In Conversation with Nithya Krishnan, Trend Micro

With digital exchange of information at its peak, data protection becomes utmost important. While conversing with Nithya Krishnan, CMO at Trend Micro, she tells us how Trend Micro is making it safe to transfer digital data, along with throwing light on their marketing ploys.

You have been associated with Trend Micro for more than two years now. How is it to make the world safe for exchanging digital information? How has the response been from the Indian audience?

1. Trend Micro’s unwavering vision for nearly 3 decades has been to make the world safe for exchanging digital information and the mission for the next decade is to secure the connected world.

In-line with this, Trend Micro’s CEO, Eva Chen, established the Trend Micro Initiative for Education to strengthen our efforts on user awareness and digital safety education, in 2017. The parent initiative supports three Digital Safety Outreach programs, namely:

1. Internet Safety for Kids & Families (ISKF): Since its launch in 2008, the first program, Internet Safety for Kids & Families (ISKF), has reached millions. The objective is to improve Internet safety awareness, digital literacy, and malware defence capabilities for a safer digital world. To reach our objective our programs educate, collaborate and are accessible.

• Internet Safety for Small Businesses (ISSB): Established in November 2017, the Internet Safety for Small Businesses (ISSB) program aims to empower small business owners and employees with the knowledge to be safer in the digital world. We raise risk awareness and help small businesses take an offensive approach to online threats with timely, easy-to-use resources. All free of charge to all digital citizens. We also offer support and sponsorships to non-profit organisation events and projects dedicated to helping small businesses be safe online.
  
  
• Cybersecurity Education for Universities (CEU): We established the Cybersecurity Education for Universities (CEU) program to help address the gap by offering guidance, expertise, and support to college cybersecurity programs free of charge. We work collaboratively with schools, typically focusing on faculty enablement and training, curriculum alignment and course consultation, technical seminars & webinars.

Trend Micro is also founding member of the new Cybersecurity Tech Accord, a pact among the largest ever group of technology and cybersecurity companies focused on defending businesses everywhere from cyberattacks. Trend Micro continues to collaborate with global law enforcement agencies and employs and supports thousands of threat and vulnerability researchers worldwide. The company uses this extensive threat intelligence to consistently develop and offer free tools to bolster current protections against the biggest cyber risks facing organizations.

With so many community forums in play and the selling that takes place through referrals, how do you make sure people know about you? What has been your preferred mode of advertising?

Considering the B2B enterprise space that Trend Micro operates in, our outreach to the market is largely through activities such  as – events (CIO/CISO roundtables, industry events, C-level offsites, channel & partner events); workshops; digital/PR/social media communication (newsletters, blogs, EDMS) and webinars etc.

We do limited advertising through the typical broadcast medium (TV or radio), as we feel it isn’t the most preferred mode of communication considering the target/niche audience that we typically reach out to – i.e., CISOs/CTOs/CIOs/IT heads/ Technology managers etc. However, we do evaluate participation in curated programs on case-to-case basis, especially during our annual CLOUDSEC event, which sees a lot of discussion around cybersecurity by cybersecurity experts. 

Does storytelling help in the cyber space? Can you please share some insights and numbers?

Storytelling is a very powerful tool in our communication armory, and is especially true in our line of business which is very technical and complex for many. Today’s cyber security firms use the storytelling approach which is a key tool to persuade their audience about a point of view by giving it context and relating it to their current view of life at home and business.

Storytelling is used by CISOs and leaders to help drive informed decision making by the customers. However, it is effective when CISOs describe their vision of cybersecurity, risk management and the business value to company employees and leadership stakeholders.

Security professionals use a story to inspire their users to be motivated to follow security protocols and there are few others who put the story into context so that users can better understand the entire story. This approach is highly effective, as it educates the customers.

When it comes to storytelling in cybersecurity, the customer is the king and your product is the magic ingredient in the customer’s journey. With this positioning, your product stands out to become the engine of transformation and gain. Cybersecurity companies that tell this story well are noticed in the market.

Do you think getting a brand ambassador on board helps brands get attention? Why don’t you have a face for Trend Micro in India? Is this a conscious decision? How are you positioning the brand in India?

It certainly helps a brand to get an initial level of visibility through a brand ambassador. However, to my awareness none of our competitors or companies operating in the enterprise security space have brand ambassadors, or feel the need to do so. Companies often deploy considerable marketing efforts and advertising initiatives to improve their brand awareness. These efforts can take your company’s brand to the next level, help attract top-tier talent and secure loyal customers.

However, one of your greatest assets in brand awareness are your employees. Your employees are the ones on the front line, connecting with customers and promoting your business. When they feel empowered and engaged in their positions, they become natural brand ambassadors.  In this context, employee advocacy can be very effective tool to propel the company to new levels.