Last time around IBM won in this category just by a notch, but this time
around HP-Compaq has replaced IBM at the top position and that too by a decent
margin. Dell and HCL both have gained in overall users choice score but remain
at same positions as last year. HP-Compaq turned out to be ahead of all other
brands in top of the mind recall, current ownership, relative loyalty and brand
shift. IBM is just behind HP-Compaq in relative brand loyalty, current ownership
and top of mind recall, but falls a little behind HP-Compaq and dell in brand
shift in.
Industry wise, IBM is ahead in discrete manufacturing, communication media,
healthcare, education and is giving a tough fight to IBM in IT/ITeS. On the
other hand IBM is ahead in services, BFSI, IT/ITeS, BFSI and process
manufacturing. Dell turned out to have strong perception in IT/ITeS, BFSI and
services. HCL has a better perception in communication media as compared to that
of IBM and Dell and slightly better perception in discrete manufacturing than
Dell but falls weak in process manufacturing, IT/ITeS and education. Zone wise,
HP-compaq is ahead in South and North but is being closely fought by IBM in
north. IBM is clearly ahead in east and west. Dell turned out to have better
perception in north but falls weak in South.
Coming to brand loyalty, out of top two, IBM turned out to have slightly
better brand loyalty than HP-Compaq with 51% while HP-Compaq is at 47%. However
42% of current HP-Compaq users said either they have no plans or do not know
which brand to shift to, while 36% users of IBM also said the same thing. HCL
also has a strong brand loyalty with 82% and Dell has a slightly concerned
situation with loyalty coming out to be only 33%. Talking about shift-in's i.e.
the brand likely to gain from shift's out from other brands, HP-Compaq turned
out to be ahead of all other brand with 6.6%, followed by Dell with 4.1% and IBM
with 3.7%.
Talking about reasons to shift, it turns out respondents have perception that
reliability of HP-Compaq is slightly better than IBM and it also have more
competitive prices. While there is an interesting situation in after Sales
support/Services, here current brand owners have the perception that HP/Compaq
provide better service, while in future brand preference, respondents said IBM
is better at it.
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