Marketing

You may be wondering what on earth a section called "marketing" is doing on the personal website of an engineer. After all, engineers tend to think of marketers as part of "the dark side of business." Engineers and scientist believe that people should buy based on technical merits, and so they should. However, the large volume of poor quality junk on the market should testify to the fact that this is not what happens. The best technology does not always win, and the old adage "build a better mouse trap and the world will beat a path to your door," is simply not true. Like it or not, marketing is an essential part of an engineering/technology company, or indeed, any company.

Why might the world not beat a path to your door if you have invented technology that is superior to anything else? Here are a few possible reasons why:

• The world may not understand your new technology,
• The world may not realize how much your new technology could improve their lives,
• There may be a rival technology that is "good enough" for most people, who do not wish to risk time and money on something that is unproven, and
• The world is so caught up in its own affairs that the vast majority of people may simply not know that your technology exists.

All of the above issues require one task in order to be overcome: potential users/customers must be educated to the new technology's existence, why they "need" it, and motivated to buy. This, is known collectively as marketing.

In my opinion, all engineers should learn at least a little about marketing (as well as business and management). This is especially true for the entrepreneurial types will need to know how to market their products/services if they are to be successful. Other engineers may find themselves changing their approach to design after considering what the target market might be.

I am not a marketing expert, so this section differs from others in that it contains reviews and links to material produced by others, who are marketing experts. Whilst the focus is on material that is relevant to the high-tech industry, anyone interested in marketing should find the linked material of interest.

Low Cost, High Reward, Measurability Marketing/Advertising

It has been said that 50% of every dollar spent on advertising is wasted. Part of this is due to the difficulty in being able to measure the success of any advertising campaign, and part of this is most likely due to poor marketing strategies. Control engineers know that it is impossible to optimize (or control) something if it cannot be measured. Fortunately, there are marketing and advertising techniques that have a degree of measurability, and focus on low cost and high reward. It is this kind of material that will be featured here.