Catalyst Strategic Marketing

 

Introduction to Product Marketing

 

Overview

Within the world of marketing there are numerous areas of specialization.  One of the most critical, and often one of the most confusing and least understood, is Product Marketing. 

The Product Marketing function occupies a unique spot in the corporate marketing structure. This is because unlike other marketing teams that only have one specific responsibility or function, Product Marketing is often considered to be the “marketing hub” (or clearinghouse) for information about the company’s products. Because of this, Product Marketing has multiple responsibilities and typically engages with multiple organizations across the business on a regular basis.

This three-part blog will help you quickly and easily understand what product marketing does, where product marketing is located within the organization, and why product marketing provides such a critical marketing function.

What Product Marketing Does

In most businesses, Product Marketing’s primary function is to take the detailed information about a product from the product development and product management teams and convert that information into more easily understood customer-facing information. This is done to help clarify what the product actually does, and, more importantly, to clearly describe the problem(s) that the product addresses or solves for a customer. This information is then used in a variety of different ways.

However, if you try to find a definition of Product Marketing in a dictionary, you’re likely to find numerous, often conflicting definitions, but none of them capture the full scope of what Product Marketing actually does. This just highlights the confusion that exists around this important marketing function. That’s why I define Product Marketing at a high level as, “the process of promoting and bringing a product for sale to the market.”

Sounds straightforward, right?

It’s not really, because that process includes everything related to bringing a new product to market. Depending on the company, Product Marketing is responsible for some or all of the following:

• Understanding competitive products, their features, and how they are positioned
• Analyzing and understanding customer issues, pain points, needs and wants
• Knowing which channels customers use to do research and find information on potential solutions
• Developing and executing the go-to-market strategy
• Developing the product value prop, messaging and positioning
• Developing reference material that is used for internal, as well as external, communications
• Developing content that informs and educates
• Driving awareness and demand for the product
• Ensuring sales and channel partners have all the right tools, training and information needed to sell the product
• Working closely with field marketing, sales and channel partners

In other words, Product Marketing owns the entire process required to successfully launch, drive awareness of and sell a product.

But Product Marketing is involved in a lot more than just launching products. After a product is launched, Product Marketing may also be involved in one of more of the following types of activities:

• Developing new content and materials to continue to inform, educate and engage with new customers after the initial sale
• Working with various internal organizations on developing new messaging, positioning, and materials to help move potential customers through the sales funnel
• Developing and updating existing content and materials to inform, educate and engage with existing customers
• Meeting with customers alongside sales and partners
• Capturing feedback and input from customers, sales, partners, and the marketplace and provide that information back into the product development organization. This information may consist of new features customers would like to see, fixes to be made, the direction the market is moving, information on competitive products, etc. That information is then used to help inform, update, change and drive the product roadmap.
• Beginning to plan for the next product launch or update

These activities help keep the business connected to and engaged with their customers. That is why, from pre-launch, to the product launch, to post-launch, to planning for the next launch, Product Marketing is one of the most critical marketing functions that exists within a business. Without Product Marketing, businesses would be unable to successfully position and launch new products into the marketplace.

Where Product Marketing Is Located Within the Company

Depending on the type of business and the corporate structure it uses, the Product Marketing function may be located in various different organizations. While there is no right or wrong location, there are several common structures that this blog will discuss.

Here are some of the most common locations for where the Product Marketing function may be located within a company:

1. Many large corporations often have a stand-alone Product Marketing organization that supports different business units and/or products. This type of Product Marketing organization is usually an overlay to the product lines and works well when all the products have similar features or provide similar functionality.
2. In large companies, Product Marketing may be part of a Product organization. This type of structure typically includes product development, product management and Product Marketing functions. This type of structure provides the tight alignment that must exist between the marketing and development functions. If there are multiple products, there may also be multiple Product Marketing teams, each one focused on a specific product line.
3. If the company is very engineering-, technology- or product-driven, the Product Marketing function may be located within an Engineering organization. This type of structure ensures tight alignment with the engineering teams.
4. If the company is smaller, Product Marketing may be part of a Corporate Marketing or other Marketing organization. This type of corporate structure often does not have a separate Product Marketing team, but instead just assigns product marketing tasks as needed.
5. In some businesses, Product Marketing may even be part of the Sales organization. This type of structure is usually used when Product Marketing is considered to be primarily a support function to sales.

Ultimately, where the Product Marketing function resides and what the reporting chain is will depend on the type of company and what the specific business requirements are.

Regardless of where exactly within the business it is located, Product Marketing is one of the most critical marketing functions that exists. However, in order for Product Marketing to be the most effective, it must be located where it makes the most sense for it to be able to support the specific business requirements. That is why there are several different locations where the Product Marketing function can typically be found.

Why Product Marketing Is Critical to the Success of a Business

As stated earlier, Product Marketing’s primary function is to help bring products to market. It does that through a variety of tactics and channels. But before Product Marketing can do that, it must gather all of the required information about the product from the product development, engineering and other teams that are involved in developing a new product.

Depending on whether it is a new product that is being brought to market or is a revision to an existing product, the required information that must be gathered may contain some or all of the following: what the product does, how the product works, detailed specifications, revision information, functional information, integration requirements, technical information, installation instructions, operating instructions, user guides, benefits information, and more.

Product Marketing then uses that information to develop the product value prop, messaging, positioning and customer-facing content in a format that potential customers will be able to use and understand. This content may take the form of use cases, white papers, case studies, articles, blogs, slide decks, demos, videos, or whatever format is most effective in communicating information about the product to the customer.

In effect, Product Marketing provides a translation function – taking complex information about the product from the product developers and translating it into more easily digestible, easily understood customer-facing content. This is one of the most critical functions that Product Marketing provides.

In order to effectively develop this type of content, the Product Marketer must have an in-depth understanding of not only what the product is, but what it does, how it does it, and what the customer pain point or issue is that the product solves. He must also have detailed knowledge and understanding of the customer, their business, their industry, the market and the competition. Because of this, the Product Marketing function is often one of the few organizations in the business with the full view and understanding of not only the product, but the customers, market and competitors as well, so it is able to provide valuable insight and information to various other internal organizations. This is another reason the Product Marketing function is so critical.

After Product Marketing develops the content, it is then leveraged and used by different organizations across the business. While some organizations may use the content as it was originally developed, others may modify it (such as posting smaller sections as tweets or creating corporate communications and announcements based on it). All of these actions also help drive awareness of the new product into the marketplace, to industry analysts and to customers. The sales and channel teams also use the material to help move customers through the sales funnel, which in turn drives sales.

The content that Product Marketing develops is also often used as source material by Sales Enablement and Training organizations to create sales and channel training and enablement materials. In some cases, if those organizations don’t exist, the Product Marketing team may even have the responsibility for developing the sales and partner training and enablement materials as well.

And as previously mentioned in Part One of this three-part series (“What Product Marketing Does”), Product Marketing is responsible for developing the Go-To-Market plan for the product, as well as managing and supporting all activities related to the product launch.

Not only does Product Marketing play a critical role in the launch of products, it also interacts with numerous internal and external departments and organizations. These may include: the Product Team, other Marketing and Communications functions, the Sales organization and Channel Partners, Field Marketing, Customer Success, Sales Enablement and Training organizations. And unlike most other marketing functions, Product Marketing often engages directly with customers alongside Sales, Channel Partners or Field Marketing.

This is why Product Marketing is so critical to the success of the business and is one of the most critical marketing functions that exists. In addition to developing the necessary strategy and content required to successfully launch new products, it also provides information to and passes information between multiple organizations within the business, engages with customers, and helps drive awareness and sales of the products.

Summary

Whether developing launch plans and go-to-market strategies, researching the market and the competition, or creating messaging, positioning and content, Product Marketing is one of the most critical and strategic functions that exists within a business. Combine that with interacting and engaging with numerous internal organizations, as well as with sales, partners and customers, and you can see why Product Marketing is considered to be one of the most confusing and least understood areas of marketing.

However, the depth and breadth of knowledge and skill required to successfully perform all of those diverse activities is the reason that Product Marketing is also one of the most critical, if not the most critical, areas of marketing that exists within a company.  

 

 

© 2021 – Richard Hatheway / Catalyst Strategic Marketing