Marketing high-tech products: the emerging themes

Although the marketing of high technology has attracted a number of writers over the 1980s and 1990s, there is, as yet, no shared agreement as to the critical issues marketing managers must address to be successful in this area. Based on observation and experience, suggests a framework of six emerging themes which regularly appear when examining marketing in the high-technology arena and which are closely - related to the key characteristics of high-tech products. Each of the themes identified has implications for the marketing task facing marketing managers of high-tech products - they reinforce the need to address both internal and external marketing issues and the importance of further research to develop paradigms appropriate to successful commercial activities in high-technology industries. Includes the "softer" problems of technology seduction and the usefulness of concepts such as the technology life cycle, and also covers the need to focus on credibility, standards, positioning and infrastructure, all of which impact on the way marketing managers will orchestrate the marketing mix. The themes in no way replace standard marketing approaches, but do provide a background for the formulation of marketing strategy and a basis for further development in this area.