India's Most Wanted IT Brands

The real value of a brand is not only realized by how many people own it, but
also by what it does to stay shining in the future. This can be measured by how
readily its name is recalled by buyers in their minds. Further, how many of
those who recall it would also like to buy it? If they do buy it, then are they
likely to stay with it in the future as well? These are also some of the key
points we've focused on in our survey this time. The traditional Users'
Choice that we had been doing every year is now passé. This year onwards it
will be called Most Wanted IT Brands of India. The survey part of the story,
however, remains the same. What's different are our findings and analysis of
brands in each category. We've still gone out to key IT decision makers and
consumers with buying power across the country for enterprise and consumer IT
brands.

But how we analyze the results has changed completely. We've gone beyond
finding out which IT brands users are likely to buy in the coming six months,
and instead compared and analyzed each IT brand's performance. This time, we've
looked at 20 enterprise and 5 consumer IT brands categories. While you'll find
the analysis of individual categories in the subsequent pages, there were a few
patterns we noticed from our survey, which we'll talk about here.

We found that for each category, there were, on an average, three to four IT
brands that had the lion's share. And in many cases the brands that had the
highest current ownership weren't as persuasive as the ones with lower
ownership. Some underdogs had a stronger brand pull. In most categories, you'll
also notice in the graphs, a crowded corner of brands with lower top of mind
recall and current ownership. We've not really analyzed the movement of these
brands, because their overall numbers were too low to pass any judgments on
them.

Lastly, in many enterprise segments, there were some CIOs who didn't name
any brand that they might shift to over the coming six months. The inference
here is that enterprise IT purchasing is completely different for different
types of products and solutions. For instance, if you've already deployed ERP,
the probability of shifting to another ERP package later is pretty low. So the
brand loyalty here would be pretty high. Likewise for many other enterprise IT
solutions.

Now let's look at the methodology we've followed for the survey.

Survey methodology

Mrutyunjay Mishra and Sanjay Tiwari, JuxtConsult

Every year PCQuest modifies the methodology and presentation of how to judge
the IT brands. Two years back, they made a major change in the presentation, by
tracking brand shift and brand loyalties. Last year, the split the whole
exercise into two-separated the Developers part of the survey and introduced
the online survey. This year they have taken the presentation a level ahead and
we have been the consultants for the same.

This time we again conducted an online survey for consumer products. The survey
was open for 10 days and 564 users responded. For the enterprise segment, we
decided to cover only the key decision makers from the top 1,000 companies of
India. We are really grateful to the key decision makers in 176 organizations
who could take time out from their schedule to respond.

We have modified our questionnaire a little this year by adding 'top of
mind recall' as the first question for each category. The other two questions
remain the same as last year-second asking them for their 'most likely'
choice of the primary brand if they were to buy the same category of products in
the coming six months and the third asking the respondents for the primary brand
they currently 'own' for the same product category.

The modification was essentially done to capture and measure both the current
market (user) share as well as the current mind share of the brands. The reason
to do so was the realization that it is only a combination of both current
market share and current mind share that determines the real 'equity' of the
brand or its 'future readiness;' not its 'past performance.'

To assess and measure the future 'readiness' of the brands surveyed, we
used our proprietary Brand Momentux Model, which is a simple but unique brand
tracking model based on the time tested 'theory of momentum' from the world
of Physics.

Just as the combination of a body's mass and speed (velocity) is used in
Physics to measure the 'momentum' with which the body is moving, the
combination of a brand's mass (its current market share) and its speed (its
current mind share) can be used to measure the 'momentum' with which a brand
is moving in to the future to compete for market shares.

Brand Momentux model

Each 'measure' used in the model reflects a 'milestone' in the consumer's
interaction with the brand during the buying process -from recall to
consideration, to intention to buy, to usage.

To measure how well a brand is performing at these three critical 'transition
points', the JuxtConsult Brand Momentux Model uses a set of simple but
effective diagnostics. These are:

• Brand Persuasion: How much the consumer is convinced about the
  brand to not just consider it but also 'prefer' it over the other brands
  in the category (by intending to buy it). It reflects the 'persuasive'
  power of the brand (of its positioning, proposition, benefits, image, value,
  etc).
• Brand Pull: How much is the brand able to attract and convince the
  consumers of competing brands or non-users of the category to prefer or 'switch
  over' to the brand. It reflects the 'consumer pull' power of the
  brand.
• Brand Loyalty: How much is the brand able to convince its existing
  consumers to 'continue' to prefer and buy the brand. It reflects the
  retention or
  
  'loyalty' power of the brand.
• Brand Momentum: It is measured as a combination of the current 'mass'
  of consumers the brand has, together with the 'current speed' at which
  it is (likely to) gain or lose consumers as a result of its current
  marketing performance. Symbolically, the brand momentum indicates the future
  'market share' potential of the brand.

The current 'mass' of the brand is measured as the 'cumulative'
market (or user) share the brand has accumulated in the market place. This is
reflected by its existing consumer base (including historical buyers who are
still using the brand).

To measure the 'speed' at which a brand is moving in the market place,
the model uses the three critical speed 'acceleration' factors from the
brand's current performance parameters. These are the brand's current 'persuasion'
power, 'consumer pull' power and 'loyalty' power.

In simple marketing terms, the model states that how many consumers a brand
is likely to gain in the future depends on how many consumers prefer the brand
today, how many are likely to switch-in to the brand and how many are likely to
continue staying with the brand.

Reading the charts

The relative position of the brands in the adjacent graph needs to be understood
and interpreted in two different ways:

• First, the 'position' of the brand falling on either side of the
  diagonal and in any of the four quadrants. This position represents a brand's
  'performance' on the measured attribute (brand persuasion, brand pull,
  brand loyalty or brand momentux).
• The second way to interpret the graph is to look at the brand's relative
  positions along the diagonal starting from the bottom to the top. This
  reflects the 'size' of the brand in the market place for the measured
  attribute (brand persuasion, brand pull, brand loyalty or brand momentux).
  The higher is a brand positioned along the diagonal towards the top, the
  higher is its share ('size') for that parameter and a bigger player it
  is on that parameter in the market place.

Reading brand momentum

The brand falling on the left of the diagonal is being driven more by its 'mass'
(current cumulative consumer base) than by its the speed accelerators (current
marketing performance), ie Market Share Driven. It means the brand is 'slowing
down' in the race for the future.

In contrast, the brand falling on the right of the diagonal is being driven
more by 'speed accelerators' but has a correspondingly lower cumulative
consumer base currently, which is Mind Share Driven. It means the brand is 'gearing
up' for the race for the future.

Reading brand persuasion 

If the brand falls on the left of the diagonal, it means that its conversion
from brand recall to intention to buy is relatively lower. This implies that the
brand has been less effective in persuading the consumer who recalled the brand
to also think of buying the brand (for whatever reasons).

On the other hand, for a brand which falls on the right of the diagonal, more
consumers are thinking of buying the brand than recalling it. It implies that
the brand has been relatively more effective in persuading the consumers to not
just think about it per se but to think about buying it (for whatever reasons).

Reading brand pull

The brand falling on the left of the diagonal has more consumers leaving the
brand than the number of consumers switching-in to the brand. It means the brand
is a 'net loser' of consumers, is losing consumer pull and is more
vulnerable in the market place.

In contrast, the brand falling on the right of the diagonal is gaining more
consumers than those leaving the brand. It means the brand is a 'net gainer'
of consumers, is gaining consumer pull and is progressing steadily in the market
place.

Reading brand-switch matrix

The brand-switch matrix is a simple one glance tracking of any brand's
switch-ins, switch-outs and loyalty performance. It is essentially a
cross-matrix of responses to two questions asked in the survey.

The first, “Which brand do you currently own?” Note that if they owned
multiple brands, then the primary brand was recorded.

The second, “If you were to buy or recommend the same product in the next
six months, which brand would you buy/recommend?”

All figures in the matrix are percentages of those who currently own the
brand mentioned in the rows and likely to buy the brand mentioned in the
columns.

The 'diagonal' cells represent the loyal consumer base of the brand. That
is, those who own a given brand and said that they will buy/recommend the same
brand. On the left is the current ownership; on the right, are future choices.

Read along any row and you will get the shift-outs 'from' the brand to
the other brands mentioned in the columns. Read along any column and you will
get the shifts 'into' the brand from the other brands mentioned in the rows.

Enterprise Backup Solutions, Large Volume Storage

Enterprise Backup Solutions

Though there are lots of players in this space, three brands stand out from
the crowd. HP-Compaq, IBM and Veritas all have higher brand persuasion than the
rest of the players.

EMC is also there but with a slightly lower top of mind recall and likelihood
of buying, as can be seen from the graph. The remaining players didn't get
sufficient response for us the pass any judgments.

What's a little concerning is that even top brands in this category are not
persuasive enough. The number of enterprises inclined to buy them is lower than
those who recall it as top of mind. Relatively though, EMC reported the highest
persuasion, followed by Veritas, IBM, and then HP.

When it comes to attracting customers from competing brands, HP-Compaq showed
a clear advantage over others. It doesn't mean that the rest of the brands don't
have brand pull. Interestingly, they all seem to have more CIOs switching in
than those switching out. This can become a little clearer after looking at the
actual brand shifts.

Veritas showed the highest brand loyalty at 97%. The remaining 3% didn't
have any plans to shift to any other brand over the next six months. HP-Compaq
showed 92% brand loyalty, with only 4% of its existing customers likely to shift
to IBM. IBM and EMC both have very interesting cases.

Highest top of mind recall: Veritas Highest current ownership: Veritas Most likely to buy: Veritas

While 4% of IBM's existing customers were inclined to shift to HP-Compaq,
32% were possibly unsure of their plans or the brands they would like to shift
to in the next six months.

The case for EMC was even more interesting. A whopping 71% of its existing
customers were unsure of their plans to shift to any other brand. This is a good
sign for them.

So the overall brand loyalties in this category are very high, and so is the
brand momentum. Veritas and HP-Compaq had the highest brand momentum. IBM is
just a little behind, and EMC should get more active to gain more customers.

Large Volume Storage

There's so much competition in this market that brand persuasions were
fairly low across all brands. The only four brands that had high top of mind
recall, current ownership, and likelihood of buying were HP, IBM, EMC/ Legato
and Veritas. Amongst these, on a relative scale, IBM seemed to have relatively
higher brand persuasion than the rest. More enterprises said that they are
likely to buy IBM storage than those who had higher

brand recall.

One brand seems to have a higher pull than the rest. EMC/ Legato had more
enterprises who were likely to switch to it from competing brands than those
switching away from it. The remaining players had the reverse situation, ie more
switch out likely than switch-in.

In terms of brand loyalty, EMC/ Legato had the highest brand loyalty,
followed by HP, IBM, and then Veritas in that order. About 8% of EMC's
existing customers were likely to shift to HP. On the other hand, HP's
existing customer base had 6% IBM fans and 3% Dell fans. EMC/Legato has fans in
6% of IBM's existing users, and 3% HP fans. Veritas has a different story
altogether. Some 7% of its existing customers are likely to move to Sun. Even
more interestingly, 44% of the overall respondents were unsure of their plans to
shift to any brand over the next six months. They were even unsure of whether
they were likely to remain with the brand that they currently owned.

Highest top of mind recall: HP Highest current ownership: HP Most likely to buy: HP

The brand persuasion, pull, and loyalty combine to give the brand momentum.
From the graph for this, it's clearly visible that all the key brands are more
market share driven than being driven by anything else. Their current ownerships
are higher than thier brand speeds. On a relative scale, HP had the highest
brand momentum, followed by IBM, EMC/Legato and finally Veritas. Maxtor, NetApp,
Dell and Iomega had a fairly low base and therefore need to do much more to
catch up to the four leading brands.

Network Switches, Servers

Network Switches

The interesting trend we noticed in network switches was that all brands had
nearly similar brand persuasion characteristics. They all have higher brand
recall than the number of enterprises that are likely to buy them.

The brands that received a significant number of votes for current ownership,
likelihood of buying, and top of mind recall were Cisco, D-Link, Nortel, and
3Com. The key marketing characteristic of all of these brands is better brand
persuasion. They all need to be more persuasive. If we keep market share out of
the picture, then 3Com seems to be the most persuasive brand, followed by
Nortel, D-Link, and Cisco. There were more enterprises who had high brand recall
for these brands than those who were likely to buy them.

Another noteworthy point in this segment is that none of the players seem to
have strong enough brand pull. D-Link is the worst hit. It faces risk that its
customers might shift to competing brands. Going further, 17% of its existing
customers said that they're likely to move to Cisco. Another 21% were unsure
of their plans on which network switch brand to buy. In fact, all the key
players in this segment are likely to lose their market to Cisco. These include
10% of Nortel's existing customers and 33% of 3Com's customers. It's no
wonder then that Cisco enjoyed a brand loyalty of 69%, with another 26% of its
customers saying they were unsure of plans to shift to any brand in the next six
months.

Highest top of mind recall: Cisco Highest current ownership: Cisco Most likely to buy: Cisco

The resultant brand momentum graph clearly indicates Cisco and D-Link are the
leaders in current ownership. Cisco leads by a wide margin and sits in a very
comfortable position due to high current ownership. D-Link needs to do something
to prevent losing its existing customers to Cisco. For the remaining brands, the
current ownership is far lower. The closest competition to D-Link and Cisco is
Nortel, but even this brand needs to build up the momentum considerably if it
wants to gain market share.

Servers

The survey results for this segment are quite interesting. While HP-Compaq
and IBM have high top of mind recall and most enterprises are likely to buy the
brands, it was Dell that came up as a more persuasive brand. That's because
more respondents were likely to buy Dell servers than those who had recalled it
as a top of mind brand. The situation was reverse for HP-Compaq and IBM, meaning
that of the CIOs who had high top of mind recall for HP-Compaq and IBM, a lesser
number expressed thier likelihood of buying these brands in the next six months.

So if better brand persuasion emerges as the key marketing issue for
HP-Compaq and IBM, then for Dell it is brand recall.

Interestingly, possible switch-ins to HP-Compaq and IBM from competing brands is
lower than the switch outs, thereby reducing their brand pull.

Here, IBM is the worst hit, while Dell has a relatively higher brand pull.

Dell enjoyed the highest brand loyalty among all brands, followed by IBM,
HP-Compaq, and HCL in that order.

Possible switch outs of 6% of IBM owners to HP-Compaq makes IBM vulnerable.
On the other hand, HP is likely to lose 7% of its customers to Dell.

Highest top of mind recall: HP-Compaq Highest current ownership: HP-Compaq Most likely to buy: HP-Compaq

Interestingly 28% of the total respondents were possibly unsure of their
plans or the brands they would like to shift in to in next six months. These
included 25% of HP-Compaq's existing customers, and 20% of IBM's. The
probable reason for this unsurity is that server configurations change very
fast, so organizations would prefer to choose a brand that offers the best deal
at the time of buying.

The relative plotting of the Brand Momentum for these brands makes it clear
that their high market share drives HP-Compaq and IBM servers against the
competition. Dell on the other hand has got the momentum and is an accelerating
brand. Other brands like Sun, Acer, and HCL had didn't have sufficient numbers
for us to be able to pass any judgement about them.

Structured Cabling, Wireless Access Solutions

Structured Cabling

Avaya stands out as the most persuasive brand in the structured cabling
market despite of being a relatively smaller brand with a cumulative ownership
share of just 7%; little less than 1/7th of the top brand D-link's cumulative
ownership. Irrespective of being the biggest player, a much higher recall and
likelihood of purchase on absolute terms, D-link is the least persuasive brand
on a relative scale against its competitors. That definitely makes this category
as well the brands more interesting to understand. 

Interestingly, two of the brands, Avaya & AMP are also enjoying more
brand pull against D-link in relative terms. The logical explanation stays with
the brand switch-ins and switch-outs and loyalty trends of this category. In
fact, we must understand that structured cabling is something that is normally
considered at the stage of building a new facility and meant to last for many
years, therefore CIOs are not concerned about choosing a competing brand
immediately unless they have definite expansion plans and/or in the process of a
new facility development. 

D-Link owners for instance, showed a brand loyalty of 68%, while another 30%
did not give a clear answer on which brand would they choose if they were to do
so in the coming six months. There were a miniscule number of respondents who
said they'd shift to Krone though. Likewise, Siemon enjoyed a high degree of
brand loyalty at 91%. The balance 9% said they would shift to D-Link. Likewise,
Systimax had 86% brand loyalty..

Highest top of mind recall: D-Link Highest current ownership: D-Link Most likely to buy: D-Link

If we forget the category characteristics for a moment it is imperative that
all of the brands need to become more speed driven. D-Link has almost equal mass
and speed and therefore appropriately future ready with the highest brand
momentum; followed by Siemon and Systimax, but the latter didn't have the
mass. Avaya seems to be the brand to watch with highest speed, if they continue
to perform then they would acquire mass soon.

Wireless Access Solutions

Just like network switches, this market is also split largely between Cisco
and D-Link, as can be seen from the brand momentum graph. The remaining players
had very low likelihood of buying, despite having top of mind recall. So as far
as the relative brand persuasion is concerned, Cisco leads the way, followed by
D-Link. Nevertheless, both Cisco and D-Link need to work considerably on
converting the high brand recall to buying.

In brand pull, D-Link is again having higher switch-out than switch-in from the
competing brands. 

Nortel and Avaya seem to be in the best situation with an equal ratio of
switch-out and switch-in. Cisco is also having more customers switching out than
switching in, it's relatively better off than D-Link.

On the brand loyalty front, we didn't find any major shifts happening
overall. We did find that around close to 40% of the CIOs didn't choose any
brand for purchase over the next six months. In fact, they didn't even say
that they'd go with the brand that they currently owned. So Cisco's brand
loyalty was the highest at 77%, but it doesn't seem to face a threat from any
particular brand. About 19% of its existing customers didn't choose any other
brand to purchase over the next six months, including Cisco itself. 

Highest top of mind recall: Cisco Highest current ownership: Cisco Most likely to buy: Cisco

D-Link on the other hand had only 53% brand loyalty, 5% of its existing
customers said they'd like to buy Cisco in the next six months, and another 2%
said they'd move to Dax. The remaining 16%, however, wanted to shift to some
other unspecified brand. This could possibly be due to the onslaught of so many
new players in the wireless space, offering very cost effective products with
similar features. 23% of D-Link's existing customers didn't give any brand
preference to shift to at all. Perhaps D-Link needs to investigate. The existing
market shares for the rest were too low to analyze brand loyalty.

All brands in this segment need to work on building brand momentum, including
Cisco and D-Link, who own a large chunk of the current wireless market.

Security Solutions, Network Infrastructure Mgmt Solutions

Security Solutions

The key brands to watch out for in this category are Symantec, Cisco,
CheckPoint, TrendMicro, and McAfee. However, the brand persuasion is low across
all brands. Their top of mind recall is high, but intention to purchase isn't.
Relatively, McAfee has better brand persuasion than the rest. Trend Micro and
CheckPoint follow, and then Cisco and Symantec come in. The market shares for
the remaining players was too low for us to pass any judgement on them.

It seems there's a major tug of war happening between these brands, leaving
the customer confused on which one to really go for. That's exactly what the
brand pull situation seems to indicate. It's low for all the brands, and the
worst hit is Symantec. This can be seen by Symantec's position in the brand pull
graph. None of the brands seem to be getting more customers to switch in from
competing brands. On the contrary, there are more switch outs happening. On a
relative scale though, Trend Micro seems to have the best brand pull. In brand
loyalty, many enterprises were not sure about which brand to possibly buy in the
coming six months. Relatively, McAfee has 53% brand loyalty, and is in a tug of
war with TrendMicro.

While 7% of McAfee's existing customers are likely to switch to TrendMicro,
another 8% of Trend Micro's existing customers said the same thing about
shifting to McAfee. Cisco had a brand loyalty of just 50%, and is in a similar
tug of war with CheckPoint; Cisco's likely to gain 7% of CheckPoint's existing
customers, and CheckPoint likely to gain 4% from Cisco. Symantec had a brand
loyalty of 70%, with minor shifts happening to TrendMicro and Cisco. TrendMicro
has a brand loyalty of 69%, is already loosing some customers to McAfee, and
another 8% likely to move to Symantec.

Highest top of mind recall: Symantec Highest current ownership: Symantec Most likely to buy: Symantec

Overall, Symantec is the mass driven brand with highest current ownership.
CheckPoint has the highest brand momentum. McAfee needs to speed up as it's the
trailing behind the key brands on future readiness.

Network Infrastructure Mgmt Solutions

In our survey, the market for network infrastructure management was split
largely between HP OpenView, IBM Tivoli, Avaya, Microsoft SMS Server, and CA
Unicentre. Though there were also a few instances of other players like Novell
ManageWise, OpenNMS, Satyam, and Zenith's Saaz, but their usage was far
lower. 

The brand persuasion index wasn't very healthy in this segment. What this
indicates is that though these brands may have excellent top of mind recall, the
intention to purchase these brands in the CIOs' minds is not very high. This
can be clearly seen from the graph, where all the key players are positioned far
below the diagonal. On a relative scale, CA seems to more persuasive compared to
the other key brands. Zenith's Saaz and Satyam are relatively higher on brand
persuasion, but need to work towards building up more top of mind recall and
conversions from the same thereof.

The brand pull situation, however, was a little more interesting. HP Open
View had the highest degree of brand pull with more CIOs wanting to switch in to
it from competing brands. The next on line is IBM Tivoli. CA Unicentre needs to
be careful as in its case, there are more switch-outs visible.

Highest top of mind recall: HP Highest current ownership: HP Most likely to buy: HP

Highest top of mind recall: HP OpenView Highest current ownership: HP OpenView Most likely to buy: HP OpenView

Coming to brand loyalties, there doesn't seem to be any brand shift
happening for any of the brands, except Microsoft SMS Server. Even there, the
11% that did say they'd like to shift to another network infrastructure
management package, didn't mention any brand. Another interesting point is
that there's a large chunk of respondents for each brand who haven't decided
on what brand to shift to. This is probably because these are all high value
investments so shifting to another brand can be quite difficult and time
consuming. Such decisions can't be given instantly in a survey.

So, HP OpenView has the highest brand momentum compared to other brands. IBM
Tivoli and CA UniCentre follow suit, but need to pick up momentum.

Power Conditioning Equipment, Enterprise All-in-Ones

Power Conditioning Equipment

Whether it was top of mind recall or likelihood of purchase, or even current
brand ownership, we saw a similar ranking for all the brands. APC followed by
Emerson, Numeric, Siemens, etc. The brand persuasion situation is similar across
all brands-high top of mind recall, but likelihood of buying not as high. Some
of the brands towards the bottom of the graph are slightly better off, but would
need to leverage this to gain mass in the market.

When we reach the next level, called the brand pull, then the situation is
not very encouraging. None of the brands seem to have much of a brand pull.
There are more switch-outs than switch- ins from competing brands. The brand
loyalty figures tell us the reason for the same.

CIOs didn't seem to have an answer on which brand to shift to from what they
own currently. While 63% of APC's existing customers preferred to remain with
APC, another 30% were unsure of which brand to really shift to. The remaining 7%
were fragmented amongst the rest of the key brands. Likewise, Emerson enjoyed a
brand loyalty of 73%, but another 23% were unsure and didn't have any plans to
shift to another brand. The remaining 4% said that they might move to Siemens.

Numeric enjoyed a similar 73% brand loyalty as Emerson, but 9% of its
existing customers were likely to move to APC, another 9% to Siemens, and yet
another 9% had no idea or plans of shifting. Coming to brand momentum, the
situation is similar to that in structured cabling. All brands need to have more
momentum in the market to ensure brand retention, increase pull, and attract new
customers.

Highest top of mind recall: APC Highest current ownership: APC Most likely to buy: APC

On a relative scale, APC enjoys the highest brand momentum and current
ownership of all brands. It's followed by Emerson and Numeric in that order.