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I hope that our U.S. colleagues had a pleasant July 4^th holiday. It’s always a welcome break after the busy spring schedule and the annual MTT-S IMS event. Early July also signals the upcoming deadlines for our annual “Military Microwaves” supplement and August issue.

It is always a challenge for companies to get their products noticed in the marketplace as many competitors are also promoting their products and new technologies to engineers. Our inboxes are cluttered with promotional information as are the websites we visit. Companies should always be doing some level of advertising and promotion to maintain their brand presence and promote their products, but how do you get your target audience’s attention for significant new products or capabilities?

Most of the technologies we cover in Microwave Journal have one thing in common. GaN, CMOS, envelope tracking, MIMO, etc. are all about getting more performance for less. Your customers want more data throughput for less cost and space and in less time. And the engineer who reads Microwave Journal has to deliver. If your company is not developing these attributes in your products, then you’re out of step with the general direction of our industry. And if your products are being enhanced in these areas and you’re not communicating this to our readers, well then you’re doing yourself a disservice.     

Yes, I had Tapas. And Paella. Some Sangria as well. But there was much more than good food and drink to be had in Barcelona, Spain last week during the GSMA’s Mobile World Congress event. This show has become the global event for the mobile ecosystem, and it lived up to expectations once again. International editor Richard Mumford and I spent the week meeting with some of the leading semiconductor and test solution providers in our industry, hearing about the latest news and products to hit the market. With more than 1,800 companies from 32 countries and 85,000 visitors, this show was jammed packed with people and excitement. MWC is a great example of how live events can bring people together with the latest technologies and products to drive business to new heights.       

Content marketing is gaining popularity lately as companies try to find new ways to educate their customers and potential customers about their products and services. This is especially important in the RF/microwave industry where it is typically a technical sell to get products designed into a system or point out the features and capabilities of software or test equipment. But with limited resources, it is always a struggle to convince the technical staff who is already overloaded with work to generate quality content. Here are some techniques to accomplish the task and get the most use of the content that is generated. 

In order for a company to develop a profitable growth strategy, it should have a detailed understanding of its costs, competitive position and customer environment. However, due to resource constraints, department managers are usually focused on near term issues, and don’t have the time to focus on longer-term strategic issues.  As such, any long-term analysis is substituted with conventional wisdom about the company and the markets they compete in.  Unfortunately, more often than not, conventional wisdom is far off the mark from reality.

HAPPY (CHINESE) NEW YEAR! As our colleagues on the other side of the globe celebrate their holiday, we at Microwave Journal continue the planning for EDI CON 2014, to be held on April 8-10 in Beijing. The conference program is now completed and the exhibition is nearing capacity. You can check out both at www.ediconchina.com. The March/April issue of MWJ China will serve as the show issue for EDI CON, with ad deadlines of February 27^th for space and March 6^th for ad material. This is an excellent issue to expand your brand in China, through our 10,000 subscriber database and several thousand bonus distribution via the delegate bag at the show.

“Game changing products” are the result of insight, hard work and smart, creative engineers who keep pushing the boundaries of technology, keeping our industry alive and thriving. The Journal and our readers benefit from their inspiring efforts and willingness to share. As a result, we have a healthy supply of exciting editorial in the pipeline to engage our audience and set the stage for upcoming conferences and trade shows.  

Happy New Year! I hope that you’re all rested and ready for 2014. It’s going to be an exciting year for marketing, as the tools to connect and communicate continue to evolve and improve.

At Microwave Journal, we’re starting the year off by featuring “Augmented Reality” in our January issue. This cutting-edge technology brings print to life by embedding video and other rich media into ads and articles in the magazine. The reader simply downloads the free Layar app on their mobile device and scans the augmented content to experience this bridge from the print to the digital world. See Editor Pat Hindle’s article in this edition of The WaveGuide for more information.