Tocquigny Advertising and Design

Download Achieving Results in Technology Marketing: Engineers and How to Reach Them

Understand the Engineer

Who are engineers? Engineers fit a unique mold in terms of demographic characteristics. They tend to be a relatively affluent target, earning $75-100K a year. They are predominantly male, with an average age of 46 in the U.S. Only two percent of engineers are younger than 25, while a mere 16 percent are younger than 35. Engineers are required to have a high level of education — about 70 percent have a bachelor’s degree. Over a quarter of these have a master’s degree or higher.

A number of personality characteristics may be generalized to fit the engineering population. According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality test, engineers tend to be:

• Thinkers, not Feelers: Engineers typically make judgments objectively, dispassionately and analytically as opposed to weighing human factors or relying on personal conviction.
• Introverts, not Extroverts: They tend to shrink from social contacts and to become preoccupied with their own thoughts.
• Judging, not Perceiving: Engineers are often action and goal-oriented and driven to complete tasks rather than shift goals and strategies as new information becomes available.
• Sensing and Intuitive in combination with the Thinking trait.

Peek into the Engineers’ Home Life

Engaging engineers outside of the work environment requires a thorough understanding of the off-the-job engineer: What do they do for fun? What are their political views? Religious views? Etc.

When it comes to household tasks, research shows that engineers often share responsibilities for childcare, daily chores, and major purchase decision-making with their significant others.

It is probably no surprise that engineers possess a propensity to play electronic games – 38 percent participate in gaming for recreational purposes. Simulation games, such as "Second Life," are the most popular, followed by adventure games such as "World of Warcraft" and puzzles. All of these games mirror the rewards that engineers seek from their work: They provide intellectual stimulation and feelings of expertise and accomplishment upon completion.

Fig. 1 - Leisure and athletic activities preferred over a vast selection

Fig. 2 - Entertainment preferences

Fig. 3 - Religious and political preferences of engineers

Fig. 4 - Donation preferences

The Engineer at Work

Most engineers have been working in their field for an average of 17 years, although 40 percent have been engineers for over 20 years. This reveals a defining characteristic: Engineers are highly trained individuals who distinguish themselves professionally through specialized intelligence. Their knowledge is very deep in specific areas but is not necessarily wide-ranging in scope.

Research and our experience has taught us that engineers’ specialized intelligence does not always allow them to be easily swayed by new information about unknown products or services. Engineers will often perform their own research on products and services that they are currently seeking in the marketplace. Thus engineers should always be treated as a highly informed consumer, and we should expect them to question the information we provide.

Delving deeper into the engineer persona, data suggests that engineers are overwhelmingly satisfied with their careers – 90 percent affirmed such statements. Moreover, factors having the greatest influence on an engineer’s job satisfaction intrinsically skew toward motivational rewards:

• Feelings of accomplishment
• Meeting technical challenges

Engineers see the following as threats to their continued job satisfaction:

• Difficulty keeping up with the latest technologies
• Coping with shorter design life cycles
• Concerns regarding outsourcing and offshoring
• Working with fewer resources
• Balancing workload

Engineers Operate as Strong Teams

Because they are working on an average of 11 projects simultaneously, engineers find themselves collaborating in team-based environments. This is supported by:

• 58 percent report facing pressure to excel in multiple design disciplines
• 48 percent are working in teams now
• 62 percent under age 39 are working in teams now
• 31 percent of engineers have team members outside North America

The increasing importance of collaborative environments, the engineer’s tendency to befriend other engineers, and the engineer’s tendency to rely on coworkers’ advice supports what we have found: Peer-to-peer and viral/word-of-mouth methods can be highly successful marketing techniques for this segment.

Engineers Make Their Own Rules

Although engineers aren’t labeled as a particularly rebellious sector, they do possess that capability. Research shows engineers are unwilling to accept rules unless there is logical reasoning behind them. Engineers need to know precisely why they should or should not act in a certain way, and if the rationale does not suit their standards for being reasonable, they will resist.

This information can be useful in giving engineers instructions regarding the purchase process, for instance. Care must be taken to ensure processes prescribed for the engineer are mechanically efficient and absolutely clear.

How to Create Effective Marketing Strategies to Sell to Engineers

Find Alternatives to Traditional Advertising

Engineers do not respect or trust advertising. They want pertinent and professional information, not gimmicky or promotional ads. Engineers tend to have a negative view of advertising partially because they consider themselves intellectuals and demand appropriate treatment from others. Believing they are above the influence of advertising, engineers want to make decisions based on technical facts "beyond a copywriter’s understanding." Writing that resembles "ad copy" is seen as distasteful, and slick graphics are quickly discarded as "fluff."

Regardless of what you have to say, engineers will not listen to your marketing message unless it is tailored specifically to their information needs. Engineers have two types of information needs — "Heads-Up" information and "Heads-Down" information:

• "Heads-Up" information includes news on technological advances, the competitive environment, and industry trends. Engineers are more likely to read printed articles, ads, brochures, and email newsletters for this type of information.
• "Heads-Down" information is knowledge gained when the engineer is on the job, such as product performance specifications or technical information on how to solve specific problems. They are more likely to use websites and blogs.

Take a Straightforward Approach

Engineers typically purchase products only after carefully weighing facts and making comparisons. They prefer blunt message tones, characterized by straightforward, low-key, professional approaches. Advertising copy should appeal to reason first and emotion second — because for engineers, purchasing is a measured process based primarily on technical performance and not pleasant feelings. Furthermore, the conceptual language used should be familiar to engineers (e.g., charts, graphs, blueprints, equations). Speaking to engineers in "engineering language" is important because it makes them comfortable with their ability to fully understand the message and it conveys credibility.

Engineers seek the following types of information from marketing materials:

• performance characteristics
• efficiency ratings
• power requirements
• technical specifications

Retain Engineers as Customers

Since most engineers are challenged to stay on top of technological advancements, they tend to stay with a single vendor’s product once they have adopted it. With the high costs of training, we have found that engineers often find it easier to work with the shortcomings of a familiar product than utilize additional resources to select and adopt a new one. Pressure to shorten developmental cycles also contributes to risk-aversion toward switching products or services. This poses a particular challenge to vendor companies and marketers: lose a client now, and you may lose them for years to come. The retention of engineer customers is just as important as the recruitment of new ones.

Get It Right the First Time

Engineers are trained to question information. They apply a highly critical eye to the choices that a vendor company makes in designing and marketing their products, and they won’t revisit their decisions. Therefore, inadequately executed efforts to influence engineers may do more harm than good. We recommend testing marketing efforts before their deployment to be certain that the messaging and tactical implementation will be effective.

Marketing in disguise

How should a company go about marketing to a target who is clearly opposed to typical advertising and marketing techniques? Tocquigny has had considerable success using what we refer to as "Non-Marketing" marketing¬: i.e., reaching the engineers in a way that negates flashy, irrational appeals and promotes the use of practical information. We have developed a practice around reaching the engineer target through:

• Presenting fact-based information such as case studies, product specs, industry and technological updates
• Appealing to the engineers’ analytical, intelligent mindset through the use of tools and intellectual games to deliver branding and key messages
• Meeting the engineers’ emotional needs by communicating how the product or service can deliver job satisfaction, greater work-life balance and reduce job pressures
• Demonstrating how technical features deliver value through interactive, technical demos
• Using interactive marketing tactics such as social and viral marketing to take advantage of the increasingly collaborative workplace, along with the engineers’ tendency to rely on each other for advice
• Providing offers of intelligent information to reduce perceived risks

Used together and fashioned into a comprehensive strategy, we have seen these techniques work to gain the trust and focused attention of engineers. One-off efforts will not, however, lead to long-term success. An effective marketing strategy in which each tactic ladders back to support a specific business goal is the best way to build a dependable approach for the delivery of measurable results. For more information on how such a strategy can be created, please see http://www.tocquigny.com/measured_approach/.

Sources:

"2006 Compensation Survey," Design News. Boston. June 2006

Capretz, Luiz. "Personality Types in Software Engineering," International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. December 2002

"Engineering Online Psychographic Study" - 2003

Gautschi, Dr. T.F. "The Engineer as a Person," Design News. November 1992

Li, Wai. "Mind Over Money and Life," Design News. July 2005

EDN: "Mind of Engineer Study" - 2006

Slaven, Roger. "How to Market to Engineers," BtoB: 2006 Vertical Insight, Vol. 91 Issue 8, pp. 14-14, 1/2p.

Bly, Robert. "Six Things I Know for Sure About Marketing to Engineers," Marketing Today. October 1998