Marketing Mix: Product / Service Guide #3

Technology and innovation are neither product nor brand benefits.

Note:  This guide could have been contained in the list of guides on brand positioning or in the upcoming group of guides on marketing communications or in the product / service portion of this blog.  For no particular reason, I’ve elected to include it in the product / service section.

In my work with the Kotler Marketing Group, I’ve consulted to a few companies in “high tech” product categories.  Whenever I mention this marketing guide, there is an audible gasp in the room.  This is a marketing guide that many companies, especially those companies in high technology product categories, violate regularly.  Such companies are proud to see themselves as innovators.  They may even have incorporated their pursuit of innovation in a corporate mission statement, and the quest for technological innovation may be deeply rooted in their corporate culture. 

That may be who these companies are, but don’t believe that’s why people buy their brands.  People buy their brands to get the brands’ unique brand benefit that fulfills their want/need.  Remember from this blog’s discussion of brand positioning that the unique brand benefit in consumer goods categories satisfies some internal want/need within the consumer, and in business-to-business categories the unique brand benefit satisfies the economic needs of the business.

It is true that some product categories have small market niches composed of customers who want the latest technology; for example, there are audiophiles, computer geeks, and automotive enthusiasts.  The benefit that these consumers are seeking is probably some type of ego gratification from having the latest technology available. 

Early in my marketing career in the tire category, my co-workers spoke about the “enthusiast” in the performance tire category.  They would say that the enthusiast was more receptive to marketing communications messaging for performance tires because they were interested in tires.  Later in my career, I was sitting in a meeting at Grey Advertising in New York, and the Creative Director on the account said, “There’s no such thing as a tire enthusiast; or if there is, they work for tire companies.  The enthusiasts that are so often referenced in your thinking are not tire enthusiasts, they are automotive enthusiasts.”  The lesson here is that if there is an enthusiast segment within your product category, be sure that the members of that segment are enthusiasts of your product category and not some allied product category.

So what is the role of technology in your marketing efforts?  Some technologies and technical features may serve as benefit supports.  Returning to the tire category as an example, in the business-to-business truck tire category, Michelin has the technology to produce a single tire that will carry the load formerly carried by dual tires.  The weight of this tire and its wheel is less than the weight of two tires and two wheels.  This means that in some trucking applications such as bulk hauling, the operator will be able to carry more cargo.  By carrying more cargo, the operator will increase revenue which speaks directly to the economic motivation of business- to-business customers.