Two brands dominate this space, MS Exchange and Lotus Notes/Domino. And if we
were to combine the top of mind recall for these two brands, then it comes out
to a whopping 90% of mind share amongst all IT decision makers in India. Of
these two, MS Exchange leads the runner-up Lotus Notes/Domino by a wide margin.
At a distant third is Sify Mail, and these three brands make up the User’s
Choice Club 2010.

When we asked about the reasons for their current ownership of a brand,
majority of MS Exchange owners said reliability of the product and brand name
were the primary reasons. For Lotus Notes/Domino owners reliability along with
initial price of the product were the primary reasons of their current
ownership. 78% of respondents who’re likely to choose MS Exchange as their
future brand cited reliability of the product as the key reason for choosing the
same. Whereas for Lotus Notes/Domino and Sify Mail there were more than 40%
repondents each who cited aftersales service as a key factor. But in case of MS
Exchange only 17% respondents cited the same.

Users’ Choice Club 2010

This market has same dominant brands and all of them make to Users Choice Club this year too.

Future Brand Preference Reasons

Reliability of product and Initial price seem to primary considerations that users have to make their future purchase.

Over the past year, brand loyalties for respective brands have increased
significantly. The leader is MS Exchange with 63% loyal customers, and a close
second is Lotus Notes/Domino having 57% brand loyalty. Almost one-third of
respondents for MS Exchange and Lotus Notes/Domino were either not sure or had
no plans to shift to another messaging solution in near future. All brands have
seen a gain in brand loyalty over last year. Sify Mail needs to improve brand
loyalty amongst its customers.

Brand Loyalty 2010 vs 2009

Compared to previous year, all three brands have been able to garner more than 25% increase in their brand loyalty.

We found that MS Exchange had the strongest brand presence across all
industry verticals. Lotus Notes/Domino showed strong presence in Services and
IT/ITeS industries. Sify Mail was weak across most of the verticals, but showed
strong presence in Healthcare and Services industries.