it is $5- 10 mln as well as in the US it is usually over $ 30 mln. Brand is usually comparing with other brands of that kind and that is how value and cost of a brand is determined.


Trade Mark as Brand Base

Usually a registered trade mark and a corporate identity which is under copyright protection can be named a brand. When choosing a brand name usually a method of similarity (Qulix–Quality, for example) and morphological analysis are used ( which stands for finding an appropriate brand name in one language and finding an equivalent in the other one). Lots of CEOs are striving to attach a positive image to a brand name using well- known symbolism.


Peculiarities of IT Brand

Living in a world of developed Internet technologies it is worth saying that this source of branding has to be used anyway. Here not only a corporate site with sufficient information about company and its brand names, not only a memorable and readable content are important but a good domain name also.

The more ways of communication with a targeted market are fulfilled by a company the more prosperous daily life of an organization will be.

In the context of the IT industry’s phenomenal growth and the era of New Marketing, it is noted that appropriate branding care usually brings visible results. Successful strategies for business communication can not be easy and comprehensible at a glance. Company’s marketing communication in branding has to be diverse serving the craziest ways to apply brand ideas and brand message in a real life. And the dogs can still be barking, but your IT branded caravan will definitely keep going.