‘Mobile at the fingertips of the engineer’ for NXP Semiconductors

Summary


This entry is about how NXP Semiconductors started offering easy to use mobile apps for smartphones less than a year ago as the first company in the Semiconductor industry to connect our worldwide target audience of design engineers to our entire product portfolio. For design engineers quick and easy 24-7 access to manufacturer product information is key to successfully deliver electronic application designs, which very often are under enormous time pressure.

Via selected media we were able to boost awareness and usage of our mobile apps and we are now connected to over 10,000 engineers who use our mobile apps to search for our products and order them online, linking them to our distribution partners. Engineers like our apps and via the feedback possibilities they are proving us with lots of valuable ideas how they would like to get served. Via the apps we generate up to 1000+ highly qualified leads for our distributor and direct sales as well. Mobile marketing has become an integral part of our marketing mix and is linked to both customer needs and NXP’s strategic business goals. NXP delivers ‘mobile at the fingertips of the engineer’, and we’ve only just started!

About NXP Semiconductors


NXP Semiconductors provides high performance mixed signal and standard product solutions that leverage its leading RF, analog, power management, interface, security and digital processing expertise.

These innovations are used in a wide range of automotive, identification, wireless infrastructure, lighting, industrial, mobile, consumer and computing applications. Headquartered in Europe, the company has approximately 28,000 employees working in more than 25 countries and posted revenue of $4.4 billion in 2010.

Connecting to design engineers, helping them do their job The world around us is filled with semiconductors. These small but high performing electronic components can be found in almost any device from mobile phones to TV’s and car entertainment systems to wireless base stations.
The highly dedicated professionals who create today’s and tomorrow’s experience are design engineers. They are a very diverse group of experts in analog/ digital electronic component design. They eat and sleep electronics and live and work all over the world and so do their and our customers.  Emerging markets like China and India deliver an incredible amount of highly skilled and motivated new design engineers who work for big and small companies in the long tail, and luckily for us are all in need of semiconductors for their designs. Design engineers often work under enormous time pressure in 24-7 teams around the globe to get new applications (like a mobile phone with touch screen) to the market.

And they spend up to three days per month online, looking, comparing and selecting products for their designs. While ‘surfing’ engineers want to find relevant technical documentation (like product  information and datasheets) in a quick and intuitive way.

Design engineers are the most important influencers in the decision making process which manufacturer product ends up in their new applications (and is likely to sell up to millions). Time is money and a company that helps them do their job more quickly and effectively is favorable above others. Effective also means having access to content where ever you are – in the factory if they are not behind their PC’s and need the datasheet (or want to order a sample) and continue work tomorrow on that part. They need our help right then and they need to be able to trust us to deliver. Web plays a very important role, but easy mobile connectivity for engineers is the next big challenge.

The role of web and mobile


For engineers interested in innovation and productivity NXP.com is an indispensable tool that facilitates the engineering activity cycle to design complex applications.

The complex website is part of an impressive ecosystem of distributor websites, partner website (vertical search engines), search engines, datasheet portals and social media portals in order to generate traffic, build trust, generate leads and sell products. On all these online presences our product  information must be 100 per cent correct to avoid any legal claims.

Taking into account the changing dynamics described above we have always kept our eye on using mobile as part of our integrated marketing mix. However we hardly did, because ‘before the smart phone age’ we were never convinced we could deliver the right mobile experience to engineers. The availability of powerful smart phones with Application platforms like the iOS and Android platforms changed our opinion. Via customer visits, doing research and looking around we discovered a big adoption under design engineers of smart phones. ‘It makes my job easier’ is what we hear a lot.

Being used to shifting gears we launched our first mobile app in July 2010, followed by Android (phone/tab) six months later. Keeping in mind both smart phone penetration and our customer segmentation we offer languages Japanese and Chinese. Segmentation is key.

Objectives for our mobile apps:

  • Offer design in support for engineers.

 

  • Offer entire product and application portfolio.

 

  • Offer optimal integrated online experience for our customers.

 

  • Generate leads and sales via distributors.

 

  • Making use of complex ecosystem (social).

 

  • Build trust in the mobile space (early adaptor) and contribute to long-term business objectives.

The use of different media (see ‘budget’) contributed directly to the number of downloads (KPI) and (indirectly) to above listed objectives.

Specific campaign objective was to have overall 2000+ app downloads in the first two months (combined in iPhone and Android).

Techniques used


Promotional activities (ongoing) for app promotion:

  • Press releases.

 

  • Google Adwords.

 

  • Baidu paid search (China).

 

  • Supplyframe vertical.

 

  • EEtimes/ EDN top advertising platform.

Timescales of the campaign


July 2010 – Feb 2011

Client testimonial


“For engineers it is crucially important that they get access to the latest product information as quickly and as easily as possible. The new Android-based NXP application allows easy access to the information engineers want when they want it. The Android and iPhone applications show that NXP is committed to making product information available anytime anywhere,” Sander Arts, VP corporate communications and branding at NXP Semiconductors

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