Basic Questions Technology Marketers Should Ask (and Answer)

Marketing of technology products is very different from marketing products in other industries. This is due to the following factors:

- High market uncertainty: customer needs are ambiguous and the customers display a high degree of FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) about technology and its ability to address their pain points and needs;
- High technology uncertainty: the degree of certainty that the technology is viable;
- High competitive volatility: new entrants can come from all directions, even outside the industry; high level of innovation.

All these factors make marketing of technology product much more challenging that marketing traditional items.

Below are some key questions that marketers of high-tech products should ask themselves when creating a marketing plan:

- Do you market your product as a radical innovation (revolutionary) or position against existing products as an incremental innovation? This depends on how customers perceive it and drives marketing strategy and use of marketing tools.

- Is this a supplier-drive market or a demand-driven one? Supplier-driven market requires R&D to play large part in marketing.

- What are the target segments (based on benefits) and their size and growth, what is the product positioning relative to competitors, what is the current market share and what are the goals for 3-6 years from now?

- Positioning: customers' perceptions of how your product compares to competitors on important dimensions.

- Incremental innovation: what is the product's differentiation vs. competitors? Radical innovation: competition unknown, how do I position the product?

- Incremental innovation: features vs. cost trade-offs determined by customer surveys; radical innovation: testing done by customer partners/ alliances.

- How well does the customer understand your technology?

- How much education and evangelism is necessary? If it’s new, the value of customer feedback is questionable as they have no point of reference. Thus, for radical innovations, qualitative research is more effective (phone interviews with existing customers rather than mass-scale quantitative studies).

- How do I select my market and identify segments?

- How do I clearly communicate the benefits relative to other solutions?

- How do I develop an effective distribution channel and build effective relationships?

- For radical innovations, how do I cross the chasm from selling to early adopters to mass commercialization?

- How do my customers buy and why do they buy? Why are we losing deals – internal and external reasons.