For a global company which employs 1,600 people in Asia-Pacific alone, Avaya is slightly odd in that most of us (if we’re honest) don’t have a clue what the company does, makes or sells.
Technology of some sort, perhaps? And didn’t the brand sponsor the Fifa World Cup a few years ago?
It is the job of Jocelyn Attal, the company’s chief marketing officer, to deliver us from ignorance.
Attal joined Avaya in 200? from Gateway, after stints at IBM and Novell that bookend a 20-year career. So she knows a thing or two about technology brands.
She has the kind of charm, elegance and directness that instantly give away that she is French, and a wide-eyed, effusive passion for talking about her job that borders on the evangelical.
In this sense, Attal is well-suited to her role. Avaya is still a young brand; just eight years old. It is the underdog, competing in a market dominated by much larger rivals. And, outside its own industry, it is a little more than an unusual name. It needs more than an appearance at the World Cup to put it on the map.
“Avaya is a name that was created because it is possible to say without difficulties pronouncing it,” she says. “We wanted to be global from day one.”
Some used to think (and probably still do) that Avaya is a beauty products company from Israel (Avaya, or something similar, means ‘God in one colour’ in Hebrew). But it is, Attal is eager to make plain, an US$8 billion company that provides software and IT systems for businesses globally.
Avaya has been around a lot longer than one might think. In a past life it was Lucent, and in an earlier one it was part of AT&T, in the business of making telephones.
“We used to be the company which made your grandfather’s phone. Sixty per cent of phones in the US are made by Avaya, 40 per cent in Asia-Pacific,” she says.
“Avaya was the phone on your desk. Now we are the people who transport data, voice and images using IP. We use to be about hardware. Now we are about software.”
Problem is, fame doesn’t come easily for the creators of gadgets that sit inside a call centre or a mobile phone. Nor is it easy to walk away from history.
“Our past is both a liability and an asset. If you want to flourish in the IT and mobile world, you have to show your audience that you are able to innovate. But you also have to prove that you are reliable and secure - hacker-resistant.”
For the past few years, Avaya has been creeping out of the safe world of B2B and into the glare of consumer marketing. “They don’t buy from us directly, but we want consumers to help us drive innovation in enterprises,” she says.
Thirty per cent of Attal’s marketing budget goes on print and outdoor. “We like to talk about Avaya in airports and in subways - when people are in pain. Then they realise what they could do if Avaya products were there to help them.”
The rest goes online. “Ninety-nine per cent of people who use Avaya go through our website. So, digital is a no-brainer,” she says.
“My aim for 2008 is to make Avaya the most experiential brand in the world. Not static. Not passive. We want to start conversations. And our website is the place where the world meets us. It’s contemporary, global and very colourful. More Nike than IBM.”
Attal is a firm believer that marketing is a science. “It’s tough working with agencies still focussed on winning their next Cannes Lion. If a CMO can’t show his or her CFO exactly what he or she is doing with a marketing budget... well, it’s no wonder CMOs last no longer than 24 months these days,” she says, knocking hard on the wooden desk.
“I’m the first to admit I am not a good client for agencies big on high-minded strategy and creative (Saatchi & Saatchi is Avaya’s strategic brand agency). But I’m a good client for agencies which generate measurable demand.”
New York-based R/GA handles Avaya’s interactive work, an agency she breathlessly describes as “absolutely unbelievable”.
The year ahead promises plenty of sweat for Attal and her agencies. Last October, Avaya was acquired by equity firms TPG Capital and Silver Lake for $8.3 billion. It was the beginning of a new era for the company. “I am realistic,” concludes Attal. “The competition will make things difficult for us. But the worst thing we can do is get comfortable. We are the underdog and need to behave as such.”
Jocelyn Attal’s CV
2004 Chief marketing officer, Avaya
2003 Executive vice-president, Gateway
1997 Vice-president of marketing, WebSphere, IBM
1993 General manager, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Novell
