But marketing is far more than just a digital megaphone. At its core, marketing has two distinct missions, and for deep tech hardware industries, forgetting the first one can be a fatal mistake.

The Two True Missions of Marketing

1. Product Elaboration and Development: This is the foundation. It involves deeply understanding customer needs and how they will use a product. It means specifying the product’s functions and performance to fulfill those exact needs, and building a viable, sustainable business model around it.
2. Product Promotion: This is the visible side of the iceberg—the communication and sales strategies used to put the finished product in front of the right eyes. Too many people mistakenly believe this is the only mission of marketing.

For deep tech hardware sectors like photonics, that first mission—helping to develop the product—is absolutely critical. Here is why.

Why Photonics Cannot Skip “Mission One”

1. It is a Strictly B2B Reality

In photonics, products are not impulse buys. They are purchased to accomplish a highly specific, vital function within a larger system, machine, or industrial process. If the product doesn’t perfectly align with the system’s requirements, no amount of flashy promotion will sell it.

2. The Community is Niche and Relies on Trust

The photonics ecosystem is not vast. While digital marketing certainly has its place, traditional promotion tools like industry exhibitions, conferences, and direct technical networking still work exceptionally well. Reputation and direct relationships carry immense weight.

3. Specifications Cannot Be Invented in a Vacuum

It is virtually impossible to specify a photonic product—take a complex sensor, for example—without knowing exactly where it will live. What subsystem will it be embedded in? How will it interact with other components? What exactly is it measuring, and how will that data be processed and interpreted by the end-user?

You cannot guess these parameters. They only emerge through deep, ongoing interactions with users. Talking to a client about their intricate technical needs is not just engineering; it is a fundamental marketing action.

4. The “Double Maturation” Process

Often, your customers cannot help you specify the product right out of the gate. They can express a broader need or a pain point, but they need to evaluate how your technology will solve it.

This triggers a beautiful, symbiotic cycle: the double maturation process. You mature your product by responding to the maturation of your customer’s demand, and they mature their demand by testing and interacting with your prototypes.

The Cost of Flying Blind

In short, the first mission of marketing—engaging with the market to shape the product—is an unavoidable step in deep tech development. Attempting to build a highly complex photonic device without this step is exactly like driving a heavy truck through thick fog without headlights.

Let’s look at the financial reality of that risk:

• The cost to develop a new deep tech hardware product easily ranges from €500,000 to several millions of euros.
• The cost of a dedicated marketing and market-exploration mission, subcontracted to a specialized company like TEMATYS, typically ranges between €15,000 and €35,000.

When you put those numbers side by side, the marketing phase represents a tiny fraction of the overall R&D budget. Yet, just like the headlights on a vehicle, that small investment provides the security, clarity, and vision needed to navigate the road ahead and ensure your million-euro product actually finds its market.

L’article Deep Tech Hardware Industries Like Photonics Desperately Need Marketing est apparu en premier sur Tematys //.

Imagine you are appointed for leading the design of the next Ariane Rocket. How are you going to do?

Undoubtedly, with common sense, you will think: “before choosing the diameter of the rocket, the power of its engine, its carrying capacity and so, I need to know what the rocket will have to carry in space.” You will want to estimate how many satellites are to be launched in the coming years, what will be their size, their weight, their functions (scientific, weather, imaging, positioning, defense …). Will it be necessary to launch them one by one, or should the rocket be able to launch several satellites at the same time, like for Galileo ? How much customers are they willing to pay for a launch service ? And of course, what are the strengths and weaknesses of competing rockets?

How are you going to answer all these questions? This is obvious: ask the future customers, those who control and operate satellites. Nobody else can provide this valuable and critical information for designing the future rocket.

Seek to understand the end-users needs in order to define a product, this is the core value of marketing.  Strangely, what seems obvious for the Ariane rocket, is sometimes seen as superfluous when it comes to photonic products.

The added value of marketing

The 3 main missions of Marketing are the following:

1. Listen future users to define the features of a product; 
2. Understand the targeted market, its players, its drivers, the trends and the competition in order to build a market access strategy; how to enter the market, be part of the value chain and capture rapid and sustainable margins and revenues.
3. Develop the strategy and tools for the promotion of the new product and the development of the reputation of the company.

Very often, marketing is reduced into its the 3rd mission. It is true that it is more critical for BtoC products, as in the luxury market, in retail, or automotive.
But for BtoB technological products, it is completly different. The first two missions are the one that matter most. And this sometimes leads to a misunderstanding about the usefulness of Marketing for Photonics markets.

Marketing for boosting Photonic businesses

In Photonics, the first task is to question the future users to outline the features of the future product, so that it responds more closely to the customer needs. The objective is to produce a functional specifications or a market requirement document.

The second mission of marketing applied to Photonics is to develop an access strategy to become not only a competitive supplier, but also to be regarded by integrators as a reference for designing the components and photonic subsystems of the future.

L’article What marketing can bring to photonic technologies (English version) est apparu en premier sur Tematys //.

Imaginez que l’on vous charge de définir la prochaine fusée Ariane. Comment vous-y prendrez-vous ?

Sans aucun doute, vous commencerez par ce constat de bon sens : “avant de choisir le diamètre de la fusée, la puissance de ses moteurs, sa capacité d’emport etc. je dois connaître, ou au moins estimer ce que la fusée devra emporter dans l’espace”. Naturellement, vous chercherez à savoir combien de satellites il faudra lancer dans les prochaines années, quelle sera leur taille, leur poids, leurs fonctions (scientifique, météo, imagerie, positionnement, défense…). Faudra-t-il les lancer en grappes, comme pour Galileo, ou un par un ? Combien les clients, seront-ils prêts à payer pour un service de lancement ? Et bien sûr, quelles sont les forces et faiblesses des lanceurs concurrents ?

Mais comment répondre à toutes ces questions ? Cela coule de source : chez les clients, ceux qui commandent et exploitent des satellites. Personne d’autre ne peut fournir cette précieuse information sans laquelle définir la future fusée est impossible.

Chercher à comprendre les besoins pour définir un produit, c’est l’essence du marketing. Et curieusement, ce qui est une évidence pour la fusée Ariane, est parfois perçu comme superflu lorsqu’il s’agit de produits photoniques.

Les missions du marketing

Quelles sont les missions du marketing ? Il y en a 3 :

1. Écouter les futurs utilisateurs pour définir les fonctionnalités d’un produit ;
2. Comprendre le marché visé, ses acteurs, ses tendances, la concurrence pour construire une stratégie d’accès au marché ; savoir comment pénétrer le marché et s’insérer dans la chaîne de valeur et capter rapidement et durablement des marges et des revenus.
3. Élaborer la stratégie et les outils de promotion des nouveaux produits et de développement de la notoriété de l’entreprise.

Très souvent, le marketing est assimilé à la 3ème mission. Il est vrai que cette dernière est primordiale pour les produits vendus au grand public, comme dans le luxe, l’agroalimentaire, ou l’automobile.
Or, pour les produits technologiques BtoB, c’est le contraire. Ce sont les deux premières missions qui comptent le plus. Et cela induit parfois des malentendus sur l’utilité du marketing au service des marchés photoniques.

Le marketing au service de la photonique

En photonique, la première mission consiste interroger les futurs utilisateurs pour ébaucher les fonctionnalités du futur produit, afin qu’il réponde a plus près aux besoins des clients. L’action  marketing vise à produire des spécifications fonctionnelles ou, en anglais, “market requirement document”.

La deuxième mission du marketing appliqué à la photonique, c’est élaborer un positionnement produit et une stratégie d’accès, pour devenir, non seulement un fournisseur compétitif, mais aussi un interlocuteur reconnu pour co-construire avec les donneurs d’ordres, les composants et sous-systèmes photoniques du futur.

L’article What marketing can bring to photonic technologies (French version) est apparu en premier sur Tematys //.