Speak Embedded

As the recession continues, it amazes me how many companies begin to make advertising cuts to save money.  While I understand that less money in means less money to go out, I also realize that marketing your company and product helps to bring in that money in the first place.  Without getting your brand seen, you may very well get overlooked and be forced to make even more cuts in the future.

That being said, I do however think the recession is a good thing for marketing.  It makes us reanalyze things and focus our dollars on the items that are truly vital to lead generation and not just spend money hand over fist because its available in the budget….and we have to do something with it.

An example would be billboard advertising in left field of a baseball field.  Think about it.  Name five billboards on the outfield fence of a minor league game that you have attended in your life.  (That is assuming you like baseball)  Did any of those billboards lead you to purchase their product or service?  I doubt it.  Most of us don’t even recall what they were or know what product that company offered.  They are usually just simple designs with a logo, slogan, and simple image.  Thats not really something you pay attention to when you go to a game, but these placements can costs thousands over the course of a season.  To me its all about using the money you have where it can be most effective and not where everyone else is using it.  In regards to this aspect of marketing, I think the recession helps us to all bring in the reigns and gain a little more focus until we can all let loose again!

Joel Deer
Marketing Communications

A Webinar lets you reach out to large groups of remote customers, prospects and employees at a fraction of the cost of meeting in person.  When you are a company based in Mississippi, this form of communicating can be key to the business’ success.  DTI uses our website, emailers and other forms of electronic communications to promote upcoming webinars to both potential and current customers.

Its a great way to educate industry engineers on our products and technical knowledge, plus it allows DTI to keep current customers up to date on what roadmap products are coming.  DTI is a strong believer in the webinar experience and we hope to have you attend one of our next sessions.  To request a webinar, please visit the following link and complete the short form.

http://www.dtims.com/support/webinar.php

Joel Deer
Marketing Communications

With the country going through a major recession, everyone is getting tight on their spending. Telecom companies are no exception.  All of the technology extras and whiz-bang features yet to be developed are being pushed out more because the once deep R&D pockets are barely deep enough now to hold water.  One technology that seems to keep being pushed back is AdvancedTCA.  The numbers projected were, and still today, are staggering for this COTS solution that was developed by only a small consortium of companies.  The goal was to open up the hardware footprint and allow for end-customers to pick the best solution for their needs while getting the costs down in the process.  You now have tons of options to pick from which will eliminate vendor lock-in issues.  The problem is, hardware isn’t cheap.  Manufacturing can be sent overseas to help lower that development cost but aren’t you then lowering the quality of the product which isn’t what the Telco NEBS environment needs for reliability.

I believe that this large “cost control” myth is one reason that AdvancedTCA hasn’t boomed as fast as some people had predicted.  (Note: those predicting this boom are the very ones getting paid to promote that future take off.)  Many of the smaller end-customers that begin looking in to AdvancedTCA hardware for their solutions soon realize that for the simple applications, this open blade system may be a costly overkill.  Does that mean there isn’t a good, solid market for AdvancedTCA?  No, that’s not what I’m saying.  My point is that many larger companies that jumped on the early AdvancedTCA standard to provide their board solutions have now gotten out because they realize this to be the case.  They simply can’t make the numbers add up to justify their participation with everything else they are having to battle.  That has helped to push back the timeline for the mass riches of AdvancedTCA and also lowered the numbers some too.  But this exodus is good for companies like Diversified Technology Inc., who with our 37 year embedded history are in tight for the long haul with PICMG (www.picmg.org) standards like AdvancedTCA.  So, much like the smaller banks who are now taking advantage of these tough economic times, DTI is doing the same.

Joel Deer
Marketing Communications

More proof that today’s society is moving further away from print media.
Link to Washington Post Article

If you have an opinion on this entry, I encourage you to post a comment.

Joel Deer
Marketing Communications

Through my years at DTI, I have noticed an increasing trend which was not hard to see coming…….kill print. Magazine spots have run their course and Marketers are taking their money and spending it elsewhere. No one has time in today’s world of instant messaging to sit down and thumb through a 60-page mag of yesterday’s news that has already been on the web for weeks. I want to know my information as it happens, not a month down the road when its finally “hot off the press”. That’s one thing we’ve always tried to do here, push our solutions to the right places…where its the most effective for DTI. Monster companies can afford to do brand marketing and throw their ads anywhere and everywhere hoping something sticks. Money is no object with them. But are they really getting a good ROI for their marketing dollars or are they just doing what they’ve always done?

I’ll touch on this more in the coming weeks.

If you have an opinion on this entry, I encourage you to post a comment.

Joel Deer
Marketing Communications