Marketing services new BPO avenue: Nasscom

Nasscom has stated in its journal “BPO Newsline”, that, “Business process outsourcing (BPO) will center on certain aspects of marketing, such as direct marketing, rather than enterprise wide customer strategy or branding services”.

The country’s premier industry body has said companies are slowly beginning to outsource their sales and marketing activities. Indicating that Indian companies will soon reap the benefit of “marketing BPO”, Nasscom has said the highest growth in this sector is expected in Asia-Pacific (including Japan).

According to the Nasscom, marketing services within BPO is showing signs of growth on account of advances in technology coupled with changes in perception of the role of marketing. Stating that increased prevalence of multi-channel campaigns is another key factor for outsourcing of sales and marketing activities, Nasscom has quoted the IDC on the worldwide opportunity for marketing BPO, which is estimated to be $76.7 billion in 2001.

This is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.2 per cent to $108.3 billion in 2006. The US marketing BPO services reached $46.9 billion in 2001 and are expected to touch $60.8 billion in 2006, representing a CAGR of 5.3 per cent.

Currently, US holds the largest market share for outsourced marketing services as it is more open to outsourcing overall compared with international markets. However, this is set to change as Asia-Pacific prepares itself to take lead. Meanwhile, Nasscom has also gone a step ahead to identify market inhibitors in emerging BPO marketing services.