The story of India's 3 IT biggies

There were three chickens which all laid eggs, says Hrish Bijoor, brand consultant, weaving an allegorical tale. One was shy, one was honest and one was a chicken with hype. All laid an egg each, ordinary looking, whose product quality was identical, say 100. The first made a noise of two decibels, so very few heard of it and came to see it. But with those who did come, it scored 98 plus.

The second was the honest chicken. Its product quality was 100, it made a noise about being 100. Everybody came expecting 100, got 100. The end result was even or neutral, neither positive nor negative. The third chicken, whose egg was of quality 100, made a noise that it was 400, everybody came expecting 400, but got 100, that is minus 300.

If you have not guessed it yet, the first chicken is Tata Consultancy Services, the second is Wipro, and the third is Infosys - the three leading lights of the Indian software industry. They, more than anything else, have put Indian skills on the global map and gained India greater global respectability than it has ever had in its modern history.

The three, by now household names among middle class Indians, represent a fine conundrum. They offer near-identical services of near-identical quality and there is little to distinguish them in the way they meet customer requirements.

But they are so different -- in age, pedigree and history of growth. Not unexpectedly, in an attempt to differentiate themselves they have followed vastly different marketing strategies and sought to makes themselves into distinctive brands. Read on…