"Zebra's brand promise is to deliver a performance edge to the front line of business"

In a chat with VARINDIA, Deep Agarwal, Regional Sales Director – India, Zebra Technologies talks about the brand positioning, its present focus and the trends  

The brand positioning of Zebra Technologies aims to transform the business from Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) to providing enterprise asset intelligence. This will encourage company’s growth in long run. 

“Our strategic brand positioning addresses the transformation of Zebra’s business from Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) to our vision of providing enterprise asset intelligence that will fuel the company’s long-term growth. The opportunity is to create a position for the brand in the hearts and minds of all our stakeholders that would capture the essence of the Zebra brand and clarify its promise to the market.

We created a positioning framework using inputs from internal and external research that articulated the brand’s relevance, targets and promise. This enabled us to focus on the benefits - emotional and functional - of the value Zebra promises to deliver,” explains Deep Agarwal, Regional Sales Director – India, Zebra Technologies. 

He further adds, “Zebra’s brand promise is to deliver a performance edge to the front line of business. At the heart of the positioning is the brand essence: “Empowering Your Performance Edge”. You can think of the brand essence as what Zebra is ultimately all about. The simplicity of the brand essence gives us the clarity needed to deliver the brand through everything we do - internally and externally.

Present focus of the company

The adoption of technology by customers has created an on-demand economy which has triggered the need for instant service delivery. And, to meet the demands, innovation began at the enterprise side where employees can take real-time decision and can also interact with the people they serve.   

“Ever increasing customer adoption of technology has created the current on-demand economy in which instantaneous service delivery is becoming expected. In India for instance, the on demand economy has completely changed the game for delivery and logistics industry. We are talking express delivery options - especially when it comes to food or grocery. The on-demand food delivery industry is set to earn a revenue of US$3,080m in 2018. In fact, as per a KPMG report, the entire ecommerce related logistics segment will grow at CAGR of 48% and stand at US$ 2.2 billion by 2020.

Early attempts to address these needs sparked innovation which began at the core of the enterprise. Innovation is now exploding at “the edge” where employees make real-time decisions and interact directly with the people they serve. Zebra Technologies has long been a pioneer at the edge of the enterprise. We brought the barcode into the mainstream. Today, our portfolio of intelligent edge solutions and devices is designed to deliver a performance edge wherever the front line may be. The reason for this brand repositioning is to emphasize Zebra’s differentiator for our customers and partners globally: we empower those on the front line to maximize performance,” says Deep.

Trends

The trend that boosted the brand repositioning of Zebra Technologies was because of on-demand economy which was triggered by customer expectations. Continuing on this, Deep elaborates, “The trend that was the biggest catalyst for our repositioning was how customer expectations are fuelled by our increasingly on-demand economy. Customers’ desire for faster, more compelling experiences means that digital innovation within enterprises and on the edge of business is no longer an option. It’s an imperative. Our brand perceptions needed to be shifted to help our customers and partners stay relevant as digital innovation continues to transform the edge of the enterprise.”

Moving Ahead...

Zebra is delivering enhanced business outcomes to our customers by creating a performance edge at the front line by focusing on five areas:

* Purpose-driven design in our product offerings - Zebra designs with front line users, workplaces, and workflows in mind, building in ease of use, reliability, and ruggedness.
* Data-powered environments - Zebra enables customers to create smart environments on the edge, better reflecting reality than traditional systems of record.
* Collaborative mobile workflows - Zebra enables those on the front line to optimize in-motion operations through connected and collaborative workflows.
* Real time guidance - Zebra links teams, assets and systems in real time to deliver best-action guidance for business-critical decisions.
* Solution Ecosystem - With our global partner ecosystem, Zebra innovates and delivers industry-tailored solutions for the enterprise edge.”