In 2007, tech marketers bombarded the world with a mix of new and old technologies and accompanying messages, including the greening of IT, the virtualization of just about everything, brave forays into the SMB market, and the panacea of vertical industry solutions. Forrester's recently released predictions of what technology marketers will do in 2008, as mentioned below.

The US tech economy to post decent growth year.

Tech marketers can count on a decent overall pricing environment, best in sectors with stronger-than-average IT investment growth like business intelligence, SOA, virtualization, and unified communications. As the IT industry matures, technologies like these that can be directly linked to improving business results will show the best relative growth, particularly when coupled with compelling, industry-specific marketing efforts.

Industry marketing will go micro. 

In 2007, tech marketers jumped on the vertical industry solutions bandwagon in droves with 85% of the top tech vendors across the globe wooing industry buyers across broad industry "super sets" like government, financial services, and healthcare. Smaller tech vendors have staked their claims on narrower slices of these big industry markets. Against a backdrop of buyers seeking increasingly specific industry solutions, these tech Davids will see a 25% increase in competitive bake-offs between themselves and tech Goliaths seeking to convert enterprise and industry experience into success in niche markets. 

Green supremacy

The green marketing and positioning of computer hardware, software, and services will reach new heights of intensity next year. Several large systems OEMs will publicly claim industry leadership in energy efficiency, design for- environment, and the greenness of their internal operations. To rise above the fray and remain credible, tech marketers should not overstate their companies' positions and should make sure that their companies' internal commitments match up with their go-to-market messaging, suggested the report.

SaaS adoption by SMBs will be slow.

The report further mentioned that despite the hype and big product launches from major vendors like SAP and Microsoft, fewer than 4% of SMBs will adopt new SaaS solutions for major applications in 2008. Tech marketers will have their hands full overcoming SMB buyers' concerns around total cost of ownership, integration, and security. Despite this, the report expects that horizontal applications that target collaboration, content management, and human resources will have the fastest uptake, while front- and back-office applications like ERP and CRM will trail.

'Virtualization' will get patched into a phrase.

With the rapid rise of VMware and server virtualization, many marketers have slapped "the v-word" on their marketing messages in an attempt to ride the virtualization wave. But its use is now all over the map, with resulting confusion about what "virtualization" means to both salespeople and buyers. In 2008, tech marketers will clarify their messages by using the v-word in phrases that indicate what is virtualized and the purpose of virtualization.