Turning new technologies into must-haves

Turning new technologies into must-haves How marketing can build demand for cutting-edge tech By Sarah Brown

The history of technology is full of ideas or inventions that were initially dismissed as unworkable until finally their viability became so clear it seemed silly to have doubted them in the first place.

“Well-informed people know it is impossible to transmit the voice over wires and that were it possible to do so, the thing would be of no practical value.” Editorial in the Boston Post, 1865

“Heavier than air flying machines are impossible.” Lord Kelvin, pioneer in thermodynamics and electricity, 1895

“Man will never reach the moon, regardless of all scientific advances.” Lee DeForest, inventor of the vacuum tube, 1957

The difficult reality is that the more innovative the technology, the more it departs from traditional ways of doing things, then the more people may distrust it. Technologies can fall into a chicken and egg trap in which the technology cannot prove it works if people won’t try it, and people won’t try it until they believe it works.

How can technologies break out of this vicious cycle of distrust and prove their viability? To reference Moore’s model of technology diffusion, how do some technologies gain adoption not just by those rare souls willing to take a risk on cutting-edge tech but, rather, by the prudent majority who will invest in only proven technology? (Moore calls this ‘crossing the chasm.’)

We’ve developed a model that maps each step in the journey to winning the market’s confidence in your tech product and, ultimately, achieving broad adoption. We map the technologies potential, the level to which it can disrupt markets and create competitive advantage, against the confidence the audience has in it being sucessfuly deployed.

The Bright Blue Day Model of Technology Adoption Siren Songs Stars High Potential Strategy: Build trust Strategy: Broaden use Technology offers fundamental improvement to customers’ IT or Cloud Server virtualisation delivers competitive advantage Software as a Service Video conferencing Low Potential Dogs Cash Cows While beneficial or even critical, Strategy: Dump Strategy: Milk technology does little to Virtual Reality Barcodes fundamentally transform IT or offer Wi-Fi competitive advantage Low Confidence High Confidence Target audience is confident that the Target audience lacks confidence that the technology can be successfully deployed technology can be successfully deployed

Marketers tasked with building demand for a Siren Song A common mistake in marketing Siren Songs is to shout should focus on convincing the target audience that about the technology’s benefits without offering proof that the technology will deliver what it promises. We call this the technology works. Unfortunately for the marketers of ‘crossing the trust gap’. Only by first crossing the trust gap Siren Songs, buyers willing to take a chance on a new and can a technology gain widespread adoption. unproven technology are a minority. A technology must prove its viability before it can hope to attain broad usage. Siren Songs Stars Unless a technology crosses the ‘trust gap’, it will not achieve broad adoption High Potential Start Crossing the trust gap Technology is proven Audience gains confidence Te c hn Cr os gai ol og si ng y th bro e ns us ad ag e ga p ad op tio Low Potential n Dogs Cash Cows Low Confidence High Confidence

What can you do to help your technology cross the trust gap? Here are 4 strategies: Strategy Tactics Examples Could this work for you? Prove success • Understand the audience’s objections and concerns • At HP’s Meet the Experts sessions, prospects can • Is it possible to prove the success of the product with • Prove the technology’s viability in ways the speak directly to technical experts about products’ concrete examples? audience will find convincing such as references, viability • Can you lead a frank discussion of the applicability demonstrations, or independent reviews • Microsoft’s I Hate CRM campaign directly of your technology? Can you provide a framework • There are few marketing tools so powerful as a case acknowledged the audience’s frustrations with CRM for helping prospects decide if the technology is study that closely matches a prospect’s situation. Build – and showed how Microsoft’s CRM addresses these appropriate for their situation? a library of case studies segmented by industry and issues issue Encourage trial • Bundle the product with others, give it away free, • Microsoft sponsored a competition for the best work • Does trialling your product tend to breed confidence or or incentivise use using its new web design suite create habitual use? • Make it as easy as possible for the audience to try your • Many online services such as Spotify offer free basic • What would it take to get the audience to try your product; for example, go where the audience is versions of their product and encourage upgrade product? How can you make trial possible in practical • Many software companies bundle new products with terms? established products Lead the debate • Have a voice on the issues your technology addresses. • IBM publicises the results of its C-suite surveys, giving • How could your company provide insight or new Be a thought leader through white papers, seminars, IBM voice and visibility in discussions of myriad IT perspectives on the issues IT audiences care about – PR, etc. issues and that your technology addresses? • Understand the importance of word of mouth. Know • Nortel coined the concept of ‘hyperconnectivity’ what’s being said about you and make sure you are to seize the initiative in debates about unified part of the conversation communications • Find the ‘mavens’, the respected authorities who lead opinion, and partner with them Provide a • Let the audience freely explore how your technology • EMC’s Solution Centres enable visitors to design and • Could testing your product allay people’s concerns or safe place to works and how it might help them test any architecture without risk help them understand its benefits? experiment • Enable the audience to decide for themselves about • Chevron’s Energyville site lets users experiment with • How can you make this possible? your technology’s pros and cons cutting-edge energy technologies

Turning new technologies into must-haves

by Bright Blue Day on Oct 07, 2010

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

Statistics

Turning new technologies into must-haves — Presentation Transcript