Hindustan Computers Limited (HCL) is one of the top-five IT companies in India.

Recently I saw their latest media campaign which says: HCL - a $4 billion company.

I have never seen such a poor tagline before. In fact it was amusing and I could not stop laughing when I saw it on an outdoor display. The first thing that came to my mind was - "Is HCL up for sale? And is this the price they are asking for?"

This tagline does not communicate anything to a prospective customer which can help him in understanding the values and/or goals of the company. It only communicates that this company wants to SELL (Because $4 billion was their sale in last FY) and actually HARDSELL with such a stupid tagline.  No one is interested in your last FY turnover. People or prospective customers want to know what you can do for them and how are you different from other peer companies.

Frankly, this tagline sounds like a joy-cry from a child who is over-excited with his maths score (and that too when he has not topped the class!).

HCL is no doubt a great company. In fact I am highly inspired by one of their promoter - Mr. Ajai Chowdhry. But whoever created the campaign has been very immature and hardly understand branding. They could not capture the essence of this company and have totally misrepresented them in public. HCL is a pioneering company which has several interesting innovation to their credit. None of them have been used to highlight the achiements of the company. In fact I was reading about Shiv Nadar in Forbes Asia magazine as he was on the cover as the "Tamil Tycoon". The article highlights on the "new style" engagement model that HCL has adopted by taking a long term stand with their customers and is sharing the ups and downs of clients’ business! I could not stop myself from saying - WOW! Its a winner formula. But unfortunately for a widely used public campaign they used the "$4 billion company" tagline.

As a prospective customer - "How does your being a $4 billion company helps me apart from getting an assurance that you wont be bankrupt and out of business soon?"

I hope they rethink over it soon..