IT Services Marketing - Are we there yet?

The concept of IT services marketing is definitely not new but the whole concept has definitely seen a paradigm shift and underwent numerous transitions particularly in India in the last decade or so. The Indian IT companies realized that if they were to beat the IBM’s and the EDS’s of the world in the “game” – they should get their act together. It not only meant the delivering the message to the end customer about the novelty of the services provided by a said vendor but also shrouding the message in a jazzy web so as to create maximum impact and customer recall value. While on one hand it meant the phasing out of a generation of delivery folks out of the marketing departments of the top tier IT companies – on the other the so called marketing whizkids of the FMCG and product companies moved in to fill in the “niche” within. So while the Wipro’s, Infosys’s and the HCL’s of the world got in the marketing guru’s to try and bridge the gap between the message sent out by them and that by the big 3. While in reality though the profit margins increased as did the sales of the Indian companies as they went further global – the big question is pertinent here: Are we there yet?

While the concept of IT services marketing tries in essence to differentiate itself in the sense that it the core strategy is built around influential marketing – much like the US political scenario. The messaging and the context as well as the services need to be flexible.

Boom!!! I said it again – in context is services marketing any different from product marketing. While purists will bay for blood if most modern day marketers try to bring down the holy-grail i.e. the 4P’s of marketing and try adding a different dimension of ‘people’ – in a whole, the context of the 5th P was always integrated within the economics of the world and that made services and not goods the core unit of business.

All businesses at the heart are services business – if we take the Dell model or even the model of a can of “desi ghee” – essentially each one of them follows the integral model of the services economy. In reality marketers try and approach the model from two opposite sides of the spectrum – e.g. our very own Tata with the ‘nano’ is not actually in the business of automobiles (believe it or not) but in the business of transportation services. Marketing of the ‘nano’ would not only revolve around the product marketing to spell success for the product but essentially incorporate the 5th P i.e. people if ultimate success is to be attained.

The Indian IT services arm has essentially not seen much action – but the scene is heating up. With margins shrinking and vendors essentially targeting similar geographical markets we are poised to see a sea-change in this business that will essentially differentiate the innovators from the followers.

The Wipro’s, Infosys’s and HCL’s of the world please stand up.

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a failing state....

In a paper titled, "Is India a Flailing State? Detours on the Four Lane Highway to Modernization", economist Pritchett of Harvard Kennedy School had said, "India is today a flailing state — a nation-state in which the head, that is the elite institutions at the national (and in some states) level remain sound and functional but this head is no longer reliably connected via nerves and sinews to its own limbs. In many parts of India, in many sectors, the everyday actions of the field level agents of the state: policemen, engineers, teachers, health workers, are increasingly beyond the control of the administration at the national or state level."

Case in Point

1. July 25, 2008: Bangalore, India - A series of nine bombs exploded in which two people were killed and 20 injured. According to the Bangalore City Police, the blasts were caused by low-intensity crude bombs triggered by timer. Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, SIMI and Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba were the prime suspects behind this.

2. July 26, 2008: Ahmadabad, India - A series of 21 bomb blasts rocks the city within a span of 70 minutes. According to sources 56 people were killed and over 200 people were injured. Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami has claimed the responsibility of the blasts.

3. September 13, 2008: Delhi, India – The national capital was rocked from its slumber when five bombs went off in succession in Karol Bagh, Connaught Place, and Greater Kailash I, killing at least 18 people and injuring over 90. Two live bombs were reportedly defused. The relatively new Indian Mujahideen claimed responsibility for these blasts….sending an e-mail to media channels minutes before the first blast.

Well the media flooded the common man with coverage of these news items 24/7 on live, print and other media – well for a short period albeit. After a couple of days it was all back to square one – redundant politicians, insensitive media and the equally numb common man on the streets getting back to normalcy in quick time. Many will advertise this occurring as the general disposition of Indians to resume normalcy even in midst of appalling circumstances but have we as human beings and Indian have turned so numb that we are not cognizant of the fact that we need to sensitize ourselves of this situation. Its been 7 years to the date when the US was shaken by the terror strike at NY – its still draws emotional responses from almost every other American that I have come across. I am yet to come across an average Indian who feels the same way about the people and the blasts that rocked Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Delhi recently. Or the Parliament attack or the blast in Varanasi or Delhi (Sarojininagar earlier)? Have we all stopped caring?

It is almost nauseating, the repetitiveness of the words that the reporters and politicians keep parroting after each incident. Wish they stopped telling us about how ‘high’ are the spirits of the people in affected areas after these incidents. Whose spirits were high anyway? The people who lost loved ones? The people who were maimed for life? The people who were left in a vegetative state or coma because of the injuries they suffered in these blasts? The children who were orphaned? The families who were left without their wage earners? Who are they trying to kid? Who are they trying to convince with these statements? It is easy to stand outside the hospitals and near the bomb blast sites after the incidents have occurred already.

The media should have presented the news in a sensitive manner – bringing out the real emotions, the pain and the anger and that in reality the police were helpless in the face of such organized terro even in the state capital Delhi. Unless the truth is revealed, no serious effort will ever be made in this country to try and end this series of terror strikes unleashed with monotonous regularity by the terrorists. For too long we have been in a state of denial about this cancer that is eating our country from within. It suits our politicians to keep us in this state of denial by feeding us stories of ‘heroism’ and ‘stoicism’ in the face of these terrorist created situations. It is time now to stand up and say we are hurting, to admit that our lives are being cruelly affected, to show and share our pain and our tears.

Solutions can be devised only if we admit that there is a problem. So let us shame and force our leaders into acknowledging that terrorism is a real and serious problem that needs to be tackled now.

While the common man in India (especially Calcutta) debate for hours whether POTA or a new law be enacted with fervor by the govt. all in while in the middle of whether TATA should quit Singhur - we fail to realize that it is us who are indirectly responsible for the terror that is spreading within. The so caller “war-on-terror” if it exits should involve all. The Gandhis and the Mulayams and the Lalus and the Advanis should come together and form a time-bound terror elimination program. To resolve the petty differences and to liberate India from the dreaded scourge of jihad and all other kinds of terror we feel shy and instead keep ourselves busy in attacking each other, facilitating the country's enemies. Their dictates must show an impact on Islamic terror outfits (or any other for that matter), otherwise its papers and faxes would remain nothing more than a crude PR exercise. It's the bounden duty of Muslim leaders to make it sure and visible that those involved in jihadi barbaric attacks are condemned as un-Islamic and are practically declared non-Muslims like they have done with regard to many others in the past. And the common man should be equally responsible about the citizens duties ( I wish the common man was cognizant of the differences between a civilian and a citizen)

I do not wish to draw any analogies here – I do not believe that Muslims or any other community can be held responsible for such attacks – there were, are and probably will be people in any community who will fall out with normal social ideologies and norms.

A nation's collective will is the biggest weapon against fissiparous tendencies. The US and China have shown that. They too faced Islamic terror, but handled it with a resolve that got united support by the people and all shades of political colours. Indians can fight each other on a hundred issues of political programming or power grab. But on the question of our sovereignty and security we must stand united, as one – and it must be visible too. After all, where would all these leaders take their money and enjoy it if India doesn't survive? Even to enjoy the loot they must have a station to leisure and be free of threats. To say this is too rude and crude, yet, seeing the Delhi, Jaipur, Bangalore and Ahmadabad blasts, what can a citizen pray for? Security and a collective will to converge on national interest.

Act fast and act now should be the core mantra - r else just like Pritchett the entire world would be looking at us as a flailing state thereafter.

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