Did you ever wonder how others viewed you? I’m not talking about a physical appearance, but what they think when you respond to the question “What do you do?” During this holiday season I’ve been making my way through the party circuit, and have been asked that question at each an every one of the holiday events to which I’ve been invited. So, how do you answer?
First, I’m not trying to tell my mother what I do. (I gave up on that years ago and now simply say “I listen to the market to understand what they need and translate it back to building and promoting cool products.” It’s long enough that she won’t ask any follow-on questions, but short enough I can remember it, and, it actually is embedded with truth.) No, I’m talking about the average business person who may have heard of product marketing or management, but still doesn’t know what it does.
“Oh, so you are the one who sends out those campaigns that fill my e-mail?” Is a typical response. “No,” I say, “that is my marketing programs/communications colleagues. I’m the one who decides what those messages should say.” Alas, it still leaves me looking at a face with a blank stare gazing back at me. Geesh.
After my last such encounter I went to the source of all knowledge, Wikipedia, and looked up product marketing: Product marketing deals with the first of the “4P”‘s of marketing, which are Product, Pricing, Place, and Promotion. Well thank you Wikipedia…that sure helped. Answer.com gives a more complete response: “Product marketing deals with the first of the “4P”‘s of marketing, which are Product, Pricing, Place, and Promotion. Product marketing, as opposed to product management, deals with more outbound marketing tasks. For example, product management deals with the nuts and bolts of product development within a firm, whereas product marketing deals with marketing the product to prospects, customers, and others. Product marketing, as a job function within a firm, also differs from other marketing jobs such as marketing communications (“marcom”), online marketing, advertising, marketing strategy, etc.”
Looking in from the outside, professionals in the field (like me, and probably you if you read this blog regularly) can answer the question to those who are somewhat familiar with our world. However, it isn’t easy when you try to explain this to someone outside. So, I came up with a new non-mom response that I like … “product marketing is about understanding what the potential customer hears when they think of your product.” I might try that at the next party this weekend.
What is your answer?
