In this article, we will also deal with the notion of
project, which is key to the Marketing of ICT products and services.
Should we in fact talk about ‘Marketing Projects’ or ‘Project
Marketing’ rather? In particular, we will address the question
as to whether ICT Marketing Managers have to master certain
special skills that others don’t, in order to market ICT products
or services?
As a conclusion for this foreword, Marketing is extremely
complex and such complexity should not be hidden; on the contrary
we believe that this complexity deserves to be analysed in a
very straightforward fashion. Moreover, such a level of complexity
will force us to resort to very simple tools in order to reduce
complexity and master it. What it also teaches us is that generalities
about any marketing object should be handled with utmost care.
All the potential targets (B2B, B2C, etc.) are different and
require relevant approaches, tailored to the needs of each of
them. This reminds us too that Marketing is not a science;
it is a mere means of approaching buyer behaviour, but even
that is far from being meaningless. Yet, such behaviours are
elusive and so is the knowledge attached to them.
Let us try now to focus on a few tips and tricks, which I have
found useful to improve my grasp of ICT Marketing. I will base
my demonstration upon real-life examples and a few simple methodologies,
which can be directly applied to field-action.
The Amazing
Complexity of ICT Marketing
Above all, the most amazing characteristic of ICT Marketing
is its enormous level of complexity. Whereas consumer marketing
is accessible to almost anyone, ICT marketeers revel in using
far-fetched, highly technical acronyms, which may render this
discipline a little off-putting to Joe Public. But this is not
all. ICT Marketing doesn’t just sound complex; it really is
so.
Figure
5 :
Mobility, or the archetypal complex Marketing project, according
to Unisys’ Marc Fesler
I have borrowed a slide from UNISYS in
order to illustrate the extremely high level of complexity surrounding
the making of a mobility solution. Indeed when it comes to ICT
Marketing – and mainly IT or Telecommunications related ICT
Marketing – understanding the gist of those highly technical
subjects is more than just necessary. First of all, ICT marketeers
have to be able to understand technical subjects in general,
that is to say not just the vocabulary but the very concepts
that these technologies underpin. That level of functional understanding
is crucial in order to enable ICT marketeers to project themselves
into the future and deduce from such technologies what uses
can be derived. Such projections will enable our ICT marketeers
to find new ideas. However important the understanding of the
technical background of ICT products may be, one must in no
way lose sight of the proper aim of ICT Marketing. As it were,
Marketing is only a means to an end. In fact, the more one delves
into technical details, the higher the risk to lose sight of
functional aspects and clients. Hence the requirement for ICT
marketeers to be able to tell the difference between functional
and technical knowledge. There are cases where marketeers succeed
while failing to understand the basic concepts governing their
offerings; although such cases are rare.
ICT marketeers have to be some sort of two-headed beasts in
so far as they need to be au fait regarding the technological
background of their products/services and regarding marketing
management per se. They may be marketeers attracted by technological
subjects or engineers attracted by marketing. As a matter of
fact, it does not really matter who they are; only their ability
to deliver is the key driver to ICT marketing success. Last
but not least, ICT marketeers have to be very competent in terms
of high-level project management.
Very often, ICT marketeers are meant to supervise a number
of project managers – otherwise known as product managers in
certain cases – and they will have to lead the team in terms
of functional design and requirements. ICT marketeers will then
have to direct the course of ICT marketing projects by laying
the emphasis on potential customers’ drivers and inhibitors;
at first, they will have to put themselves in the shoes of their
potential users and buyers (prior to the launch) and subsequently,
they will have to echo their clients’ and users’ feedback in
order to drive their projects and steer clear of abstraction.
This is a tough job, but it is also really exciting because
it is really varied and because its sheer complexity is utmost
stimulating. Such a multiplicity of skills required from ICT
marketeers may actually prove useful for ICT marketeers to solve
conflicts between teams, i.e. sales persons, engineers and marketeers
themselves. Above all, ICT marketeers are managers not only
of their own teams but of all the resources involved in their
projects, regardless of organisational charts. Feeling at ease
with horizontal or even orbital management across the organisation
and even with contractors is a key success factor.
