I'm not allowed to give you details until some exhibition in a few weeks' time
I can't remember the last time we had quite so many new products and technology articles arrive in seven days, but I suspect that it's something to do with the Hanover Fair last week. Every major manufacturer must be aware by now that as soon as it announces a product, a vast, silent audience out there reads about it almost instantly via the internet. Yet still many of them delay perfectly good new introductions for months, so they can announce them at a trade fair all in one go. How many times have you heard an irritated sales rep apologise: "we have a product to do that, but I'm not allowed to give you details until some exhibition in a few weeks' time"? All part of the Sales Prevention Policy, I'm sure.
The reason, as with so many such things, is historical, although it'd be hysterical if it wasn't so annoying. Twenty or thirty years ago, few manufacturers mailed us all directly, and obviously there was no internet. The only way they could tell the world about their great new product was at a trade fair or through magazines and newspapers. Attracting the attention of the press was a challenge, naturally. However, there'd be plenty of reporters at the big trade fairs, so why not make your big announcement there and kill two birds with one stone? There was a problem though: all your competitors would be doing the same. So you needed to make your announcement bigger and better than the rest, and for the manufacturers which could do it, that seemed to require announcing more new products than anyone else.
At one Hanover Fair I remember a sensor manufacturer thrusting 18 brochures into my hand, each on a different new product. I just felt sorry for the poor guys who'd spent ages designing product number 18 in the pile. I also wondered how many of those products had spent 51 weeks on the shelf waiting to be introduced at the next trade fair. What a waste.
In 2005, the world is a different place, but this still goes on. You know why; because "that's the way we've always done things". Hanover Fair is huge, and a fantastic event, but how many of an individual manufacturer's potential customers actually go? 10%? 1%? It just seems more, because the people are physically there. It would have been easy to have got the information out to the other 90% or 99% through other channels weeks before, but hey, we're only customers. We can all wait. There are managing directors and the competition to impress.
Smart manufacturers no longer let these events dictate when and how they present themselves to their customers. But too many manufacturers still aren't smart.
The reason, as with so many such things, is historical, although it'd be hysterical if it wasn't so annoying. Twenty or thirty years ago, few manufacturers mailed us all directly, and obviously there was no internet. The only way they could tell the world about their great new product was at a trade fair or through magazines and newspapers. Attracting the attention of the press was a challenge, naturally. However, there'd be plenty of reporters at the big trade fairs, so why not make your big announcement there and kill two birds with one stone? There was a problem though: all your competitors would be doing the same. So you needed to make your announcement bigger and better than the rest, and for the manufacturers which could do it, that seemed to require announcing more new products than anyone else.
At one Hanover Fair I remember a sensor manufacturer thrusting 18 brochures into my hand, each on a different new product. I just felt sorry for the poor guys who'd spent ages designing product number 18 in the pile. I also wondered how many of those products had spent 51 weeks on the shelf waiting to be introduced at the next trade fair. What a waste.
In 2005, the world is a different place, but this still goes on. You know why; because "that's the way we've always done things". Hanover Fair is huge, and a fantastic event, but how many of an individual manufacturer's potential customers actually go? 10%? 1%? It just seems more, because the people are physically there. It would have been easy to have got the information out to the other 90% or 99% through other channels weeks before, but hey, we're only customers. We can all wait. There are managing directors and the competition to impress.
Smart manufacturers no longer let these events dictate when and how they present themselves to their customers. But too many manufacturers still aren't smart.
posted by Chris on Thursday, April 21, 2005
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