Many years ago, when I was a 1st-year rookie marketer at Altera Inc. (now Intel’s FPGA & Programmable Division), I was assigned to visit a few customers to build relationship and to get exposure of real-world customer engagement process. I was super excited about the assignment, since it will be the first time I’d represent the company to talk to customers.
Before the trip, I needed to rehearse my marketing presentation in front of the director of marketing, to get a stamp of approval. I was eager to show off my presentation skills and I practiced again and again, until I also became fluent in describing the state-of-art technologies in our portfolio. However, at the end of my dry-run, the director frowned and gave me the feedback: “You are not doing marketing, Winnie. You are only teaching.”
It was a memorable feedback at the early stage of the marketing career.
Marketing communication is not the same as describing technical details.
Over the years, when working with high-tech industry, I also noticed many engineering-driven organizations tend to focus on describing technical details, but forget to elaborate the unique value proposition, as well as the compelling reasons why customers should choose you instead of competitor’s offering. Although product training and technical specifications are important elements of the ‘solutions’, they are not sufficient to drive buying decisions without the aid of effective marketing communication.
Next time when you are developing marketing materials, keep in mind the goal of effective marketing communication is to build recognition of your brand, and to persuade your target audiences to set the preferences to purchase your products.
Zenova Technology 