1. Market like a Multi-Million$ Company on
a Dollar a Day!
May 22nd
2008, Hyderabad
Reema Sarin
AVP - Marketing and Corporate Communications,
AppLabs
2. » Marketing Mix & Approach
» Industry Partner Program
» Analyst/Advisory Relations
» Strategic Relationship Marketing
» Web Marketing
» Blogging
» Public Relations
» Events/Speaking Opportunities
» Awards
» CSR
» Re-branding – A Successful Case Study
What are we going to talk about!
3. » A well crafted Marketing Plan focuses on
effective ‘brand positioning’ which has
the following three primary components –
» It should define your:
» Target Market – locally, regionally, globally
» Business focus – industry segment (s)
» Key value propositions or USP
Positioning is Key!
4. » Marketing mix is a combination
of marketing tools that are used
to satisfy customers and
company objectives, controlled
by the 4 Ps - Product, Price,
Place and Promise.
» All elements of sales and
marketing must work in perfect
unison so that the prospective
consumer is being sent that
‘One Unified message’.
» 5 essential components of the
marketing mix are: Fit, Value,
Uniqueness, Sustainability,
Credibility
Marketing Mix
5. Industry Partner Program
‘Build an Industry Partner program that generates long term profitable revenue globally.
It should enable your company to enter into new markets with service offerings core to
your business strategy’
6. Analyst/Advisory Relations
‘Make Analyst and Advisory Relations a strategic tool in developing your brand globally. It
is useful in creating new business opportunities, reaching out to prospects and supporting
existing client relationships”
7. Strategic Relationship Marketing
‘Develop and strengthen your relationship with clients globally, you must
invest in client focused corporate events and targeted promotional activity
– select Roundtable forums; Breakfast meets; Social meetings; host co-
branded events.’
8. Web (SMART) Marketing
Web Marketing is Highly Targeted, Measurable, Cost Effective and ROI
driven, which allows you to reach your global customer base fast!
You can target by:
City
Country
Gender
Age
Interests
Company
Industry
Job Titles
Search
Websites
Webpage context
Control your cost on:
CPC (cost per click)
CPM (cost per thousand
impressions)
CPA (cost per action)
Measure performance and ROI
Total impressions & clicks
Total email opens & visitors
Total desired actions taken
9. » Highly targeted:
» Advertise on websites that your target audience frequently visits
» Advertise using various formats:
» Text ads, Graphic ads, Animated ads, Peel throughs
» Pay as you like! Never need to exceed your monthly budget:
» Pay per click, or pay per impression
» Target with social media site if applicable to your business:
» Target by Age, Gender, Country, Education, Company
Online Advertising
12. Email Marketing is one of the most effective and powerful tools for
Lead Generation, applicable to every business today!
And why?
• Free & Direct Medium – It is free medium that immediately connects you to
your target market directly
• It is Highly Targeted and Unique
• Highly Measurable – You can measure how many people opened the
email, clicked on links
No-cost Email Marketing
13. Affiliates promote your products and services and drive additional
traffic to your website. You only pay a comission when there is a sale!
Results based Affiliate Marketing
14. For your service / product, let your users do viral marketing or the
‘hard-work’ through word of mouth, email and other brand
promotion tools, e.g. Discount Coupons etc.
Intelligent Viral Marketing
15. ‘A Weblog is one of the latest and greatest tools for creating a
‘Marketing Buzz’.
And How?
• Blogs have content, distribution, and accelerated frequency – hence great education tool
• Popular blogs have one thing in common; an individual voice. A voice will not only gain readers, but it
keeps them, creating brand loyalty
• Fantastic Credibility through third party promotion
Are you Blogging yet?
16. Show ‘Thought Leadership’ and educate your prospects by ‘Pre-
selling’ to them with White Papers, Webinars, Case Studies
White Papers, Case Studies:
- For e.g. If you are an IT company you would promote your White Papers and Case Studies on:
Webinars:
- Host ONE Webinar a month
- Promote it through:
- Banner advertising on other related websites through
Google (paid ads)
- Email to prospects and customers ($0, No Costs!)
Collateral Promotion
21. » Branding
» Employee engagement
» Float the idea
» Strategic communications
» Think strategically
» Award-winning results
» Targeted communications
» Internal clients
» Media landscape
» Engaging our audiences
» Interactive tools
» Communications solutions
» Reputation management
» Join the conversation
» Message-driven
»
Use Smart Marketing Jargon
Blow your trumpet 24x7!
22. » Implement an Internal Marketing
perception survey with all your
Sales and senior Management
» Objective is to obtain feedback –
» On what is working and what is
not?
» To prioritise the current marketing
plans to ensure that sales and
marketing are aligned in meeting
the common business objectives
To get better at your job!
25. The Vision of the company was to be the undisputed
global leader in independent software testing, quality
management and certification solutions company by
2010.
Vision
27. » Earlier known as AppLabs Technologies – one of the
independent testing companies in India, providing a range of
testing services across different verticals.
» Brand Associations:
» Bold, strong colours (purple & orange)
» A young company
» High volume testing
» Brand Imagery:
» Youthful energy as opposed to ‘Mature and as a Thought Leader’
The Old Branding
28. Why Re-Brand?
» The company had grown rapidly since its inception in 2001, through
strong organic growth and global expansion as a result of strategic
acquisitions of market leading organizations.
» As a testing company, it also had many ‘firsts’ in attaining key
accreditations like CMMI Level 5 and ISO 27001: 2005, the highest
information security certification
Hence:
Re-Branding became necessary as:
The company now had a compelling STORY TO
TELL!
29. The company wanted a logo to represent Confidence
and Reassurance
Hence in May 2007 it launched its new ‘Brand identity’ or ‘Logo’,
based around the theme of a ‘Sunrise’
Why Sunrise?
The ‘Sun’ is synonymous with ‘life, growth and optimism – And
we can all be sure that the sun will rise every morning!
What Re-Brand?
30. » Logo color – ‘blue' symbolizes ‘trust and honesty’
and favoured by those whose advice is sought and highly valued
» Typeface (font)– Serif indicates ‘gravitas and substance’
» Strap-line ‘no doubt about it’ signifies ‘consistency,
reliability and confidence’, which summates the ultimate
promise of the company – a confident statement that
communicates the business benefit of the level of service and
quality that the company aims to provides to its customers and
partners
The New Branding
31. A new dawn in the software testing industry
The Company’s new dawn!
33. What is Brand Development
» Developing a new brand is not just designing a new logo - you
have to ‘Live and breathe the Brand’
» Brand is another word for ‘reputation’
» Reputation:
» Doing what say you will do and doing it well
» Meeting deadlines and promises across all markets and
amongst current & prospective clients, industry partners and
businesses
» Make every ‘Employee a responsible Brand Ambassador’
through consistent internal marketing and corporate social
responsibility (CSR) programs
34. Re-branding Audio-visual
» Used effectively among media
» Customers
» Employees across the globe
» Other stake-holders
Media ( Mainline, Business, TV, Online)
» Press Conferences and Press Releases on: Global expansion; Global
Re-branding, as well as on all the key milestones and achievements of
the company
» Participation in editorial opportunities
» One-on-one interviews with key journalists
» Corporate profiling
» Business specific media stories
Re-Branding Tools
35. Branding
» Launch of a new company Web-site
» Development of new branded Collateral – Company Brochures,
Literature and materials (Banners, Booth Stands)
Events
» Participation in the speaking opportunities for senior management and
subject matter experts from the company in key industry events
globally
Marketing
» Direct / Email Marketing to the different target audiences, e.g.
Customers, Prospects, Analyst Community, Media
» Online or Web Marketing
» Special Customer, Partner and Analyst Meets
Re-Branding Tools
36. Key Learnings
» Ensure a good ‘buy in’ from senior management by integrating PR
and Marketing exercises with the company’s Business objectives.
» This will ensure result in better Return on Investment (ROI) from a
‘measurement of success’ perspective
» For optimum and wide visibility, roll out all Marketing and Media
exercises at a Global / Regional level
» Map out a quarterly but flexible Marketing & Communication
plan to adapt to the company’s changing and evolving needs
37. » It is no great achievement to get media mileage when you have
news to give to the Press
» You know you have a successful PR program when the Press calls
you for a company quote ‘as a Thought Leader in your industry
story’
A successful Marketing practitioner is one which keeps
his/her company in the news consistently and reaches
out effectively to all target markets to meet business
objectives
Key Learnings
