Bravo! NEC

Finally, a projector manufacturer has started a complete strategic advertising and marketing plan that markets their display solutions as part of a system solution. Solutions with Vision is the title of the campaign and its byline starts with the words, "For anyone who has ever made a presentation anywhere on earth, from classrooms to boardrooms to church congregations, we have heard their plea."

Now, certainly NEC isn't the only systems solutions provider of projectors, in fact, virtually every manufacturer has a specific product or family of products targeting the systems market (i.e. boardrooms, conference rooms, training rooms, etc.). But, NEC is one of the first to articulate it in a complete on-going campaign that will focus on marketing the solution to an application rather than a specific product's features. The focus will be on the display technology being a key component of the entire system.

They way I see it, this will be the key to diversification and to becoming viewed as more than simply a "box provider" in the future for display manufacturers. I do think this will probably start a trend and other manufacturers will follow with more than an ad or two focusing on the application. Every manufacturer has, at one time or another, shown an ad with their wares in a room, installed, but this is the first strategic, complete marketing rollout of a systems campaign by a projector manufacturer historically known for selling portable LCD projectors. Kudos to the campaign creator (no, it wasn't me), the manager who had the guts to try it and the company for probably setting a trend as it was a gamble.

But, here's the best part for every systems integrator, design/build firm, consultant and projector manufacturer in the market: not only will NEC benefit from this type of strategy, but the entire projector market will win on this one too.

End users will finally see this technology as more than a box.

Gary Kayye is Principal of Kayye Consulting a firm that specializes in providing marketing consulting, telephony integration and training development to the professional audiovisual industry. He spent 12 years at Extron and AMX as VP of Sales and Marketing before founding his own firm. He can be reached at www.kayye.com or via e-mail at gkayye@kayye.com. He is also the volunteer chairman of the PETC. The views expressed in this article are solely the author's and do not represent the positions of any organization to which he belongs.

Bravo! NEC By Gary Kayye, CTS
	Finally, a projector manufacturer has started a complete strategic advertising and marketing plan that markets their display solutions as part of a system solution. Solutions with Vision is the title of the campaign and its byline starts with the words, "For anyone who has ever made a presentation anywhere on earth, from classrooms to boardrooms to church congregations, we have heard their plea." Now, certainly NEC isn't the only systems solutions provider of projectors, in fact, virtually every manufacturer has a specific product or family of products targeting the systems market (i.e. boardrooms, conference rooms, training rooms, etc.). But, NEC is one of the first to articulate it in a complete on-going campaign that will focus on marketing the solution to an application rather than a specific product's features. The focus will be on the display technology being a key component of the entire system. They way I see it, this will be the key to diversification and to becoming viewed as more than simply a "box provider" in the future for display manufacturers. I do think this will probably start a trend and other manufacturers will follow with more than an ad or two focusing on the application. Every manufacturer has, at one time or another, shown an ad with their wares in a room, installed, but this is the first strategic, complete marketing rollout of a systems campaign by a projector manufacturer historically known for selling portable LCD projectors. Kudos to the campaign creator (no, it wasn't me), the manager who had the guts to try it and the company for probably setting a trend as it was a gamble. But, here's the best part for every systems integrator, design/build firm, consultant and projector manufacturer in the market: not only will NEC benefit from this type of strategy, but the entire projector market will win on this one too. End users will finally see this technology as more than a box. Gary Kayye is Principal of Kayye Consulting a firm that specializes in providing marketing consulting, telephony integration and training development to the professional audiovisual industry. He spent 12 years at Extron and AMX as VP of Sales and Marketing before founding his own firm. He can be reached at www.kayye.com or via e-mail at gkayye@kayye.com. He is also the volunteer chairman of the PETC. The views expressed in this article are solely the author's and do not represent the positions of any organization to which he belongs.