For Barco, its customers come first

Rajiv Bhalla, MD, India & VP APAC, Operator Experience, Barco Electronic Systems 

Brand Positioning vs. Marketing Tactics 

Most of our competitors focus a lot on product and technology in their messaging and brand positioning. The Barco brand has evolved (and is still evolving) towards an “outcomes” approach: we focus on the customer and their interaction with our offering; on how we make our partners and end-customers successful by providing them with the best possible product offering, combined with services and new business models. 

The reactions, of our external audience on this outcome-based approach, has been really positive. They recognize the alignment within the company due to this congruent approach across all our messaging. We like to believe that this differentiating approach will pay off if consistently used, since, at Barco, the customer is of prime importance and we follow this as a genuine approach and not a simple marketing tactic.

We truly believe that marketing needs to reflect the soul of the company. For Barco the soul of our company is integrity and customer-first attitude. We work for and with our customers. Therefore candid feedback from the customer is required and will be taken into consideration as much as possible. The way we do business and the way we market our offering is by focusing on our customer and by delivering what they need to be successful. And then we make that happen by going the extra mile to make sure they can make their mark. It is not about Barco, it is about them.

Irrespective of the Enterprise type you are, large, medium or start-up, marketing starts and ends with who you are, what your vision is and what problem you are solving for your customer. How that is being executed can depend largely on the size of the business. A challenge for small businesses and start-ups is to make sure they have a campaign in mind rather than just shooting where they think something’s moving. A challenge for a large enterprise is to make sure they keep a close connection between marketing and sales.

Good data for a Good Brand Strategy

At Barco, we believe in leveraging data to drive insightful business decision making whilst driving enhanced customer intimacy. We empower our customers with inspired sight, sound and sharing solutions to help them in making meaningful connections. The same resonates with our mission statement that states “we enable bright outcomes by transforming content into insight and emotion”. For us, data is also about exploring new business and collaboration models and to better understand the market and co-create solutions. We increasingly communicate with customers to gauge their needs and strive to strengthen our bonds with our business partners and come up with always better, brighter, stronger technologies and products, packed with impressive features.

It is imperative for organizations to provide its employees as well as customers with solutions that help them make meaningful connections. For example, Barco’s control room solutions help control room operators’ gain a perfect overview of traffic/emergency situations so that they can act instantly when something happens.

R&D driving Growth

Barco’s commitment to R&D is paramount. We spend between 8-10% of our revenue on R&D, which drives us forward in developing new and creative ways to solve problems and challenges that we see in the market. We do not innovate simply to innovate, but we rather focus on innovation that really matters – the kind that will make a difference in our customer’s businesses and help them to achieve their goals.