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MARKETING VS TECHNOLOGY IN TODAYS MARKETPLACE

Written by: Andy Marken

Article Overview: Technology doesn't draw the most sales, it is the way we market it with the customer in mind.

MARKETING VS TECHNOLOGY IN TODAYS MARKETPLACE

Every day, three or four engineers hide in the men's room, huddle in the back booth of the local sandwich shop, or gather around the most recently divorced individual's kitchen table to plan the
next major new product advance and start their own company.

The most technically competent individual is appointed VP of engineering; the one with the most gray hair (or least amount of hair) is appointed president; and the most outgoing individual is named VP of marketing. Suddenly, another Apple, Compaq, Ashton-Tate, Lotus or Diablo is born, and the founders begin their quest for "the big bucks" and the next quantum leap in technology.

Enough Technology
The problem is, we really don't need more technology. What we do need is better application of the technology that we have today.

In fact, it would be fair to say that we probably have enough sound technology available to last us for the next five to ten years, if people would only concentrate on making the technology usable for the rest of us.

It takes a long, long time for technology to trickle down to the point where it is sold in volume.

For example, what is the biggest selling microprocessor today?

It's the 4-bit micro. It is sold like popcorn and is used in every electronic game in the world.

At the same time, 8-bit microcomputers are more than adequate for over 80 percent of the work for which micros are purchased ... word processing. Machines like 16-, 32- and 64-bit systems for these applications are akin to using a Porsche or Ferrari to drive to and from the grocery store.

Technology is important, but what is needed even more is sound marketing understanding, ability and practice.

Hard-Learned Lessons
People like Adam Osborne showed the industry and business mworld that you don't have to know technology to be successful. He showed us that good promotion is necessary, but you get in trouble when you start believing your own PR.

He also provided business schools with a case study that illustrated that strong management is also vital, as he drove the company through one of business' steepest and shortest growth curves.

What he, and so many others, fail to realize is that perhaps the most important person in the organization is a strong marketeer. A person who can give leadership and direction to the company on what market segments it should attack, how it should attack them, and the products needed by the users in those markets. A good marketing person listens to and knows how to tap into what the ultimate buyer/user wants, needs and desires.

Rather than listening to engineering on "what the marketplace really needs," the marketeer goes out and talks with customers and prospects. Then he tells engineering and manufacturing to produce a product that meets those criteria within a predetermined price category.

Rare Mixture
There have been some excellent (but rare) heads of marketing who understand finance, economics, selling, R&D as well as how to determine the market's next-generation product requirements.

Certainly, they want new, additional products to sell; but they also want products that will fit specific market segment/niche requirements. They understand the importance of packaging and presenting these products so that they appeal to their target markets.

They understand the value of good marketing research and promotion. A number of firms, having bought talent from the consumer goods marketplace, have found that market research should come before engineering research.

They've found that people at firms like Beatrice, Colgate, Dole and others have more people in marketing research and use their agency's marketing research capabilities to monitor the changing tastes and wants of the buying public.

Smart VAR management doesn't make a decision to introduce a new product without the facts in front of them--facts that tell them their chances of success with the ultimate consumer. For example, write-once optical data storage has been available for nearly three years and each year, forecasts for success have been rosy but have never materialized.

A few years ago, the courts ruled that optically stored documents could be considered as legal documents. The federal government's optical standards committee has determined that
write-once media can provide adequate audit trails of documentation; can be annotated, if necessary; will more than meet their document "life" and permanent storage requirements; can provide a substantial savings in the space required for filing and storage; and will provide staff members with the ability to locate specific documents more quickly.

At the same time, the document scanners and laser printers used with these optical storage systems became more economical and have been proven to be highly reliable.

Following these events, four firms in the Washington D.C. area introduced turnkey PC- and MAC-based document storage and retrieval systems. Each organization made a number of single-unit evaluation system sales to federal, state and local governments, as well as private firms.

These organizations were unable to be aggressive until the key legal ruling was made. However, once they had the ruling and all of the components in place, they were on their way. Armed with their new credibility, they began rifleshot marketing and sales activities aimed at specific high-volume paper consumers/users.

They used their research to hone their promotional messages to tap into the wants and needs of their buying publics.

Creative Discomfort
Successful marketing people realize the importance of promotion that makes their customers feel a little uncomfortable. They understand that people need to be dissatisfied before they'll make a change from status quo. Marketing must provide the catalyst for change in order to stimulate the purchase of their product(s).

Going back to our optical example, the use of paper is comfortable, familiar ... and paper is status quo. How well the optically-based document storage and retrieval system VARs succeed will depend, to a large degree, on how uncomfortable they can make customer management with the volumes of paper they are retaining.

Experienced, professional marketing people are also aware that they need assistance and a fresh look from outside the company.

Bell Labs did an excellent job of developing UNIX nearly 20 years ago. The academic community developed a series of superb products known as artificial intelligence, decision support systems and/or expert systems.

Unfortunately, technical people were so busy talking to other technical people that they forgot about the real people who would eventually use the products ... that is, if they were going to sell thousands, and millions, of them.

These products languished for years, until someone came to the realization that it was necessary to find ways for lay people to use them.

It took firms such as Altos and Santa Cruz Operations to show the real benefits of using UNIX in business applications where users want transportability and power. It took organizations such as Aion and Knowledgeware to show programming managers and end users how AI and expert systems can be used to produce practical results more quickly and how easily "ordinary" people
can work with and interact with these systems.

The marketplace is slowly beginning to accept and use these products. To them, they are brand new, even though both have been around for more than a dozen years.

Battlelines Drawn
When Robert Duval muttered those immortal words in Apocalypse Now, "God, but I love the smell of napalm in the morning," he wasn't talking of death and destruction. He was talking about the excitement and challenge of battle.

While the battles of one-upsmanship between engineers and designers will probably go on forever, those small skirmishes don't win the big, bottomline battle.

And, although engineers may mutter under their breath that marketing is squelching their engineering advances, they also admit that their efforts are not driven by profit motives. Steve
Wozniak was perfectly happy developing what have now become known as computer motherboards, but it took Steve Jobs' marketing savvy and profit orientation to bring together a team that has made Apple Computer a powerful factor in the industry.

Likewise, the team that started Compaq had Rod Canion head the firm--not because he was the most technically strong, but because he had a greater "feel" for marketing and the market. Then, they very fortunately connected with Ben Rosen, not only as a source of funding, but for his management and marketing expertise ... and they listened to him.

To stay in business, any VAR or company has to be pushed, pulled and dragged to make a profit.

The only people who are in a position to accomplish this are the rare--very rare--marketing people who can rally the organization and its outside sources to do more than simply sell some product. Instead, they sell the product to a market segment again ... and again ... and again.

Rather than taking potshots at one another, marketing should help the VAR organizations to focus all of their efforts on capturing market share. At the same time, the engineering and design group should be figuring out how to give the VARs the tools and support they need to get their firm's unfair share of the market before the competition realizes what is going on.

A cooperative effort is needed, with marketing providing the leadership and direction to engineering and R&D.
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