Engineering marketing solutions

In the previous blog - 17th September - reference was made to the difference between sales and marketing personalities, with marketing described as far more to do with planning for the future, with strategy to keep ahead of fast moving trends, the routes to market, and the means of promotion and delivery that provide the essential environment in which selling can be successful. Consider now another dimension, that of introducing an engineering approach to marketing. Engineering brings discipline to marketing, a discipline much needed in controlling the flights of fancy of the creative media types in getting the i's dotted and t's crossed, keeping feet firmly on the ground and keeping sight of the purpose of marketing a product - not in winning design awards. And if bringing engineering into marketing might seem a strange notion, unless marketing is properly controlled and brought in on budget then it will be a disaster. Engineering projects are as much about planning, adherence to schedules and budgets as they are about technology. In fact engineers are increasingly being employed in some surprising areas including many types of management consulting and in the financial sector. 

 IET magazine recently ran a piece entitled 'Engineers in the City' which included the following extract.

" During the past two decades an increasing number of mathematicians, physicists and engineers have switched to work at investment banks and hedge funds, lured by the boom in financial engineering and quantitative finance. Talented engineers found they could make more money on Wall Street or in the City than in academia or industrial research. ... the new breed is called 'quants'. Perhaps the jewel in the quants' crown is the Black-Scholes theory.  ... a formula for valuing options in terms of underlying security and cash. It quickly became used by all option traders and revolutionised finance".

Technical marketing brings the same engineering methodology and thinking to marketing - introducing staffing structures, building the team, setting objectives through the marketing plan, formalising budgets, introducing financial controls, defining schedules and setting specifications for creative projects. Too often companies launch into building a web site, designing a brochure, booking an exhibition stand or commissioning an advertisement without first deciding on what they need to achieve. Design led agencies naturally play to their strengths - a flare for creative designs - and wow clients with exciting images. Arguably engineering marketing, or as we call it technical marketing, lacks some of that wow factor, but what we have discovered is that clients recognise the benefits that our approach can bring to the bottom line. We supply the rationale. And with the increasing importance of the Internet in marketing, a technical competence and comprehension of what works online too.  Of course there is a need for professional creativity, but it requires purpose and direction - in short planning, organisation, discipline and control. So engineering marketing solutions works - our clients testify to that.