So What is Product Marketing?

Most people seem to know what Marketing and Product Management do. And everyone knows what Sales does. So why is there so much confusion around the role of Product Marketing within technology companies? The main reason for this confusion is that Product Marketing (and Solution/Vertical Marketing) plays largely enabling roles to support other functions within organizations. Enabling roles are less apparent from the outside looking in.

Think of Product Marketing within technology companies in terms of providing an automobile to the market. The parts and vendors chosen, the manufacturing, the assembly, and the delivery and distribution of cars all happen with little or no input from Product Marketing. Everything else, including definition of the target market and features required, market position, category, and differentiation, pricing and options, feature descriptions, proof points, and characteristics in support of the company brand are primary functions of Product Marketing. Functionally speaking, technology Product Marketing provides:

• Product Management with a market strategy for delivering a product rather than a set of features, 
• Marketing with product positioning, relevant market themes and business value, and use cases and other content that make the company and product relevant to the market and fuels launches, programs, and to a lesser extent demand generation too, and
• Sales with product differentiation and unique selling propositions, claims, proof points, competitive analysis and "silver bullets," and sales tools that keep the customer engaged and moving through the sales funnel.

Below is a graphic that I put together to visually illustrate Product Marketing's role. I call this graphic a "big animal picture." If a big animal picture is successful, it should seem almost obvious at first glance. So if this seems very simple or even trite to some of you pros, please bear with me.

Products and Point Solutions. Product Marketing should price and package products to be readily consumed. Product marketing should also bundle products and components together into a broader offering to make that product more valuable so that (1) it not need to compete on features or price alone and so that (2) it does not need to prove itself each time a new competitor is introduced.

Pricing and Packaging. Product Marketing should add pricing and packaging in similar ways as product management adds features. They are two attributes that help define the product’s overall value. Product marketing should also use pricing and packaging to shape or create emerging market categories as well. Consider how pricing and packaging have differentiated enterprise software from enterprise SaaS—even if they offer the same ultimate value.

Market Position and Category. For me, creating position and category are the most strategic and aspects of Product Marketing. This is where Product Marketing maps the company’s product lines, capabilities, and market reach vis-a-vis the competition and market and technological trends and chooses the company’s market space and makes the company’s leadership claims, and provides the high level proof points for the company’s leadership position.

Brand Identity. Product Marketing provides the underlying validation for a company’s brand identity. Product Marketing must support the brand by validating that the product can deliver against the values implied by the brand (e.g., quality, enterprise grade, simple, or comprehensive).