Sourcing Electronic Components: What Makes a New Component Popular?

Wouldn’t it be great if every component producer had a crystal ball, and they could see the path forward to massive adoption of their new components? Unfortunately, component manufacturers need to take a holistic marketing approach to drive adoption of their new products. They also need to weigh the risks involved in each portion of their strategy, especially when releasing an entirely new component to market.

What can component manufacturers do to ensure their new parts become popular with engineers and PCB designers? On the other side of the equation, how can OEMs, EMS providers, and individual designers spot the best components for use in their new products? A holistic marketing strategy on the part of component manufacturers is needed, but broad adoption requires making electronic component sourcing and specifications information for new components visible to the widest audience. Here’s how a component search engine can help drive popularity and purchases.

What Makes a New Component Popular?

There is no single answer to the above question for all components. Some products, such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi, became massively popular organically, thanks in part to the open-source and maker communities, as well as the occasional industry publication. Others seem to become popular overnight, driven by massive orders from OEMs and EMS providers. There are many specialty components that, simply based on their specifications, should reasonably see greater adoption than they enjoy.

What makes a component popular is a combination of attention, value, staying power, accessibility, and user experience. Simply putting out press releases, running an email blast, and placing ads in industry publications won’t transform paid adoption to organic adoption. The component has to provide real value and be accessible at scale if you want to see repeat orders. It also has to be easy to use and implement in a new design if you want to get any traction. It always helps if it comes in standard packaging, is pin compatible with an earlier version of a comparable component, and has CAD models available.

Getting that first bit of attention for your new parts is the first step to building a user base of OEMs, EMS companies, and designers. Success in the following areas will be a major driver of your part’s popularity.

Marketing Message

I won’t labor the basic points of developing a marketing message here. Large component companies have enough experience in the industry to develop a clear marketing message that transcends OEMs, EMS providers, and individual designers. Fab-less IC startups may not have the same level of experience or relationships, and they’ll need to consider how to refine their messaging around new products.

If your company is marketing a new SoC or ASIC, you need to market to your target applications due to the highly specific nature of these components. These components are designed for a limited number of applications and not much else. Some SoCs can be used in applications outside their intended area, but there may be cheaper options that don’t contain unnecessary features. Marketing directly to the target application helps you communicate the value of your new product.

For some new products, the electronics applications they enjoy are so fundamental that it becomes difficult for a new component to become unpopular. Think power regulators, MCUs, passives, and power transistors. It simply becomes a matter of matching specifications to application requirements and communicating the value for new products. Marketing to the application alone won’t do the trick; you should speak to the application and the specifications simultaneously.

Vendor Support

Vendor support can come in a number of different forms. Component makers should provide a very thorough datasheet, but this is the bare minimum that needs to be done to support a new component and help users implement it in their designs. Component manufacturers can support customer adoption in several ways:

• Application notes with design examples

• Webinars and video tutorials that are accessible through multiple channels

• Direct links to major distributors that supply the new product

• Reference designs and evaluation products

• Firmware examples and libraries

In my opinion, the last two points are probably most useful as they help designers immediately implement components into a new product. They also reduce support needed on the back end after an application is developed and prototyped.

Strategic Partnerships

Engaging directly with OEMs and distributors within target markets is one of the best ways to get new components into the hands of product managers at large companies. If a product manager and engineering team at an OEM like what they see from samples, you might hook them into designing a new product around your component.

Going the large distributor route (e.g., Digikey, Mouser, or Arrow) gives designers an easy way to search component stocks and, hopefully, locate your component with a specification-based search. However, the search landscape doesn’t end with distributors. Getting your components placed on a powerful electronics search engine can help drive adoption by everyone from OEMs to individual designers.

Search Engine Ad Placement

Engineers and designers are sourcing electronic components every day. Manufacturers and engineers can come together on an online search engine, where designers can see multiple components side-by-side in a search results page. The best search engines provide advanced filtration features like those found on component distributor websites. This lets designers drill down to the exact component specifications they need.

This puts the onus on manufacturers to ensure information on their new components is complete and accurate. This allows a designer or engineer to find your new products through an application-based search, category-based search, or a specifications-based search, rather than forcing a designer to search a brand name or model number. Designers who have never heard of your part have the potential to find it at or near the top of the search results, even if they don’t know your MPN.

What to Look for in a Components Search Engine

If you’re planning to list your new component on a search engine, you should make sure searchers can see the following information:

• Complete specification list: when a full list of specifications is available, designers can quickly evaluate whether your product will meet their basic application requirements.

• Datasheets: searchers shouldn’t have to go directly to your website or a distributor to find datasheets, they should have datasheet access directly from a product page or search results.

• Sourcing data: this should include pricing, component stocks, a distributor list, and MOQs.

• Model availability: anytime a model is available, designers will spend much less time creating prototypes or production-grade products with your components.

• Integration with ECAD software: designers shouldn’t have to hit a search engine site to get your component data; they should also be able to see your components in their ECAD application. Not all search engines provide this capability; the best ones will give access through an API.

• Ad and article placement beyond search pages: the best search engines can help you take advantage of partnerships with industry publications, which helps get your new component seen beyond search engine results pages.

Octopart is the only search engine that compiles these capabilities and much more into a single platform. Everyone from large electronics companies to individual designers will have access to the newest components, and you can help drive popularity for new components when you list on Octopart’s website. Octopart also provides designers and engineers with a Part Selector guide, which helps them find the best components for their new products.

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