You may recall Apple's “Get a Mac” commercial from the early 2000s, which featured a stuffy suit-wearing, John Hodgman, as a PC and a youthful, laid-back Justin Long as a Mac. “Product Marketing”.
This Effie Award-winning campaign, which spanned 66 advertisements, positioned Apple as the coolest—and most functional—computer product on the market, educating potential consumers on Mac's various advantages, from its movie-editing skills to its magnetic power connection.
This ad campaign is a great example of product marketing since it is remembered and extremely effective.
What is Product Marketing?
The process of bringing items to market is known as product marketing. However, this might entail a great deal or very little. When it comes to product marketing, where does it start and where does it end? There isn't a simple answer to this issue. Product marketers at certain firms are only focused on releasing new items. Others, on the other hand, broaden the scope of product marketing to include product creation and continuous sales strategy years after a product's launch.
To put it another way, think of product marketing as the meeting point of goods and markets. Every marketing strategy will be guided by market needs, which will determine which items are manufactured and how they are presented to potential buyers. In this sense, product marketing can refer to all aspects of a product's development, introduction, and sale.
What Do Product Marketers Do?
Because the term “Product Marketing” can be defined in a variety of ways, product marketers' responsibilities might vary greatly depending on their industry and firm. Product marketing can be a team effort including numerous individuals and departments, or it can be the sole duty of a product marketing manager. It's possible that there will be a specialized product marketing staff. Product marketers are responsible for a variety of tasks, including:
- Market research (doing and assessing)
- Assisting in the creation of new products
- Choosing a new product's positioning and message
- Multichannel product launches: planning and executing
- Customer feedback and key performance indicators are used to assess the success of a product or a campaign.
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Product Marketing VS. Brand Marketing
Product Marketing differs from other styles of marketing in that it focuses solely on the product and is founded on the assumption that the greatest product for the market will always win out, regardless of other factors. To put it another way, a fantastic product may succeed on the market.
Brand Marketing, on the other hand, is founded on the assumption that other factors impact the outcome. This might imply that a customer's emotional attachment to a brand will affect them more than the product's specifications. Marketing managers are sometimes responsible for both product and brand marketing, especially at smaller organizations, and marketing campaigns may combine elements of both.
Product Marketing VS. Product Management
Product management entails developing a product and ensuring that it meets the needs of customers. Product marketing, on the other hand, focuses on establishing a product's market position and conveying its benefits to a particular audience. Product managers would be unable to develop new products or enhance current ones without the help of product marketers. And without product managers, product marketers wouldn't be able to sell clients a working product. These symbiotic responsibilities are frequently shared by a group of persons who operate together.
Product Marketing Roles and Responsibilities
Product Marketing is engaged in every phase of the product development process, including bringing it to market and promoting it once it has been released.
1- Market Research
Those involved in product development must approach their work with a product marketing mindset from the start. Market research is included in this. To see if a product concept is worth your time and money, attempt to answer questions like these:
- How many individuals are interested in a product like this? Is this number increasing?
- How much are consumers willing to spend on average for this sort of product?
- Why is this sort of product appealing to people? What do they hope to gain from it?
- In this field, who will be your competitors? What exactly are they up to? And how can you improve or differentiate your product?
- Who among those interested in this sort of goods may benefit from something fresh, and how?
2- Product Development
Product marketers communicate their research findings with product developers and collaborate with them throughout the development process to ensure that the product meets the demands of consumers.
3- Positioning and Messaging
As the product development cycle draws to a close, product marketers focus on positioning and messaging, or how the firm will communicate about the product to the rest of the world. Product positioning is often decided by answering some form of these questions:
- Who is this product's intended audience?
- What is the purpose of this product?
- What is the problem that this product is supposed to solve for the customer?
- What are the benefits of using this product? What makes you think they'll like it?
- What sets this product apart from the competition?
4- Product Launch
A product launch is a multichannel and dynamic activity. Product marketers are in charge of developing the launch strategy, which comprises the following elements:
- a comprehensive timetable
- The company's website, social media, email, and blog will all be updated with a specific message.
- A paid advertising strategy that may incorporate digital commercials as well as IRL (out-of-home) ads such as billboards.
- Public relations initiatives, such as reaching out to magazine editors to inform them of the product
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5- Post-launch
The job of a product marketer does not finish when the product is launched. They'll track sales and interaction to see which channels and messaging are the most effective, and they'll make judgments about which techniques to drop and which to promote.
For example, you may run a series of commercials to test alternative product positioning. A product marketer could replace the underperforming ad creative with the most successful messaging if a clear winner emerges.
Customer feedback will be solicited and analyzed, and your new product will be integrated into your continuing multichannel marketing strategy.
How to Measure the Impact of Product Marketing
Product marketers are held liable for a variety of factors, including:
- Sales. Sales are an obvious and valuable indicator that product marketers will look at to assess the effectiveness of a campaign.
- Product Usage. Is your product delivering on its claims? Understanding how and why customers use your product might provide important details. Product consumption is straightforward to measure if your product is an app. Surveys and product reviews can help companies selling tangible things gather some of this information.
- Market Share. An increasing market share, determined by dividing a firm's sales by the total sales of the industry, is a strong indicator that your company is keeping up with or outperforming the competition.
