Like any company, the technology company must communicate.
However, this communication requirement does not come spontaneously to her and she comes up against some obstacles.
Obstacles are still sometimes present
Without ignoring the fact that some companies or technology groups manage to excel in the field of communication, let us mention some of the most widespread obstacles:
- Since most of the effort is focused on technology and innovation, the importance of communication is often underestimated.
- The technological world, a world of logic, demonstration and proof, is often confused by the intangible nature of communication actions and their results, given the size of the budgets required for any large-scale action
- As a result, the budgets allocated to communication are much lower than those allocated in B2C.
- Even if it is declining and often serves as a convenient alibi to discredit communication, the explicit or implicit idea that “the right product should sell itself” is never far away.
- the technological world therefore looks with circumspection and “awaiting proof” at a world of communication dominated by the general public and which seems to invent every morning a new jargonous expression, a new tool, a new revolutionary communication technique replacing the previous one.
- the technological world lacks communication specialists and particularly specialists in digital communication techniques transposed into the technological world.
Three questions for technological communication
Under the frequent constraint of a lack of valorisation, a lack of specialists and a lack of means, three major questions arise in the field of technological communication:
- at what level should the communication be made: at the level of the company, its know-how, the brands, the products or the product lines?
- to whom should you communicate: to the general public, to the world of financiers, to certain countries, to existing customers, to potential customers?
- how to communicate in an attractive way, with the right level of technique, in a way that is as hard-hitting and credible as possible to markets and clients that are often themselves highly technical?
- which communication channels to use, from the traditional communication channels used for a long time to digital communication channels, making the most of all the possibilities?
Of course, all of this needs to be done in varying proportions and modalities, adapted to the context and the resources available. It is therefore fundamentally a question of objectives and trade-offs.
Each technology company must answer the above questions according to its business, its products, the competition it faces, its objectives, the skills available and the resources it wishes to devote to its communication.
A few points of reference
- communication about the company’s name, its business and its technical skills is essential, both to markets and customers and to financiers, analysts and the general public, especially if the company has to call on external financing or is listed on the stock exchange.
- Unlike the consumer company, the technology company basically manages a portfolio of products rather than a portfolio of brands.
- Nevertheless, beyond the “corporate brand”, product or product line brands can be excellent communication tools in technology.
- in terms of brand building and management, all the fundamentals apply and remain valid, such as: vision, mission and brand values, understanding the targets and matching the brand discourse to the targets, authenticity of the discourse, definition of a clearly identifiable style (logo and tagline for example or “look & feel” on the internet), persistence and coherence of the brand communication.
- the technology company is characterised by frequent exchanges with current or potential customers about technology and products. These exchanges can be individualised with decision-makers, or collective with a particular “audience”, a company or a group of companies. The entire customer relationship and all opportunities for exchange are also opportunities for communication and should be prepared as such: project consultations, customer visits to technical centres, demonstrations and tests of new products, user club meetings, etc.
- Traditional communication channels have of course long been used by technology companies: key trade shows, brochures, press releases, advertisements in the trade press, etc.
- Digital technology has made it possible to set up effective communication actions at a lower cost than mass communication campaigns, even if this cost is far from zero because of the IT infrastructure that it requires: websites, natural or paid referencing, emails, newsletters, meeting and remote training tools, etc.
- The processing of marketing data and customer usage data from sensors installed on products, both of which are in full development, has also opened up new possibilities in terms of both customer relations and communication actions
- even if the general public social networks do not have the same interest as in B2C, professional social networks such as LinkedIn or even videos on Youtube have also opened up new possibilities for technology to communicate more superficially but to a wider audience.
- Some of the digital technologies, some of which have already been used for a long time in a product innovation perspective, are still looking for their way as tools for communication in the technological world, while they are already gradually becoming established in the general public communication. This is the case, for example, with artificial intelligence, virtual reality or the Internet of Things.
As a conclusion
Communication in technology is an essential but often underestimated issue.
It is not a question of adopting the communication techniques of the general public by mimicry but:
- to recognise that communication is one of the areas of excellence of B2C and that it can play the role of “communication techniques explorer” for the world of technology
- to recognise that some communication tools and techniques, as implemented in particular in consumer high-tech, deserve attention
- to be aware of all the communication techniques and tools available in order to identify those that can be validly transposed to the technological world and those that can be validly used in the particular context of a given company.
