TCS breaks into top three among global IT services brands

Cognizant jumps 13 ranks to become 4th most valued.

Tata Consultancy Services has announced it had become one of the top three most-valuable brands in the information technology service sector.

The company was assessed by Brand Finance, the leading brand valuation firm in the world.

“Only five years ago, the TCS brand had achieved a major milestone, emerging as one of the big four brands in the IT services sector. Through sustained growth in brand value, they have now moved up one spot and consolidated their place, along with IBM and Accenture, at the top of the sector’s food chain,” said David Haigh, chief executive officer of Brand Finance.

He added, “This represents an absolutely stellar performance, adding an annual average of nearly a billion dollars in brand value across the seven-year tenure of their previous CEO N Chandrasekaran.”

Chandrasekaran is now the chairman of Tata Sons. He has been succeeded by R Gopinathan.

TCS was also rated as the industry’s highest brand strength of AA+, and contributes 69 per cent of the value of the larger Tata brand. Over the past year, TCS has also been recognised for running marketing programmes in Europe and featured as one of the top 100 brands in the US.

“The foremost driver of our brand has always been the strong talent we have in the company, along with a culture of customer centricity, innovation and consistent business performance. We will continue to invest in strategic initiatives towards all these areas, to further strengthen our brand position.” said TCS CEO Gopinathan.

Though TCS has entered the top three among IT services firms, its rank overall has come down by one. For 2017, TCS was ranked 25th.

Nasdaq-listed Cognizant was the fourth-most valued brand among IT services players. The company jumped 13 positions to reach 26th rank.

In 2016, TCS strengthened its portfolio of brand partnerships by being appointed as the Official Technology Partner to the Virgin Money London Marathon and as title partner to the world’s largest cross-country race, which has been renamed as TCS Lidingöloppet run.

Association with major marathons such as the New York Marathon and the Amsterdam Marathon have significantly boosted the firm’s brand in its key markets, said the company in a press release.

In a recent survey, 98.6 per cent of its clients said the TCS Amsterdam Marathon had significantly strengthened its brand in the Netherlands.

At the World Economic Forum at Davos last month, TCS launched a brand campaign titled #DigitalEmpowers, highlighting the role of technology as a force for good.