DC Marketing Overview for DC/DC Converter Product

DC Marketing

Marketing Overview for DC/DC Converter

Product Description

The product being marketed is a DC/DC converter built to receive an input of twenty volts (20V) and produce an output of twenty-four volts (24V). This could be used in many applications; any device or equipment setup where a specific component or element requires 24V to operate but the battery source produces a fixed output of 20V would require a converter such as the product being offered.

Customer Description and Market Size

The precise type of customer depends on the scale of the switch converter, and it would be possible to develop two or more products with different physical sizes and efficiency levels; smaller switch converters are utilized as integrated components of many electrical device -- i.e. they would be built into the device by the manufacturer and never directly seen or utilized by end consumers, like converters in computers, cell phones, and more -- while larger converters can be used independently for end consumers to plug 24V devices into 20V power sources (batteries, typically). Customers would thus be electronic manufacturing companies in the case of the former and individuals with occupations or extensive hobbies requiring a variety of electronic components in the case of the former. The market size would be much larger for the smaller converters that could be directly integrated into complex electronic devices with multiple output needs from a single battery source, however it is not clear that any devices actually contain 20V batteries and require 24V of output, and in fact a search of a database of similar converters yields none with these exact specifications (DigiKey, 2012).

Still, the business-to-business model is expected to be the most effective, and this the converters should be designed and marketed with an eye towards integration in other finished products. This avoids the costs and troubles of retails sales, allows for bulk selling (which itself yields many marketing opportunities), and attaches the product to a market with much higher growth potential as worldwide adoption of many different electronic devices continues to grow and as these devices are replaced by consumers more and more frequently. The faster these devices are bought, the more demand there will be by manufacturers for switch converters and other internal components, and thus the faster potential sales and market size for this particular product will grow, as well. Customers will buy this particular product as long as the price is good and the quality of the converters and consistency of the converter's operation and performance are carefully maintained.

Competition and Differentiation

As noted above, there are currently no other switch converters found available on the market that match the specifications of this product, namely taking a 20V input from a direct current source (typically a battery), therefore the product being offered here appears to be unique (DigiKey, 2012). This also suggests, of course, that there has not been significant demand for the specific input/output levels to which this switch converter has been designed, which will limit market size, however it also means that the product will face absolutely no direct competition and is thus the establishing product of a niche market. Any manufacturer (or end consumer, if the larger switch converters are built for direct retail distribution rather than for manufacturing integration) that needs to obtain 24V of DC output from a 20V DC input is going to need to buy this particular product, as there is not any other product available that will perform this exact step-up function (DigiKey, 2012).

Sales, Promotion, and Pricing