India will be one of the few countries - along with the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and China - where the $35 billion company is simultaneously rolling out this multi-million dollar branding campaign.
The company intends to use the campaign to drive traffic to its 'Human Network' - an online platform [featuring a mix of user-generated content including blogging, social-networking and wikis (a web-based group communication mechanism)] to demonstrate ways in which technology is uniting people - and focus on the fact that it has entered the consumer space too, having sold over 80 million devices to consumers the world over.
Naresh Wadhwa, president and country manager, India & Saarc, Cisco, says, "We'll take a two-pronged approach with an advertising campaign that highlights new and innovative mediums, and a new Cisco.com that is more personalised. There will also be an audio logo (jingle) which will be associated with the brand. Our business is more expansive than basic networking, yet the market at large doesn't understand how expansive our business has become, and is not giving Cisco credit for all that it does beyond traditional networking."
The branding campaign makes sense since India is an important market for Cisco where it has already committed $1.1 billion. Moreover, the Asia-Pacific region contributed around 10 per cent to the company's sales in 2006-07. Of this, analysts say, sales from India are in the region of $1 billion.
"Cisco, after establishing its leadership in the carrier and enterprise market, is now veering towards addressing the next big opportunity - Indian consumers. This is not only a positioning shift but also led by new products and acquisitions that Cisco has done globally," says Alok Shende, head, Ovum India.
The company, which has a market capitalisation of over $165 billion and is counted among the Top 20 Global brands, in 2006 got a new logo with Cisco printed in red and an updated version of its trademark - the Golden Gate Bridge image.
Moreover, it has gone for a string of acquisitions (overall acquired over 100 companies till date) which it hopes will catapult it into the consumer electronics and entertainment market.
It entered the consumer electronics business with the Linksys acquisition in 2003, bought Scientific-Atlanta in 2006 for $6.9 billion (a cable set-top box maker), Sipura Technology (maker of Net phone products) and Kiss Technology [maker of network-based DVD and DVR (digital video recorder) players].
Wadhwa said as part of the repositioning exercise it would be overtly communicated that Linksys and Scientific-Atlanta are now Cisco brands.
Linksys has a presence in the Indian smart home segment with a wireless router, costing around Rs 3,000-5,000, which can be connected to the Internet, and, in turn, be networked with various systems such as computers, televisions, phones, music systems and laptops among others.
Cisco's IP phones too have already hit the Indian market with over 200,000 been sold over the last few years. Cisco also has made strategic investments in gaming companies such as TerraPlay, IndiaGames, Exent and Emergent.
Cisco, after acquiring Navini Networks (a leader in the Mobile WiMAX space), now plans to make foray in this space in emerging markets and India to drive broadband penetration.
Cisco is also present in the healthcare management space in India. It is collaborating with Satyam Computer Services to explore a new venture which will focus on optimising, deploying and managing integrated healthcare management solutions globally.
Beyond networking
- Over 200,000 internet protocol phones sold in India
- Wireless routers, Webex, telepresence products in India
- Strategic investments in gaming companies such as Indiagames
- To enter WiMax space with acquisition of Navini Networks
- Collaboration with Satyam for healthcare
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Active in Indian e-governance projects
