European Microelectronics
Philosophy ... and (better) marketing?
First of all: A happy New Year to all of you!
The title of the editorial seems conflicting.
But in a way there might be a connection — please judge yourselves.
I am a Dane coming from one of the highest taxed societies in the world. The direct tax paid by Danish readers of this magazine is close to 65% of their gross income. If we buy a car we pay 3 times the price ab factory (I know this is hard to believe, but trust me!).
Furthermore the days become dark and short from November, and it starts to be cold with snow and sleet - taking on from January through March. End of April beginning of May we start seeing the light and can live a normal life for another short time — until the next cyclus starts. No wonder many Danes have a tendency to focus only on the negative things and confirm daily themselves and their neighbours that Murphy was an optimist.
Has this at all anything to do with your daily life? Not much so far - I hope.
We all look for job security and we are scared when the economy goes down for unjust and unfair reasons. We fear outsourcing and its consequences when fixed costs (our salaries) are transferred to variable costs (no salaries when new orders are delayed). Even in R&D we fear the fast decisions of the young, ambitious new managing director with a salary well linked to the results of the company. He can often be tempted to skip the long term research and therefore wants to get rid of the costs of R&D by reducing it or outsourcing it, in order to quickly come up with nice results (in the first few years). He is smart enough to know when it is time leave the company without a future to a new company that needs to be “rescued.”
But all this really becomes less important when you realise how instant catastrophes may affect your life. We all have a tendency to feel invulnerable and being totally convinced that bad luck only happens to your neighbour and we speak about if we die instead of when. But when we see friends and relatives falling away, and we look around and discover we have kids, family, friends, wife/man or girl/boy-friend — and we start thinking about how we would react when something bad happens to these guys — then all of a sudden the job security becomes secondary.
But what is true in this, is that you have to live when you can —and not just save money to an uncertain future, while life passes by. A Danish multiartist, Piet Hein, with the alias Kumbel, has expressed this very clearly: “Love while you’ve got love to give. Live while you’ve got life to live.”
We all know that females have a certain gift to overcome personal troubles in shoes and/or bags and/or clothes and/or jewelry. No, of course I am not generalising in any way....
As I said earlier, I cannot buy myself the latest car with ABS, ESP, FIS, GPS, PDC, TCS, VDC, etc., when I want — due to the Danish penalty on guys supporting this business, but I can at least buy myself a new mobile phone when I have to.
We hear daily how bad this consumer business is. But think about it, for the price of one or two nights at a good U.S. or European hotel, you can actually buy yourself into new technology. And trust me, it is a good feeling to get the latest in performance and least weight!
I purchased, before I went to the IMAPS-US conference in October, a phone with Bluetooth for wireless connection to my laptop and with 3-bands, so I could use it while being in U.S. On top of this I could please one of my kids with my 1 year “old” nice, but now used phone, and besides I knew that now I also have helped one mobile phone OEM, a subcontractor, a PCB manufacturer and a component manufacturer — and in the end myself.
Think about it! By pleasing yourself, you help others and then in the end indirectly yourself!
And then you get the surplus to look further than the end of your nose.
But why talk about marketing?
I realised after having bought my phone that it had a feature I always have wanted - the possibility to record messages either from current calls or for memos. But this feature is not with one word mentioned in the technical sales material of this phone.
We are talking about a nice technical, smart phone manufacturer with well-known severe problems facing the competition - yes of course — what do they expect, leaving out sales arguments that might have appeal — even for technologists?
My son came back from a trip to the UK with a nice Japanese phone with easy pushbutton memo recording and even a loudspeaker function, so you do not have to train your biceps or to plug in the earplug to listen to your messages.
So others have seen the light!
But here we have seen an example of the lack of marketing from a world leader in mobile phones with a big and well-paid marketing department. Better marketing is needed to attract more customers.
Also IMAPS must continuously focus on marketing and realise the importance of pleasing our exhibitors to make them interested in coming to our shows. And not just relying on that they probably will do this to serve their own needs — whether we ease their way or not. We have to offer added value and keep making our conferences the best magnet for delegates.
So please, dear readers, get going and start doing some spending — I can guarantee that this, in the end, will be your best insurance to keep up your job in this exciting but turbulent world.
Søren Nørlyng
noerlyng@micronsult.dk
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