Why I Call Bull#@&% On “Product Marketing”
…And what it takes to be a genius marketer no matter the product
In early April, I was talking with a younger colleague who was seeking advice about what titles he could legitimately apply for – he is midway through his career and has held roles in Growth and Brand strategy. I am lucky enough to have worked with this young man for the better part of his career. He is an exceptionally bright marketer, strategist and business mind with an MBA from an Ivy League school and 10 years of experience. And yet, he was being shut out of interviews which called for a “product marketing manager.”
Last week, I spoke with another friend – one of the most brilliant minds in marketing. I know first-hand as I have worked with him on and off since we were young strategists at Deutsch in NY together. This brand and strategic visionary is being shut out of interviews for senior leader roles he is extremely qualified for because he does not have a “product marketing” background.
“It's even hard to pin down a singular definition of product marketing,” shares Mark Lewis, CMO at Tres Agaves Products. “But whether it is focused on product positioning, key benefits, competitive analysis, launch plans or marketing to customers, it seems like it’s indistinguishable from other marketing. In short, it seems to be code for "we want tech experience” because you couldn't possible market tech without it, which is just not true.”
This harkened back to a recent “impassioned” conversation I had with a CEO who wanted me to hire a “product marketer” for a centrally human services platform business that didn’t require deep technology chops, or a unique set of understanding and skills. It was a basic marketing problem we were trying to solve. I pushed back.
“What is the difference between a plain old marketing expert and a product marketing expert? Don’t all marketers market a product, even if it is a service product? Aren’t the fundamentals of basic marketing at play? Know your customer, know your product and map that knowledge to messaging, pricing and media channel?”
I mean it isn’t really brain science.
Don’t get me wrong. I get the gist of the origin of the product marketing role in the purest form. This person understands how to bridge the gap between technical product features and the activation of the features against a user base. If the title were being specifically used for a highly technical product whereby you, the marketer, are defining and adding features, then driving awareness and adoption of those highly complex features – maybe the title could make sense.
But even then, it is still just marketing.
“This is also a question of diversity,” add Lewis. “If companies only hire from a fixed pool of tech "product" marketers, they won't get the benefit of other perspectives or techniques. More diverse people and sets of experience unquestionably leads to better marketing. Hire people who know how to understand an audience and bring the right combination of strategic rigor and creativity to marketing. The rest can be learned.”
In the end, the new title of “product marketing” is just one more way technologists have infiltrated the highly-proven, age old practice called marketing and repopulated it with meaning, thus making people somehow feel locked out, less capable or unqualified. And yes, it leads to more white tech hiring more white tech.
I call BS. And I am not afraid to take on the tech industry who has eroded away the beauty of marketing, what great marketing is and what it takes to be a great marketer.
In my opinion, a great marketer needs to have three fundamental superpowers:
The desire to unpack the details of the product they are marketing to the enth degree, whether it is a product you are intimate with or not. Whether you are marketing green beans or the latest complex financial technology (and I speak form the experience of having done both!), the process is the same. Dive deep and know everything there is to know about the product in its current state and in its innovation. The difference here between good and great is passion! What products are you most passionate about deeply understanding and can you embrace that product fully? It has nothing to do with anything more than that.
The ability to deeply listen to and empathize with your customers – to find the heart and meaning between their needs and your product offering. A genius marketer has the gift of hearing what others can’t. They hear the stories in data, in customer experience feedback, in research. And they translate that into stores of inspiration. It matters less that they know a product but more that they can connect a product to its customers in the most impactful way.
Translate the bridge between the product and the customer into the right message in the right media at the right time at the right price. It’s age old marketing, folks. A great marketer will craft a media mix that is integrated to creative message and supercharges it at the most efficient cost and ROI. They test and plan and retest. Again, whether it is green beans or financial technology – the process of taking a product to market is the same.
A great marketer knows how to dissect and “become the product” they are working on at the meta level. They know how to translate any product into a story. And they know how to accelerate adoption and activation. If they don’t, they are not a great marketer – whether their title says “product marketing,” or not.
