Case Study: Vicor
About Vicor
Vicor Corporation manufactures and sells power conversion components and systems as well as configurable power systems, accessory products and custom power solutions. Vicor’s principal customers are large original equipment manufacturers and smaller, lower-volume users broadly distributed across the communications, data processing, industrial control, test equipment, medical and military electronics markets.
Business Challenge
Vicor pioneered the “brick” form factor for power supplies in the early 1980’s, and the brick has since become an industry standard. While Vicor’s Brick Business Unit produces the lion’s share of the company’s revenue, Vicor’s new technology, V•I Chips based on proprietary Factorized Power Architecture, offers new promise to design engineers working with power supplies. V•I Chips enable breakthroughs in efficiency, speed and previously impossible design flexibility in an arena which has been constrained by industry-standard form factors and specifications.
Vicor first engaged Hart-Boillot in 2002 to:
It quickly became clear that Vicor needed to re-engage with key media and industry influencers to discuss the company’s success and excitement for the new product line. Hart-Boillot quickly got to work re-engaging key industry influencers, scheduling factory tours, interviews and regular news announcements. Hart-Boillot also initiated a recurring “contact campaign” to ensure that influencers were kept abreast of Vicor developments even during lulls in product news announcements.
Hart-Boillot also developed messaging materials to support media and analyst outreach and ensure clarity when communicating the complexity of Vicor’s products.
Results
Hart-Boillot re-engaged all of Vicor’s target media outlets and secured coverage for Vicor’s V•I Chip technological breakthroughs in EE Times, EDN, Electronic Design, Power Electronics Technology, Electronic Products, Military and Aerospace Electronics, Test and Measurement World, and RTC Magazine.
Sample coverage includes:
Vicor Corporation manufactures and sells power conversion components and systems as well as configurable power systems, accessory products and custom power solutions. Vicor’s principal customers are large original equipment manufacturers and smaller, lower-volume users broadly distributed across the communications, data processing, industrial control, test equipment, medical and military electronics markets.
Business Challenge
Vicor pioneered the “brick” form factor for power supplies in the early 1980’s, and the brick has since become an industry standard. While Vicor’s Brick Business Unit produces the lion’s share of the company’s revenue, Vicor’s new technology, V•I Chips based on proprietary Factorized Power Architecture, offers new promise to design engineers working with power supplies. V•I Chips enable breakthroughs in efficiency, speed and previously impossible design flexibility in an arena which has been constrained by industry-standard form factors and specifications.
Vicor first engaged Hart-Boillot in 2002 to:
- Maintain and grow image, reputation and reach for Vicor’s Brick Business Unit, whose thousands of products and hundreds of customers will continue to grow at a steady pace;
- Create excitement and buzz about Factorized Power Architecture and V•I Chips as they emerge, eventually supporting the newly-created V•I Chip Business Unit with its own public relations campaigns; and,
- Help Vicor maintain and increase mind-share among target audiences as both a fast-moving innovator and a supplier of thousands of standard and custom products in the power supply arena.
It quickly became clear that Vicor needed to re-engage with key media and industry influencers to discuss the company’s success and excitement for the new product line. Hart-Boillot quickly got to work re-engaging key industry influencers, scheduling factory tours, interviews and regular news announcements. Hart-Boillot also initiated a recurring “contact campaign” to ensure that influencers were kept abreast of Vicor developments even during lulls in product news announcements.
Hart-Boillot also developed messaging materials to support media and analyst outreach and ensure clarity when communicating the complexity of Vicor’s products.
Results
Hart-Boillot re-engaged all of Vicor’s target media outlets and secured coverage for Vicor’s V•I Chip technological breakthroughs in EE Times, EDN, Electronic Design, Power Electronics Technology, Electronic Products, Military and Aerospace Electronics, Test and Measurement World, and RTC Magazine.
Sample coverage includes:
- Push for power efficiency forces changes in server-center hardware and software – EDN Editor Margery Conner includes market advice and foresight from Stephen Oliver, V•I Chip VP Marketing and Sales, in article discussing growing concern for power efficiency in data centers.
- http://wms18.streamhoster.com/pentonmedia/ED/08_APEC/08apec_vicor.wmv - Video with Electronic Design editor Don Tuite demonstrating V•I Chip’s innovative, energy efficient technology.
- Brick to V·I Chip - Article discussing the evolution of Vicor’s revolutionary products.


