Synopsis

 

Your customer is interested in the benefits from the technology – not technology by itself. Customers need business benefits. They buy technology benefits not features.

 

The above is simple and well known – but how often does our technical team (product, R&D, technology development engineers etc.) consider this while developing a new product or technology to sell?

 

This course aims to provide an opportunity for your technical professionals to acquire an insight into the market dynamics prevalent in the hi-tech industry, categorization of technology/product adopters, factors affecting their purchase decisions, modes of market research from a technical perspective and aligning your innovations and technology roadmap with the customers’ requirements. All this is done with specific focus to the semiconductor industry.

 

Even till date, most of the semiconductor world has been split into 2 main forces - the Technical people and the Marketing people.  Technical Marketing is a specific and niche area which taps on the synergy of both sets of these expertises in order to achieve a project success and customer win.

 

Semiconductor market has its own set of specifics & uncertainties which need to be addressed.  While marketing is a continuous process in a product life cycle, one can broadly split it into 2 phases – the first phase in which marketing is needed to help define the product/R&D/technology road map (also called in-bound marketing in some organizations) and second phase where it helps push the product out to the market (also called out-bound marketing). The first phase is quite often neglected resulting into heavy losses not just in terms of market share but also in terms of the invaluable man efforts put into developing a new but market inappropriate technology/product. While this course targets to provide valuable insight into both these aspects, special emphasis is provided on inbound marketing – an area where engineers with a technical background can especially value-add if they are equipped with the right kinds of marketing skill sets as needed in a semiconductor industry for this job function.

 

This course will enable your Technical Marketing engineer to understand the basics involved and effectively work within the team & with the customer to provide and help develop the optimal R&D road map and also facilitate marketing the final product for project win and success.

 

The course is structured into modules.  Interactive workshops within the course facilitate in making this an interesting and interactive learning experience. Participants will be exposed to issues cited from real semiconductor industry experience.  This course will be delivered by a senior VLSI consultant with extensive exposure in technical marketing and managing of microelectronics projects on a global scale.

Who Should Attend

-        Technical Marketing engineers (fresh or with a couple of years’ experience)

-        R&D, Chip and IP design, Technology development Engineers

-        Customer support engineers

 

What You Will Learn

-        How to define the Product/R&D/Technology roadmap - Aligning your offering with the customers’ requirements

-        Basic concepts of marketing

-        Some underlying concepts of hi-tech market and customers

-        Marketing research in hi-tech markets

-        QFD (identifying customer requirements and mapping them onto product design process or R&D roadmap)

-        Categories of Adopters (both with respect to a product as well as to adopting a new technology)

-        Using a platform and Derivative Strategy (what is it and why to use it)

-        Technology Paradox and some solutions

-        Tips on effective communication

-        Effectively support the Sales & Marketing professionals push the product/IP/technology out to the market

Who Should Attend

-        Technical Marketing engineers (fresh or with a couple of years experience)

-        R&D, Chip and IP design, Technology development Engineers

-        Customer Support Engineers, Business Development Engineers in the semiconductor industry

Prerequisite

Basic engineering know how.  2 – 3 years of working experience in the semiconductor industry is preferred.

Course Methodology

 

This course is conducted in a seminar room.  The course will include brief interactive workshops like sessions to encourage participation and facilitate learning. Each participant will receive a hand-out of course material. There are no lab sessions.

Course Duration

2 days (9am – 5.00 pm)

Course Instructor

 

Ms. Meenu Sarin is a microelectronics professional with over 21 years’ experience in the microelectronics industry across various facets of operations & across geographies like Europe, India, Singapore, Greater China and Australia and with special focus in the semi-custom ASIC environment. She has registered her company, VLSI Consultancy, in Singapore from where she consults offering techno-commercial services to the semiconductor industry. She has conducted in-house training courses and public workshops in various countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and India besides delivering talks in universities. She is also a founding member and an Executive Board Member of the Singapore Semiconductor Industry Association (www.ssia.org.sg)

 

From 1997-2002, Meenu was a Technical Marketing Manager in STMicroelectronics (STM)/Singapore with focus on Telecom segment. In this role, she was responsible for Business Development and Program Management for STM’s semicustom ASIC projects in Asia Pacific. Meenu also worked as a Program Manager in charge of managing various semi-custom projects with customers in the Asia-Pacific Region.  Before her move to STM Singapore, Meenu worked at STM India from 1991 to 1997.  As a Design Manager for Library Design Group, she was responsible for growing and managing a 30 member strong team involved in design and development of semi-custom digital libraries in various technologies across different platforms as per the market requirements and to support designers in STM’s worldwide locations.  Prior to this, Meenu had been a Design Engineer for digital library design and development at STM Italy for several years after she received her engineering degree (Computer Engineering) from Delhi Institute of Technology, India in 1988.

 

 

 

 

Course Structure

 

1. What is Marketing  

 

i.                 Some truths and myths

ii.                P’s of marketing

iii.               Components of Profit – market share, market size, percentage margin

iv.               Why do people buy

v.                Competition

·             Analysis

·             Sources of information

vi.               Determining the market price, price-volume relationship

vii.             Achieving profitable innovation

·             Options for biz development

(Penetration, development of new services, market development, diversification)

·             Role of marketing in innovation

viii.            Managing the future

·             Planning process

·             Models and techniques – SWOT, Growth Share Matrix

 

 

2. Introduction to High Technology

 

i.                 Uncertainties (Market, Technology and Competitive) and their sources

ii.                Framework for making hi-tech marketing decisions

iii.               Market Pioneering advantages and risks – the early adopters and the laggards

iv.               Market orientation in hi-tech markets

·        What does it need

·        Barriers

v.                Market Research in hi-tech markets

·        Aligning market research with the type of innovations

·        Research techniques (empathic and lead user)

vi.               Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and Kano Diagram

 

 

3. Understanding Hi-Tech customers

 

i.            Factors affecting customer purchase decisions

ii.           Categories of Adopters (Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority and

           Laggards) & crossing the chasm; for both a new product as well as adopting a new

           technology (with example reference of Moore’s Law)

iii.          Customer Visit Programs

iv.          Product Development and Management issues in hi-tech markets

·        Development of a technology map

·        What-to-sell decision (know-how, proof-of-concept, final product)

·        Product vs. Services

·        Product platforms and Derivatives – why use this strategy?

v.           Pricing considerations in hi-tech markets

·        Considerations

·        Technology paradox – what is it and some solutions

 

4. Technical Marketing - How do we communicate and sell

 

i.                 Selling the next step

ii.                Role of different methods of communication

iii.               How do we sell

 

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