Outside of its strong technical content, its sometimes hectic life cycle (cell phones), and its innovative aspects(easy email, GPS etc.) , a high-tech product is first and above all a product that can satisfy a need or a want of a customer(Businessman) or an organization(Corporate). The “high-technology” dimension comes only as an extra layer (better speeds and newer applications) that is added to a product, which is actually defined by its tangible or service aspect and the nature of its consumer or industrial market.
As a consequence, the marketing of high-technology telecom products is no more than a subset of marketing consumer goods (cell phones); of industrial marketing (networking hardware); or of services marketing (Selling talk time), whichever the case may be .
First, technology generally has a tendency to worry many customers—some are intimidated by the task of learning how to use a high-tech product (IPTV), some are risk-averse to any novelty, and others are afraid that the current technology available will become obsolete quickly; all are always postponing their decision.What is true for consumers is also true for organizations. Many managers fret about innovative solutions and use various strategies to reduce risks in purchasing high-technology products. They try to assess the balance on the risk/return relationship of such investment much more than considering the novelty of a technology. The role of marketing is to educate consumers to innovation, to make them more comfortable with technology and to help them to figure out precisely the return on their investment.
Second, the short product life cycle requires efficient time management (development of schedules, marketing time limits). Today, the average life cycle of a personal computer, a mobile phone, and many consumer electronics, is under 1 year while the number of models are increasing dramatically. In a way the consumer high-tech business is similar to the fashion business, where more than 90% of models change every 6 months. Consequently operational excellence and agility becomes a priority, not only in development and manufacturing, but also in marketing. Missing a sale means dropping a contribution margin from 25% to 30% of the producer’s sale price in the mobile phones industry.
Industrial products in the telecommunication sector don’t necessarily have a short-term life cycle. If a company is investing 30000crore in developing the infrastructure to set up a telecommunication company he cannot change the technology on which he is operationg until and an unless he has break even.
Third, product innovation requires direct cooperation between research and development and other services. Numerous studies by academics and practitioners have explored the R&D-marketing interface and its role in the new product development (NPD) process. Their main conclusion is that the integration of R&D and marketing have a significant impact on the success or failure of NPD projects, both at the project and the company levels. In case of LMDS and UBR, R&D needs to collaborate with the marketing and servicing efforts because every customer(corporate) has different needs and wants. But this close collaboration is not limited to the development of new products. It is also of primary importance in all the different stages of product management, from the launch to its exit from the market, as well as in the management of the different components of operational marketing. Actually, some academics and practitioners believe that the most important driver of a high-tech firm’s performance is the interaction of marketing and R&D capabilities.
Interestingly, one has to notice, that the marketing of high tech products crosses the boundaries of B2B and B2C. Some people tend to believe that the marketing of technology is essentially important for market organizations. The truth is that technology is penetrating the consumer markets extremely rapidly, as well, mostly through the adoption of information technologies, such as the personal computer, the cellular phone, and the Internet. This is also apparent in the strategic moves of the largest high-tech firms. Companies such as HP, IBM, Microsoft, and Nokia are marketing solutions both for business customers and consumers. Some B2B companies have managed to enter the consumer market very successfully, like ZTE who is the leading manufacturer of DWDM systems, which is today the leading low cost producer of cell phone handset.
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