The Most Important Product Feature

Too, too funny Moe! Thanks so much for sharing.

Interesting discussion, thank you all. Check out the following video, which shows a tongue-in-cheek (but with a strong ring of truth) treatment for how Microsoft might have designed the box for the original iPod. (EDN blog comments try to resist URLs so you will have to paste into browser: tinyurl.com/o4lym)

Maybe I was a bit jaded in my comments, so I have to agree with Steve and his comments back to me. However, lets look at a pure definition of strategic marketing, as given by Bert C. McCammon, Jr of Management Horizons (yep, I have been a marketing manager in my day): "The task of [marketing] is to develop a long run, time phased plan that will produce an attractive growth rate and a high rate of return by achieving a market position so advantageous that competitors can retaliate only over an extended period of time at a prohibitive cost."

Wow. English is full of synonyms, but "marketing", "advertising", and "sales" aren''t three of them. Nor does participation in any one of these activities necessarily require one to check their morals/values at the door. OK, well, two out of three isn''t bad (notice the sales and advertising folks pointing their fingers at each other :-)). Taking a decent marketing class would go a long way towards clarifying (and perhaps even appreciating) what''s necessary for getting the whole job done in our very, very non-ideal world. From what I''m seeing, it would be time well spent, even if only to get the nomenclature down. Going a little farther, one might also learn that any or all of "engineering", "marketing", "advertising" and "sales" (and "finance", "legal" and...) can manifest themselves as The Root of All Evil. I might even go so far as to say that a good marketing person has the best view of the landscape as anyone else. Now I''m not saying that you''re not going to completely rid yourself of the urge to shower after dealing with some of these "other" folks ( (sales) ). But you might appreciate that all are necessary to some extent to make a living from whatever sausage that you''re making.

Lisa Hamaker: I like your sentiments but feel the need to correct your history. Intel's was the first commercially available single-chip microprocessor. It was the 4004. Intel did indeed put a lot of marketing support behind its processors, but it wasn't until Intel's third try, with the 8080, that the microprocessor became good enough to become widely successful. Even then, Zilog's Z80, which closely followed the 8080, had far better features and greatly outsold the 8080 due to its superior technical features. The same guy, Federico Faggin, designed both processors. Intel's processors ceased to be "the standard" until IBM adopted the 8088 for the IBM PC. Now there, indeed, you'll find a lot of marketing involvement. Also, in my opinion, VHS didn't beat Beta because of support or marketing. It won because it could record two hours of video on one tape cassette, thus capturing an entire full-length movie on one tape when Beta could not. In this case, "technically better" didn't mean "better image" to the buying public. "Better" meant a recording time that was long enough for the major application. The picture only needed to be good enough. By the time Sony's Beta achieved a 2-hour recording time, the window to the market had closed.

Mark Moore: If you're limiting marketing to the jingle or box, then you have a woefully shriveled view of marketing. Whether it's engineering or marketing doing the work, defining a product so that it matches a prospect's needs very well is a marketing function. At HP in the 1970s, the engineers tended to conduct next-bench market research. If the guy (it was always a guy back then) in the next cube liked a feature, it went in. That approach works fine if your target market is other engineers. If it's picture frame buyers, I defy you to point out the engineer that will recommend silkscreening Anne Geddes images on a product. I defy you to show me three engineers who can pick colors (I can't). Just writing "jingle or box" underscores the problem engineers have with marketing.

As another engineer who transitioned to marketing, I like this conversation. Mark - you say that you never bought a product because of a jingle or box. Would you buy a part that had a better data sheet or application note that enabled you to implement your design more quickly, or in a higher quality manner? In the companies I have worked in, that comes from the marketing group. As well as the definition of useful products as mentioned by the others here. Do you know why Intel processors are the "standard?" Because Intel was the first company to write an app note that showed EEs how to use this strange new product called a microprocessor. There were other microprocessors availabie, but the Intel one took off because of the support the provided to ensure implementation. The VHS tape standard won over Beta for similar reasons. You might be interested in a classic technical marketing manual called "Marketing High Technology" by William Davidow - past president of Intel. I do agree that a book about marketing and engineering working well together is a great idea. I can tell you that the companies where there is mutual respect between these departements are more successful.

True engineering engineers don't like marketing, they tend to think of it as BS. Samo for sales and salesmen for that matter. If one teaches marketing for engineers one takes a risk of having a rather small class. Marketing is for people with the personality that can do marketing, you know, like listening, thinking, deriving and of course being creative within the realm of communications. Every product needs to have good marketing to be successful, just like it needs a good engineer, maybe the better book would be "How (or why) Marketing and Engineering should work together." As for marketing being part of the value of a product, nah not so. I can't think of a product that I ever thought was more valuable because of the jingle or box. Value is part of Brand, and some people actually think Brand ads value, maybe so, if you believe the marketing...

Moe: I agree that a Geddes photo frame doesn't attract me. But it's no stretch at all to see that it's a big product differentiator for a certain part of the target market. And, as you know, I too am an EE who now works in marketing and occasionally solders and writes code.

Hi Moe: Engineers who think the iPod does nothing more than other MP3 players ignore the value of Apple's iTunes software and store. Without those, the iPods truly are just another bunch of music players. With them, the customer gets an end-to-end music "solution" (I hate that word because it's so overused, it often means very little). I doubt that Apple's engineering department came up with the iTunes software and store concept unaided. Engineering certainly didn't get the iTunes contracts from the music publishers. There's great marketing involved there, guaranteed. Most of the engineers I know who appreciate marketing either worked in marketing for a while, became managers that had to work with and therefore learned about marketing's value, or started their own companies and subsequently discovered that engineering without marketing is a non starter. Better mousetraps do not magically attract mice by themselves. There's always a bit of cheese involved. So no, I've not seen a "marketing for engineers" book or article I can recommend.

Desert Rat, I do have to comment on "The objective of marketing is to convince us we must buy something we do not need." That is sometimes true but the good marketers know that's a short-term win, at best! The goal of marketing is to 1) Understand the customers and help product definition and design so that the product meets their needs; 2) Once the product is ready, assist in how it is described and sold so it sells to the right people, through the right channels. In the end, the idea is not to sell people something they do not want, but rather to help them buy what they want such that they are happy with it. Personally, "Geddes branding" would not enhance my satisfaction of a digital frame; but if Westinghouse's marketers are doing their job, they have determined that there is a market that will like this. That's my two cents (and for what it's worth, I am a marketer but with a EE degree).

Has anyone written "Marketing for Engineers"? I keep thinking I should. This is a great topic, Steve, and so appropriate for engineers to consider. Marketing has to be part of what we do. I have had a longstanding discussion with an engineer who is frustrated to see the iPod's success, given that there are others that do the "same" thing for less. Truth is, marketing is part of the VALUE of a product, part of its appeal to customers, and we overlook it at our peril.

desert rat: Unfortunately, you are correct but only about some marketing. There are marketers who properly analyze a market and determine real needs, create specs for products that meet those needs, and then satisfy those needs making their companies successful at the same time. There are other marketers who try to generate need by trying to make their products look "cool" or "in" or "dope" or whatever the current in-vogue word is. Those are the guys you are fed up with, in my opinion. Lumping all marketers in one evil basket is no more accurate or fair than lumping all engineers or all managers in one basket.

The objective of marketing is to convince us we must buy something we do not need. I am fed up to here with "marketing", not just Geddes.....

Mega dittos to Paul Leroux.

The proof of the marketing pudding is in the eating. Thus, it would be interesting to do a follow-up and see whether this digital frame enjoyed healthy sales. I, for one, have had it up to here with Anne Geddes' images. She's a very good artist -- I wouldn't mind having her talent -- but she's been doing these surreal baby photos for what, 25 years now? But then again, I obviously don't fit into Westinghouse's target demographic. In any case, your point is well taken. Though I would argue that, in the consumer device market, even cool features won't sell product on their own -- the marketing department has to do its work and create demand by appealing to consumers' desire to look cool, impress neighbors, feel socially superior, etc.