Expert's Panel

A collection of timely and important topics posed to our panel of experts.

What are some suggestions for rejuvenating old products?

 (ep10123)
1. If you have an old product that really is not going to change—for example nitrogen—come out with Techron. Gasoline is gasoline, but with Techron, they sell it as having the other component that is going to make it better. Find some way to brighten up your product from a marketing point of view. “You now get nitrogen from us that is not just filtered 3 times, but filtered 5 times with a new specially designed filter from XYZ filter company. It is XYZ nitrogen you want in your fab, not . . . “ If the product is not going to change, you have to change the way people are going to look at the product.
2. Answer 2—You may find that there is a shrinking, but ever existing market for an older product. Before you do anything with it you should find out how important it is to the people who are still using it. You might do that with price—after researching it, take up the price if you can. Remember Micro Semiconductor made diodes and they hung on by their fingernails for a long time. The US government and other military suppliers bought a lot of their diodes and were scared to death Micro would go out of business. They became the premier suppliers, the price started going up, and their margins got attractive, leading to an IPO. The market contracted, the demand increased, and that said price increase.
3. Answer 3—We took some older products and found a new home for them. We took them out of the semiconductor market and put them in the printed circuit board market.