High-Tech Marketing is Different from Consumer Marketing

While high-technology products can benefit from consumer marketing techniques, applying those techniques alone is insufficient and often leads to failure. The nature of the product, the customer, and the purchase decision in high-tech creates a fundamentally different marketing environment.

Key Differences:

Factor	Consumer Marketing	High-Tech Marketing
Primary Goal	Create end-user "pull" through advertising and packaging.	Build trust and manage a complex, long-term relationship.
Purchase Decision	Low-risk, often an impulse buy.	High-risk, involving large sums of money and long evaluation cycles.
Key Marketing Costs	Advertising, promotions, packaging (often >10% of sales).	Direct sales, service, customer education, documentation (often >20% of sales).
Role of Advertising	Can directly drive sales.	Raises awareness and creates a desire to learn more; it cannot close the sale.
Most Important Factors	Brand awareness, packaging, display, price.	Supplier reputation, service, support, references, trust.
Product Complexity	Low. Instructions are minimal or non-existent.	High. The product is useless without extensive documentation, training, and support.

The core of high-tech marketing is not about creating a clever ad campaign; it's about building a complete product and a relationship of trust that assures the customer of success over the long term. The cost of the product is increasingly dominated by these marketing and support functions, not manufacturing.