Wipro to strengthen 'innovation' image

Wipro Technologies was looking at ramping up its visibility and brand building campaigns overseas and would focus on connecting the brand with 'innovation'.

The marketing budget had gone up five times in the last three years, and about 10 per cent of the global marketing team were non-Indians, said Jessie Paul, chief marketing officer,Wipro. The company was planning to recruit more locals in its marketing team.

Wipro had recently ranked No.2 in one of the overseas perception studies as the most favoured brand, claimed Paul adding that in the last five years the visibility had gone up by almost seven times.

It wanted the decision makers to know our brand, she explained, as against the strategy of a mass recognition in these geographies.

The company had more than 50 per cent of its revenues from the US and around 34 per cent from European countries.

It would continue to focus on US and Japan apart from Germany, France, UK and the Nordic countries in Europe.

This year Wipro would also look at increasing its market share in Australia.

As around one-third of its revenues was from Research & Development (R&D) and nearly 10 per cent from innovation in processes and services, Wipro decided to focus on these areas for brand building.

R&D would now be a part of every vertical as we would look at expanding offering R&D services across industries, Paul said.

Previously, the R&D services were concentrated in certain industries like the semi-conductors sector, she explained.

The company also came up with an Innovation Council with 14 of its clients from the retail, manufacturing, telecom, banking and energy sectors.

The council would have its first meeting in the US this November to share ideas on green IT.

This year it was focussing on collaborative innovation with partners, Paul said.

International networking solutions giant Cisco expects to do $1 billion in joint revenue with Wipro.

It was also all set to launch the Wipro Speakers Bureau next week that will start initially with 25 employees and a long tail of volunteers who would speak at the public symposiums.

This was one of the initiatives taken to enhance visibility.

This apart, the company would continue to work on increasing billboard presence at international airports and events.

It was present at around 70 events in the US last year and over 25 events in Europe.

This year the number could be higher.