World’s top CRM solutions provider Salesforce with a $136B market cap launches CoE in India.

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TOPLINE ACCOMPLISHMENTS

A highly integrated media and PR partnership yields top-tier industry awards in honor of creative and business excellence, establishing Mphasis as a digital transformation and experience leader.

CLIENT BACKGROUND

As the first cloud-based company to reach a $1bn market evaluation, Salesforce first approached Gutenberg in 2010 with plans accelerate growth in India. On the heels of its evolution from selling software licenses to a focus on SaaS, Salesforce especially wanted to call attention to the planned CoE opening—one of its biggest tech centers to date. To better integrate the company into Indian tech markets, Gutenberg was tapped to lead a PR campaign to advertise the brand launch, strengthen public relations and boost employer branding—making Salesforce known as one of the most attractive places to work in the region.

GUTENBERG STRATEGY

Gutenberg knew a successful media campaign accomplishes more than garnering good press; it had to advance a broader strategic vision for the future of the company. To that end, Gutenberg centered Salesforce public relations and employer branding around the 2017 CoE opening, which furthered several goals for Salesforce—from staffing the center’s newly-created job opportunities to differentiating its business in India’s highly competitive tech landscape.

Gutenberg solution: To boost its reputation in India, Salesforce wanted to call attention to its own accomplishments, as well as regional and global ambitions. Gutenberg differentiated Salesforce from its competitors by clarifying its aim to dominate in the CRM sphere. Since experience with CRM in India was limited, Gutenberg educated the local media about CRM and how it fit into India’s tech market. Framing Salesforce as an established CRM thought leader generated organic media interest and adopting an aggressive but informative public relations strategy appealed to the sensibilities of target demographics. This meant Salesforce needn’t advertise directly in the region so much as let local media do the work for them, via news of the CoE launch—which attracted the kind of attention Salesforce was seeking from potential clients, partners, employees and investors.

Gutenberg solution: As a U.S. powerhouse with the desire to make a name for itself in Indian tech, Salesforce wanted to increase visibility around the CoE launch. Its plans included, but extended beyond, a robust media campaign that targeted print, TV and digital channels; news of the CoE launch also dovetailed with the broader business interest of advertising the center’s job opportunities. Gutenberg sought to connect Salesforce with local markets by informing the public about the company’s plans to expand into India: emphasizing Salesforce’s international prestige inspired trust in the brand, while articulating its regional ambitions conveyed the message that Indian markets were viewed as crucial to realizing both the company’s institutional vision and future global success.

Gutenberg solution: Every year, Indian universities graduate scores of budding IT professionals—and every year, tech companies in India compete to woo the most promising candidates. Salesforce came to Gutenberg with the specific aim of hiring 1,000 new employees in Hyderabad between 2017 and 2020. Having already collaborated with the Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge to train IT students with employable skills, Salesforce now needed to expand its recruiting efforts to attract top talent from the numerous colleges and IT education centers in the area. Together, Gutenberg and Salesforce worked to optimize their hiring strategy and make the Salesforce brand so attractive, applicants would seek them out. They raised the company profile among local graduates by initiating a PR campaign stressing the benefits of Salesforce’s employee-focused workplace culture.

RESULTS

Having clarified the path forward to a now enthusiastic media, Salesforce found a warm reception from locals and a more natural integration in the Hyderabad region. Employer branding improved thanks to headlines in regional mainstays like The Times of India and Telangana Today. The CoE media push, in conjunction with more general public relations efforts, helped Salesforce earn the prestige in India it enjoyed in other parts of the world, and solidify its reputation as one of the area’s best places to work. Since working with Gutenberg, the company’s market cap went from $17bn in 2011 to $81bn in 2017.

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