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Amazon.com Review
"Rapid advances in current technologies and the accelerating emergence of new ones are flooding the marketplace with innovative products and services," write A. Parasuraman and Charles L. Colby at the start of Techno-Ready Marketing. But despite this onslaught and the importance that companies have placed upon it, the authors continue, the marketing of related products and services "is by and large being guided by traditional principles that may not be as effective for high-tech companies as they are for their low-tech counterparts." After four years of research into ways this might be better accomplished, the two developed the concept of Technology Readiness to measure how customers will react to such innovations and provide insight that corporations can use to practice the "techno-ready marketing" necessary to capture the public's attention. Parasuraman, the University of Miami's James W. McLamore Professor of Marketing, and Colby, president of a market research and consulting firm that specializes in technology, present a scholarly discussion of the process followed by a section on its practical use, filled with historical and contemporary case studies. They also include a self-administering Marketing Audit to help readers assess their current corporate status and adjust strategies accordingly. --Howard Rothman
Product Description
Conventional techniques for marketing technology products fail primarily because marketers do not truly understand their customers. Do you know what customers really think about your technology? Now, drawing on their award-winning research and case studies ranging from America Online to the Discovery Channel, marketing experts A. Parasuraman and Charles L. Colby demonstrate how the adoption of technology is influenced by unique beliefs that do not apply to conventional products and services.
In the context of a general set of powerful techno-marketing strategies, Parasuraman and Colby introduce "Technology Readiness" (TR), a groundbreaking concept that enables you to measure and assess a customer's predisposition to adopt new technologies. Employing their TR construct -- a psychological amalgam of fears, hopes, desires, and frustrations about technology -- the authors identify five types of technology customers: the highly optimistic and innovative "Explorers," the innovative yet cautious "Pioneers," the uncertain "Skeptics" who need the benefits of technology proved, the insecure "Paranoids," and the resistant "Laggards." Using this typology, you can customize your technology strategies by combining insights from your context-specific assessments with general marketing strategies presented in the book. Essential reading in technology companies will be the chapter devoted to Parasuraman's Pyramid Model, which explains the critical role technology plays in a marketing organization as a link between employees, the organization, and the customer. Finally, the authors have included a self-administered quiz so you can score your own Technology Readiness and a chapter on the "Techno-Ready Marketing Audit" to provide a framework for taking immediate action based on the precepts in this book.
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