The Same Band Of Boys

Perception, philosophers say, is as close to reality that most people can
achieve in a lifetime. This is why perception about a brand can actually play a
critical role in its success and failure in any market.

To some extent, it is also perception about a brand that makes it more
successful than its competition, though the two might have over- lapping
attributes in terms of product quality, pricing and even business strategies.
Sometimes, some brands become synonymous with certain product categories, and so
strongly that customers might be blinded to the existence of other players in
that space.

This is exactly what came to the fore in the sixth Channel Satisfaction
Survey, commis-sioned by DQ Channels and conducted by IDC India. Across most of
the product categories, of the total 700 respondents who were polled, 454 voted
for HP India. The respondents' perception about the brand was highly favorable,
mostly, and in some cases very few even opted for the other vendors that were
equally strong in that product category!

Besides this, there were not many surprises in store in the Channel
Satisfaction Survey results this year. The same vendors who held the top slots
last year dominated the survey results this year as well. The only exception was
in the security software category, where Quick Heal was the leader, while
Kaspersky was a close second.

Like last year this year too, the one aspect that most respondents clearly
stated was very critical in ensuring their satisfaction with brands, was that of
product quality. It was also interesting to note that while most of the
respondents felt that instead of investing in brand image, vendors need to look
closer home and pay more attention to relationship management.

Within relationship management, they wanted it to be as person-agnostic as is
possible. This means that even if a particular account manager quits the
company, the vendor should still have the same level of engagement with the
channel partner and should honor the commitments made by that account manager.

This, and several other interesting learnings, comes forth in the survey
results, which fill in the next few pages of the magazine. This time around, the
survey was made more comprehensive with added attributes being defined in each
parameter, each of which have been touched upon in the accompanying articles.

We have taken the pains to tell vendors what the channel wants from them. And
we will also felicitate the vendors who have taken the efforts to meet the
channel expectations. We now need you, dear reader, to tell us, what you think
about the survey and how we can improve it further.

Vinita Bhatia

vinitavs@cybermedia.co.in