Branding And Positioning As Accenture

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Contents 2

Branding and Positioning as Accenture 4

Measuring Brand Equity 5

Positioning 6

Finding a New Name 7

Announcing Accenture 8

Accenture Launch 8

Internal Launch 8

External Launch Efforts: Phase One 8

External Launch Efforts: Phase Two - "Now it gets interesting." 9

Outcomes of Branding 9

Accenture IPO 10

Changing Market and Repositioning 10

Bringing "Innovation Delivered" to Life: "I Am Your Idea" Advertising Campaign 10

The tagline: High Performance. Delivered 11

Challenge with "Go on. Be a Tiger." 11

Replacement Campaign 12

Strategic Approach 12

Campaign Execution 13

Results of Campaign 13

"High performance. Delivered." Positioning to Next Level 14

Driving growth through industry differentiation 15

Diversification 16

Cost Leadership through Operation efficiency 17

Knowledge Management, Trainings and Innovations 17

CONCLUSION 19

References 19

Accenture - an Introduction

Source - http://www.accenture.com/us-en/company/Pages/index.aspx

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 249,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$25.5 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2011.

The History

In 1913, at the age of 28, Northwestern University economics professor Arthur Andersen founded the accounting firm Arthur Andersen & Co.

In 1942, Arthur Andersen & Co. created an early version of the consulting unit – The Administrative Accounting Practice. It was charged with developing accounting systems, methods and procedures for Arthur Andersen clients.

In the 1950s, Arthur Andersen started offering consulting services to implement information systems, and renamed the unit the Administrative Services Division. Consultants from the company programmed and installed the world’s first business computer for General Electric in 1954.

In 1977, the company created Arthur Andersen & Co. Society Cooperative to govern the different divisions of the company, to maintain the one firm concept and to deliver seamless services across the world later it was named as Andersen Worldwide in 1996.

In 1979, what was once the Administrative Services Division of Arthur Andersen became the Management Information Consulting Division (MICD)

In 1989, Andersen Consulting was established and separated from Accounting firm Arthur Andersen.

In 1990, an agreement allowed the accounting firm Arthur Andersen of the parent company Andersen Worldwide to establish a non-computer consulting practice for businesses with annual revenue under $175 million. The consultants and accountants agreed that each company would provide "separate, complementary services with minimal overlap"

For Andersen Consulting, it was difficult to position itself in Information Technology space.

The major business challenge was to retain brand equity developed as/by Arthur Andersen, and to break limitations associated with an accounting brand.

Andersen Consulting was already generating almost $1 billion annually in revenue; however it wasn’t known in the IT market place.

Market research was done by Anderson Consulting to form the strategy for successfully launching the new name and positioning. The focus of research was on five factors: marketplace awareness, client satisfaction, buyer values, advertising copy testing and media monitoring.

Advertising campaign was done to promote its name, positioning and brand image, it resulted in creating the name for itself in competitive market place where multiple diversified consulting firms like IBM, McKinsey etc were established.

Andersen Consulting spent approximately $5 million in advertising during its first year, which at the time was a full 50% of all media expenditures for the entire consulting category.

Over the next decade, Andersen Consulting grew from an accounting firm’s subsidiary to the world’s largest management and technology consulting organization.

Despite this success, the relationship between Arthur Andersen and Andersen Consulting was sinking hence Andersen Consulting started to seek its independence as a separate company.

In December 1997, citing "breaches of contract and irreconcilable differences" Andersen Consulting filed arbitration with the International Court of Arbitration in Paris that would force the two business units to formally separate.

In August 2000, following a successful arbitration against Andersen Worldwide and Arthur Andersen, Andersen Consulting was granted its independence.

However as a part of contract, Anderson consulting had to come up with a new name by 31st December 2000.

After spending an estimated $7 billion building the Andersen Consulting brand over a decade, the company now had to find, implement and introduce to the world a new name in a matter of months.

Never before had a rebranding of such scope been implemented over so short a timeframe.

Branding and Positioning as Accenture

Rebranding and repositioning process was a difficult task. Andersen Consulting executives took this as an opportunity to create a new image for their company.

Andersen Consulting carried out following steps for the same

Annual marketing & communications budget was increased from $75 million to $175 million

Hired the advertising agency Young & Rubicam for teaser advertisements. Series of advertisements were introduced during the Sydney Olympics in September 2000.

The homepage of the corporate web site featured a graphic of a partially "torn" Andersen Consulting logo and revealed the message: "Renamed. Redefined. Reborn. 01.01.01."

Measuring Brand Equity

To evaluate the value of the Andersen Consulting brand, the company undertook a brand equity measurement study. The study focused on following aspects of Andersen Consulting’s brand equity:

Corporate image and awareness

Personality traits and perceived capabilities,

Client consideration and preference.

Study was done using data collected by the research firm BPRI, the study compared public perceptions of Andersen Consulting with four competitors: IBM, Ernst & Young, McKinsey and EDS. In terms of perceived capabilities, McKinsey emerged as the foremost business strategy services company while IBM led the IT services segment. Andersen Consulting however had a strong position in "both" business strategy and Information Technology services which enabled it to post very strong consideration scores, and ultimately lead on brand equity.

An overall brand equity model was applied to rank the companies by assigning each company a score in each of four categories (image, awareness, consideration, preference) and averaging the scores. Andersen Consulting staked out a leadership position, achieving the highest score on the brand equity scale as per figure below

Positioning

Over the years, Andersen Consulting had evolved its positioning to better meet the needs of its clients and marketplace opportunity as described in figure below.

In the months before the arbitration decision, Andersen Consulting started developing a new positioning to formalize its position as a leader in the new economy.

The firm developed a positioning platform that captured the company’s vision and strategy –

Positioning Accenture as a bridge builder helping companies to bridge the gap from the old economy to the new.

To position Accenture that helped companies transform trends into business opportunities using its deep global knowledge, and its breadth and depth of resources and relationships.

Behind this idea of partnering with clients was Andersen Consulting’s vision statement was "To help our clients create their future."

In July 2000, the firm tested its new positioning with employees, partners, clients, potential clients, dot-coms and recruits in key markets worldwide. The response was very positive, and the company forged ahead with the repositioning.

Underpinning this positioning was the company’s vision "to become one of the world’s leading companies, bringing innovations to improve the way the world works and lives."

One key difference of the new positioning was the new focus on serving two markets, "Today’s most important businesses as well as tomorrow’s aspiring leaders."

To strengthen new positioning strategy shifted towards a "network of businesses."The idea was to use its network of businesses approach to strengthen its core consulting and outsourcing expertise through alliances, affiliated companies and other capabilities. It created an affiliated company with Microsoft called Avanade, formed in March 2000. Avanade was designed to help companies integrate Microsoft technology, particularly Windows 2000 software. Andersen Consulting provided roughly three-quarters of the initial 1,000-member Avanade employee base, which was trained with the skills necessary to understand and implement new Microsoft technology.

Finding a New Name

It was mainly led by Andersen Consulting's marketing and communications department with the help of outside branding experts, Landor Associates, as well as through an internal name-generation initiative named as "Brandstorming", thousands of names came from employees and other internal stack holders.

From these names, 550 candidates were selected to undergo research based on specific criteria:

How well the name fit with the organization's strategy

How distinctive or unique it was and

The name's potential for longevity.

After legal review, 51 names were still viable. These candidates were then subjected to more rigorous research, including native speaker review and linguistic analysis in 47 countries, against 200 languages, to screen for cultural sensitivities and also continued to go through trademark and URL availability searches in the remaining 47 countries where the company operated.

At the conclusion of this research, the name candidate list was down to 10 names, and executive committee chose the name "Accenture," which was submitted by a consultant named Kim Petersen, who worked in Andersen Consulting’s Oslo office. The name rhymes with "adventure" and connoted "an accent on the future."

The executive committee selected the name Accenture because it clearly fit the firm’s positioning and vision and was catchy and distinctive and reflects their rebranding and repositioning and their future direction by suggesting placing an accent on the future, directly tying into the brand essence.

Announcing Accenture

Andersen Consulting announced its new name on October 26, 2000. The company held an internal global webcast to announce the Accenture name and to answer questions about the name change with its Partners and employees.

External activities included an announcement press release, followed by a teleconference with leading media to launch the name to the marketplace.

As a second step in the renaming process, in mid-November, Andersen Consulting launched a new logo to represent Accenture visually. The logo consisted of the word "Accenture" written in lowercase letters, with a "greater-than" symbol above the letter "T" serving to accent the word. The greater-than symbol was included in the design as a means of symbolically pointing forward to the future. The lower case "a" demonstrated that Accenture was approachable and accessible.

Accenture Launch

On midnight, December 31, 2000, Andersen Consulting officially adopted the Accenture name.

Accordingly, on January 1, the company’s corporate web site was changed from www.ac.com towww.accenture.com. Accompanying the announcement was a massive global marketing program designed to raise awareness of the new name. The program targeted senior executives at Accenture’s clients and prospects, all Accenture Partners and employees, the media, leading industry analysts, potential recruits and academia.

Internal Launch

Accenture needed to execute a complete and monumental changeover throughout all levels of the organization and ensure that all employees and clients understood the new brand and the new positioning. This process was managed and realized by 55 teams of nearly 2,000 employees across the organization, as well as many more outside individuals and agencies. The firm had achieved 1,200 milestones to make the Accenture name change happen. The new name had to be reflected by the company’s 178 offices in 47 countries, by its 70,000 employees and their 7 million business cards, by its 1,200 proprietary software applications, and by all other documents (including signage and stationary) and 20,000 databases. To keep employees apprised of the rebranding and repositioning process, Accenture began distributing internal newsletters and e-mails, along with special issues of the internal magazine Dialogue beginning in August 2000. Throughout January, Accenture executed a series of open houses and celebratory events to recognize the new brand at local offices around the world.

External Launch Efforts: Phase One

Accenture planned a two-phased marketing strategy for introducing Accenture to its global audience.

The aim of both phases was to surround the company’s target audience -- including 40,000 clients and prospects and Accenture’s 70,000 employees, as well as 1.5 million recruits -- with messages informing them about the new name and new positioning.

The first phase was a high impact launch on January 1, 2001 using extensive global advertising. In addition to continued media and analyst relations, the launch utilized television, print, poster and Internet placements that linked the Accenture name with the New Year, a linkage that harkened back to Accenture’s first ever advertisements from 1989. The campaign also included print and airport poster advertising. The ads were intended to introduce the new name and transfer equity from its former brand. Additionally, they positioned Accenture as offering a broad range of capabilities across: Consulting, Technology, Outsourcing and Alliances. These capabilities reflected Accenture’s broadened breadth of services. By highlighting each of Accenture’s core capabilities, the firm hoped to illustrate it offered far more than just strategy or IT consulting.

Accenture ran hundreds of commercials in its international markets and sponsored multiple events. High profile global advertising opportunities included the Formula 1 Racing Series, several European skiing events, the Six Nations Rugby tournament, the Asian PGA tour, the Accenture Dream Soccer Match in Japan and the Italian Football Championship etc.

By January 2001, television, print, Internet and poster advertisements touting the Accenture name appeared in each of 47 different countries where the company did business. Between January and March, over 6,000 total television commercials spots aired in markets globally. This ad schedule was supplemented by over 1,000 global print ads. The company utilized innovative print and billboard advertising in addition to television.

In addition to the high profile advertising program, over 43,000 clients received a launch mailing which included creative packaging to announce the new name and positioning, a capabilities brochure outlining the companies service offerings, Outlook magazine (the company’s thought leadership publication) and a letter from Joe Forehand the Managing Partner and CEO.

Traffic to accenture.com was up 72 percent over a typical week with 27,700 visitors daily. Finally, the media touted the launch impact as the largest rebranding initiative ever undertaken by a professional services company, and the "01.01.01" launch garnered approximately 120 news items globally in just the first two weeks alone.

External Launch Efforts: Phase Two - "Now it gets interesting."

The second phase of the advertising program began in late January 2001 with high-profile television spots debuting in the United States during the Super Bowl on January 28. Provocative print ads were also a part of the mix. The new series of ads presented the viewer (or reader) with a striking fact regarding the future in the form of an unexpected headline, followed by the phrase "Now it gets interesting."

The advertisements were innovative and striking. They were also interactive as they were integrated with the corporate web site where users could find out more information on how Accenture could help them capitalize on the marketplace opportunities identified in the ad. The ads had the desired effect of generating interest in the company. Traffic to accenture.com increased dramatically.

Outcomes of Branding

After the launch, the company executed an evaluation of the rebranding and repositioning program as part of its global awareness tracking study with senior executives, its annual brand equity assessment, and its biannual recruitment awareness tracking study. At the end of 2001, one year after the launch of the new brand, the awareness for the Accenture name remained at, or above, previous levels for

Andersen Consulting in most countries.

According to research, the results of the advertising, marketing and communications campaigns were impressive. For example, the advertising effect on "consideration" to purchase Accenture’s services increased 350 percent following the campaign. The measurable "brand value" of Accenture also increased by seven percent over Andersen Consulting. Brand equity increased an impressive 11 percent. Awareness of Accenture’s breadth and depth of services had achieved 96 percent of its previous level. Globally, awareness of Accenture as a provider of Management & Technology consulting services was 76 percent of its former level. With a few exceptions, the Accenture name registered immediately with clients, prospects and recruits.

Accenture IPO

In July 2001, once again Accenture looked to the future by offering shares of its stock in a $1.7 billion initial public offering. Through the IPO Accenture believed it was better able to deliver a broader range of capabilities and solutions for its clients. Accenture outperformed many of the companies in its market space. By the end of the year, Accenture stock was up almost 80 percent from its IPO price of $14.50. Comparatively, consulting competitor KPMG Consulting’s stock closed down more than 20 percent on the year.

Changing Market and Repositioning

The marketplace underwent dramatic changes as a result of the fallout from the dot-com crash and the general slowdown of the U.S. economy. Money evaporated from the venture capital pool. Companies looked for ways to cut costs as consumer spending declined. Businesses grew hesitant to turn to consulting companies for strategy that they could develop themselves.

Accenture now sought to "partner" with companies and help them execute their ideas. Accenture focused its energy towards developing an evolved positioning that better suited the marketplace and client demands.

In 2002, Accenture unveiled an evolved positioning summarized succinctly by the brand essence

"Innovation Delivered." The brand essence was supported by the positioning statement:

"From innovation to execution, Accenture helps accelerate your vision." Accenture stressed that the innovation could come from either the consulting firm or the client.

With the new positioning, Accenture

Targeted senior executives of global companies "with the ability to drive change in their organizations."

Believed its global network of employees and alliance partners, as well as its breadth of services (i.e., Consulting, Technology, Outsourcing, Alliances), represented unparalleled resources to provide clients with innovative solutions.

Identified personality traits i.e. innovative, smart, collaborative and passionate.

Logo updated to include the phrase "Innovation Delivered" to the existing Accenture logo.

Bringing "Innovation Delivered" to Life: "I Am Your Idea" Advertising Campaign

The new Accenture global advertising campaign, "I am your idea," was launched on February 20, 2002 - the first day of the 2002 Accenture Match Play Championship. The campaign provides a clever and unique perspective. "I am your idea," speaks from the point of view of the idea itself, giving the idea its own voice and personality.

Situations are depicted in which the ideas constantly present themselves, allowing the viewers and readers to see how ideas can take on a voice and personality of their own. In addition, the campaign drives the new "Innovation Delivered" positioning message by illustrating "whether it's your idea or Accenture's, we'll help you turn innovation into results." The advertisements were in response to one of the leading frustrations cited by senior executives -- that great ideas may go unrealized, be it the ideas of clients or Accenture.

One of the television commercials, called "Train," shows an executive writing his ideas on a luminous slip of paper as he is riding in a high-speed train. When he sees other business people on the train and in the station with similar pieces of paper, he is reminded that there are many other ideas out there. It is then that his idea reassures him with a message of, "You’re actually going to do something with me."

A print ad from the campaign entitled "Highway" features a highway scene in which the reader has to make a choice. A central sign above the highway reads "I am your idea" with two additional signs underneath. One sign provides direction to a straight path and says "Use me," and another sign points towards a highway turn-off saying "Lose me." The copy reads "It’s not how many ideas you have. It’s how many you make happen. So whether it’s your idea or Accenture’s, we’ll help you turn innovation into results. See how at accenture.com"

The advertising campaign appeared in 31 countries and was seen on leading business and television news programs and in leading business publications. It was also supported by airport posters and outdoor advertising.

The tagline: High Performance. Delivered

Accenture successfully developed and rolled out a new brand positioning, High Performance Delivered, to reflect the company's strategy of helping clients achieve high performance. It was launched through a global integrated marketing program, including an advertising campaign featuring world champion golfer Tiger Woods, as an embodiment of the brand message and the theme line, "Go on. Be a Tiger."

Tiger helped quickly drive the High Performance Delivered message in the market. In just two months time, internal research showed that 1 out of every 2 global senior executives and 2 out of every 3 U.S. senior executives surveyed associated Accenture with helping clients become high-performance businesses.

Challenge with "Go on. Be a Tiger."

For six years Tiger Woods served as the centerpiece and metaphor for Accenture’s successful High Performance Delivered global advertising and integrated marketing campaign. Following a series of high-profile personal indiscretions by Tiger, on December 13, 2009, Accenture concluded that recent events had compromised his ability to effectively deliver on the company’s advertising and integrated marketing message. It was a critical time in Accenture’s history. Tiger Woods wasn’t just used as a spokesperson, he was an integral part of the brand’s global marketing efforts – the website, collateral materials, and internal communications were all branded with Tiger and the High Performance messaging. There was a lot at stake to come up with a replacement program that would be equally effective and at the same time maintain the integrity of the brand.

As a result, Accenture’s key focus was to get a new communications program in market – at speed. Within one month from severing ties, Accenture had created, tested and globally launched a new forward-thinking advertising and integrated marketing campaign that seamlessly continued to position Accenture as the partner of choice to help companies achieve high performance.

Replacement Campaign

Essentially the overarching driver was to find a replacement campaign that performed equally as well, or better, than the prior Tiger Woods work and to get it in market quickly.

For Accenture advertising, the target audience is the crème de la crème of the corporate world. Those who are essentially responsible for hiring consultants typically reside in the upper most levels of large organizations -- the "C-Suite." And since Accenture concentrates on large scale consulting, technology and outsourcing engagements, these individuals are found in large multi-national companies. Given the nature of its target audience, Accenture needed something big to break through the sameness with a truly interesting and unexpected idea. To grab the target audience’s attention and present the Accenture brand in a very favorable light. To move beyond the Tiger work and get the marketplace to forget that it had even been there. So the specific objectives for the new Accenture campaign were to:

• Goal 1. Minimize Risk/Repair Any Potential Brand Damage.

• Goal 2. Break Through and Get Noticed.

• Goal 3. Brand and Own High Performance Business Concept.

• Goal 4. Create a Favorable Image.

Since the goal was to get into market as quickly as possible with a replacement campaign, qualitative research was used to measure the work against the above objectives. Additionally, Accenture monitored the website to gauge marketplace reaction to the new work.

Strategic Approach

Despite the suddenness of events, Accenture was in a good position to move forward. Development of alternative creative options (that did not include Tiger or another spokesperson) had been taking place for the past two years so the brand had a good jump on new campaigns.

Accenture turned to a series of very simple and clever animal metaphors that were executed in a highly unexpected way.

Capitalizing on bold and surprising visual animal metaphors, the new campaign extended Accenture’s longstanding High Performance Delivered brand positioning. It also highlighted key drivers of high performance including: sustainable success, innovation, organizational agility, and operational excellence. The campaign channels issues that are on the minds of clients and prospects, expressing complex business challenges in clever metaphors that are relevant, impactful and easily understood. Accenture ended up with a campaign that they knew hit home and that worked all around the world.

Campaign Execution

Accenture’s new Metaphors campaign replaced the Tiger Woods campaign in a matter of four weeks. Launched on January 14, 2010, the scope, complexity and timing of the campaign were extraordinary – with more than 350 posters appearing in 71 airports in 30 countries in under a month’s time. Print ads launched January 27, 2010 and television executions entered the marketplace on February 17, 2010. So by mid-February Accenture had a new multi-media communications program in place in roughly two months time.

Accenture’s communications strategy was to surround the target audience where he/she lives, works and plays. Since most C-suite executives travel roughly 50% of the time, a foundational component of Accenture’s channel strategy was designed to "own the airports" globally with large, visual posters that the target would see both boarding in one city, and exiting in another. Airport posters were difficult to execute quickly given their long lead times and with the rollout taking place over the Christmas holidays. However, Accenture mobilized the right resources to make it happen in a way that appeared seamless. Accenture’s integrated marketing campaign creates further impact beyond advertising through: accenture.com, social media, targeted events, Accenture High Performance Business Podcast Series, Accenture Outlook thought leadership magazine.

Results of Campaign

Accenture’s qualitative research and marketplace feedback indicated that the new Metaphors campaign was a winner, in some ways even outperforming the long-standing, award-winning Tiger Woods work. Accenture’s new advertising and integrated marketing campaign continues its tradition of excellence, while building equity in high performance and the Accenture brand. Target audience qualitative research with over 200 senior executives demonstrates success on the following:

• Goal 1. Minimize Risk/Repair Any Potential Brand Damage. Discussions with Senior Executives revealed that Accenture’s decision to drop Tiger as a spokesperson was the right one. Particularly for a sponsor that was using him more at the value level, there was no way that brand could minimize what had happened and move forward with him. The new work was very favorably received and was seen as better in many ways than the Tiger campaign.

• Goal 2. Break Through and Get Noticed. The new imagery was seen as arresting, innovative and differentiating. Just about all the respondents felt that they would notice the work if they were to come across it in the media landscape.

• Goal 3. Brand And Own High Performance Business Concept. The campaign was seen as a strong transition from the previous one, and the ads produced scored at or above Accenture’s testing benchmarks for effectiveness. The campaign was also described as even more effective than the previous campaign in showcasing Accenture’s ability to be a powerful business partner to help clients achieve high performance.

• Goal 4. Create a Favorable Image. Both the message and visuals were seen as clever, smart and innovative. The work succeeded in conveying a tonality that contributed to important attributes that the target looks for in consultants.

Additionally, positive media articles appeared in leading press touting the Metaphors campaign’s launch and success including The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg. Finally, the campaign generated unprecedented interest in Accenture as evident by traffic to accenture.com:

• Unique visitors to accenture.com were up 90% on launch day.

• Page views were up 27% on launch day.

• During the first two weeks following the launch, the Advertising Overview page received over 50,000 page views and had over 43,000 unique visitors. Visitors also downloaded 13,000 advertising images.

"High performance. Delivered." Positioning to Next Level

In Nov 2011, Accenture launched a new global brand campaign that takes its "High performance. Delivered." positioning to the next level by demonstrating the full depth and breadth of the company’s capabilities and focusing on the value Accenture creates for its clients. 

The campaign came to life across every brand touch-point with external and internal audiences — including print, airport, outdoor and broadcast advertising; a wide array of digital extensions, such as online advertising, search, mobility platforms, social media and interactive billboards; recruitment marketing materials; client presentations; the company’s newly refreshed website; employee communications; and branding at Accenture locations in more than 200 cities across six continents.

 

Among the key elements of the campaign is an ongoing series of results-focused case studies featuring clients, which are being leveraged across a variety of marketing channels, including advertising.  For instance, an ad featuring Unilever focuses on how Accenture helped the global consumer goods company leverage technology to simplify, standardize and unify business processes across more than 100 countries — resulting in €1 billion in savings for Unilever.  Another ad focuses on how Accenture helped Marriott become one of the top 10 retail sites in the world by implementing a platform that supports nine websites in seven languages and allows customers to more easily book reservations, helping Marriott generate $7 billion in annual sales online. 

 

The advertising and other elements of the brand campaign also highlights Accenture’s broad range of consulting, technology and outsourcing capabilities, especially in high-demand areas such as mobility, analytics, digital marketing and sustainability; its knowledge and expertise across more than 40 industries; and how Accenture can help clients capitalize on opportunities resulting from key business trends such as innovation and globalization.

 

In addition to leveraging engaging imagery, clever copy and a bold color palette, the new brand campaign features the Accenture symbol — ">" — which has been part of the company’s logo for more than 10 years. 

 

Accenture will continue its successful airport advertising campaign, with new ads running in 73 airports across 35 countries.  The new campaign will include high-impact installations, from building and taxicab wraps to billboards, in major business centers around the world, as well as an increased investment in digital marketing and social media.

 

To increase creativity and drive greater efficiency, Accenture implemented a new global advertising model separating creative development from execution.  For creative development, Accenture appointed TBWA/Chiat/Day as its new agency of record.  Tag Worldwide was appointed Accenture’s production agency responsible for translating and implementing the campaign in all mediums across the globe.  WPP’s MEC continues to be responsible for global media planning and buying.  

 

Competitive Advantages

It is not just Branding and Advertisement that positions Accenture as one of the Market leader in this space, Accenture is having several competitive advantages. Accenture has competitors like IBM, EDS, CSE, HP, Oracle, Deloitte etc. To differentiate and establish itself following are sources of competitive advantage for Accenture.

Differentiation through Industry Expertise

Diversification – Identify new businesses and entering new markets

Cost Leadership through Operational efficiency

Knowledge Management - Well established and shared resources/processes

Driving growth through industry differentiation

Accenture’s industry skills and experience is valued by clients as Accenture understand client’s business as much as they understand and can bring some different insights to them and can show how technology can be applied to business advantage in their organizations.

Accenture knows this and invest in industry skills to differentiate further, win more, and deliver better and to have a higher client satisfaction. It has very senior 19 industry management directors and they are C-suite of clients, and always in the media and public stage.e.g. Earlier this week in Amsterdam, Accenture hosted International Utilities and Energy Conference. Soon Accenture will be hosting Global Convergence Forum for leading clients around the world led by Accenture’s industry managing director.

Accenture is having strategy to invest a lot in

a) Thought leadership and innovation,

b) asset-based differentiation to sell more, deliver better and deliver higher client satisfaction

c) Skills and talent.

d) Institute for High Performance and Accenture Research relevant to the industry

Accenture puts combination of industry and market together to get the concentration of skills and the location e.g. for capital markets Accenture’s hub are New York, London, Singapore are industry hubs, for energy Rio, Houston, Aberdeen, Perth in Western Australia and for high tech, the West Coast, Korea are Accenture’s industry hub. Hence a concentration of industries, clients, talent makes Accenture extraordinarily relevant to the geographical growth of business. Accenture is having over a hundred of those industry hubs now. These industry hubs have show cases of industry specific assets and case studies.

Few Examples –

Health industry, it is priority industry for governments and agencies as populations expand and get older, and the challenges around optimizing service and cost. Accenture has a very distinctive look at health over the past year, they have chosen below priority areas —

insight-driven health is the overall banner which they give to their approach around medical records,

health information exchanges,

customer care, and

all the administrative processes that go around the back of that.

A good and recent example of Accenture’s success is with the Singapore Ministry of Health, where Accenture helped to implement their electronic health records for the nation.

In Utilities industry, companies were dealing with challenges of expanding their grids to meet new power demand, and challenges of integrating new sources of energy generation on to those grids and dealing with new sources of demand being placed on those grids hence there is a requirement for more intelligence in the grid. With the focused strategy to provide smart grid Accenture is now working with clients in over 20 countries around the world helping them with their smart grid initiatives.

There are many such examples, industry just flows through Accenture and it is really unique the way Accenture tie it all together and establishes itself as key differentiator to gain competitive advantages.

Diversification

Accenture has its strategy to grow its existing industry and clients by industry differentiation explained in point above.

Following facts explains Accenture’s strategy about Diversification -

Cutting edge technologies: Digital marketing, analytics, mobility, cloud, insight-driven health and smart grid etc represent emerging areas where Accenture believes to be uniquely positioned for making a notable contribution in fiscal ‘11. A significant portion of Accenture’s investment capacity and funding is directed toward these.

Joint ventures and alliances: Avanade is a joint venture with Microsoft, it has grown 35% on a compounded annual in last 10 years and will exceed $1 billion in revenue this fiscal year. It has over 13,000 employees and operates in 60 locations in 27 countries and, is the number one integrator for Microsoft products. Similarly Accenture has alliances with SAP, Oracle, JDA etc.

Strategies to expand in emerging markets: In 2003, Accenture had larger revenue concentration in the U.S. and the U.K. However since then they started focusing on opportunities available in emerging markets like Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America. Accenture expanded and opened multiple development centers and consulting offices. They invested in branding and show casing success stories to win big projects here. They are now geographically diverse and more developed in Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America. Today, emerging geographies represent about 13% of Accenture’s revenue base, with a higher revenue growth rate than USA and UK. These locations will continue to be strategic to Accenture’s growth and expecting to grow business double in size in next three years.

Cost Leadership through Operation efficiency

Low cost IT solution companies are growing significantly and giving Accenture a tough competition in emerging as well as developed market. Hence Accenture is focusing to achieve cost leadership through operation efficiency.

It is being achieved by

Keeping "improving operating margin" as a primary performance objective Accenture’s leadership teams

Focusing on labor costs i.e. biggest operating expense by putting effort to realize on market- relevant compensation, the right levels of utilization, and payroll efficiency.

Staying committed to industrialization agenda —methods, processes, tools and, leveraging Global Delivery Network ( by outsourcing, e.g India head count for Accenture is now 50000 +)

Carefully managing investments in industry and technology programs as there is always a tradeoff between investing in business and margin expansion.

Knowledge Management, Trainings and Innovations

Innovations: Innovation is integral part of Accenture’s growth strategy and gives it competitive advantage. Accenture has innovation centers across the world (known as CoE, Center of Excellence) and dedicated resources are working on them to add value to businesses of clients. Accenture has many industry specific assets.

Below are few examples -

Recently Accenture acquired a company called CAS, a software company in the CRM space, with a particular proposition around helping consumer goods companies manage their trade channel better, sell more products, more profitably. Accenture brings together a lot of really important features and make it more than a software — Accenture pulled through all the integration services around it and integrated to mobility capabilities and analytic capabilities, a real solution that creates value proposition.

Similarly, in banking. Accenture is helping a client with the technology transformation of their retail banking business in the U.S. and it is an asset-based delivery on Accenture’s core banking solution, and the value proposition will help client to get new products to market faster and will help them deal with all the changing regulations going around the banking sector.

Examples of Smart Grid for utility industry etc are already given in Industry differentiator sector section.

Knowledge Management and Trainings:

Trainings and KM strategies give clear edge to Accenture on its competitors. Every employee of Accenture has to complete 80 hours of online or classroom trainings related to his technology and industry.

Accenture has collaboration with ISB and XLRI for business and HR management trainings and with MIT for technical trainings. ASDA and AMDA certifications are mandatory for employees in Accenture.

Knowledge management is one of the Accenture’s most important core competencies and perhaps one of the biggest assets that gives Accenture one of the greatest competitive and strategic advantage. Accenture have transitioned their knowledge system from a naive communications vehicle where personnel were to be physically present to share their knowledge and best practices to the team to a tool which is fully integrated into their consulting, technology and services practices and operations.

Accenture has a learning portal and a dedicated learning and knowledge management team. Employees can register for online and classroom trainings on portal. They can download and complete trainings; there are interactive quizzes and questionnaires to check learning from online trainings. Portal helps to learn, communicate best practices and lesson learnt. Employees can provide feedback and can request new trainings as well.

CONCLUSION

Following a decade of prosperity and growth, Accenture staked a new direction and forged a new identity at the turn of the 21st century. After successful arbitration against Andersen Worldwide and

Arthur Andersen the company was able to recast itself under a new name, coinciding with the launch of a new positioning. The rebranding and repositioning of Accenture was unprecedented in scope and timeframe -- the largest rebranding initiative ever undertaken by a professional services firm, being successfully implemented across 47 countries in just 147 days. Accenture launched this rebranding and repositioning to its global audience with a multi-phase global marketing campaign that began before the official changeover occurred on January 1, 2001. The challenge was daunting, but the objectives clear:

To reposition the company, transfer brand equity to Accenture, raise awareness of Accenture globally and to eliminate residual confusion with Arthur Andersen. Changes in the business climate in 2001 prompted a refinement to their positioning, one that delineated Accenture’s ability to help companies capitalize on their marketplace opportunities by bringing their ideas to life. Accenture is moving forward from "Now it gets interesting" to "Innovation delivered" to current tag line "High Performance. Delivered" and overcoming challenges by innovative brand management and advertising campaigns. Accenture has several competitive advantages to sustain competition and grow as a leader.

Accenture is currently ranked No. 45 on Interbrand’s ranking of the top 100 global brands, with a brand value of $8 billion.  This represents a 55 percent increase in brand value since 2002, when Accenture made its debut on Interbrand’s ranking of the top 100 global brands, at No. 53.