When your products or services are technology-based, there can regularly be the desire to try and somehow make them more reachable to your customer base, give the idea that doing so will make them want to purchase your latest.
product more than they otherwise might; however, taking the mystique out of your latest gadget could be a step in the wrong direction.
Even to people who have grown up using them, many modern devices are bordering on witchcraft: tablets you can interact with simply by touching their screen, internet connections that require no wires, and increasingly accurate voice-recognition systems that can talk back to you.
When you take the magic out of these systems (which we all know are scientifically based really), you remove a potential source of perceived value for many of your would-be customers, and could see your sales take a hit as a result.
Think of some of the big-brand technology marketing you’ve seen on TV or online in the past few years; how often have those advertisements really told you how the device works? How many times have you seen a smartphone, for example, broken down on screen to reveal its touchscreen sensor, its GPS receiver, or its accelerometer?
All of these components are part of the overall experience of using the thing, but each in its own right does not need to be fully understood by the consumer; if they knew what each component was, how it is created, and how it is interfaced into the device as a whole, they wouldn’t need to buy your product, as they could build it from scratch.
You might think that assuming your customers don’t need to know about the technology behind your products is tantamount to patronising them; however, it could be equally offensive to some if you choose to detail the minutiae of your designs, not to mention the handout that would represent for your competitors in terms of matching your technology in their own products.
So, the better option is to gloss over the fine detail and focus on the overall benefits delivered by the device to its user base, the features that cannot be matched by any other device, and the unparalleled convenience that these bring to its lucky owner.
In this sense, you are not depriving any of your customers of knowledge – the technically minded among them can no doubt find a teardown analysis of your product online somewhere, and you may wish to provide one yourself in the appropriately technical section of your website’s knowledge base.
However, you are playing to your strengths: producing innovative products that the average individual could never dream of creating, continuing to develop new interfaces and product features to drive the next generation of technology, and making all of this available to customers without expecting them to know too much about what’s ‘under the hood’.
With this respectful but not patronising approach to your marketing campaigns, your products can speak for themselves, and you can reach every corner of the market, from the layperson to the expert.
