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During the 1950s, Volkswagen sold a bus. Although now considered a classic vehicle, the bus remains an icon for the car company decades later.

The cool part?Volkswagen announced their new VW Bus— it’s electric and features sleek, modern styling. Volkswagen’s marketing for the vehicle is eye-catching, unique, and fun, and it complements the original “hippie” vibe the company was once known for.

volkswagen bus example of product marketing

Source

Volkswagen also released a TV commercialfor the bus that’s clever, minimalist, and on-brand. It introduces the new vehicle with the songThe Sound of Silenceplaying in the background (hint: electric cars are silent) and ends with a short message on the screen for viewers to read: “Introducing a new era of electric driving.”

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This sentiment touches on the fact Volkswagen is contributing to society’s interest in electric, eco-friendly vehicles. It also relates to this being a new era for the bus.

So, who works on this type of marketing? Who helps create content that excites consumers about new and updated products, like the Volkswagen bus? Who encourages consumers to buy?Product marketers

What makes product marketing unique? How is it different from conventional marketing? Let's unpack the differences.

产品营销vs. Conventional Marketing

产品营销是战略性的,而常规营销是无所不包的。

Product marketing is considered a component of conventional marketing. In fact, if you look at the营销的七个PS, you’ll see product marketing is one of the most important aspects of a business’s marketing efforts.

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Product marketing主要是on driving demand for and adoption of a product among existing customers. It’s focused on the steps people take to purchase your product so product marketers can build campaigns to support this work.

Product marketing is about understanding a specific product’s audience on a deep level and developing that product’s positioning and messaging to appeal to that audience. It covers the launch and execution side of a product in addition to the marketing strategy for the product — which is why the work of a product marketer lies at the center of a business’s marketing, sales, and product teams.

venn diagram with marketing sales and product for product marketing

Conventional marketing is focused on broader topics under the umbrella of marketing such as lead generation, SEO, and anything related toacquiring and converting new leads and customers。这是关于推广公司和整个品牌,包括出售产品。bob全站app这些营销人员确保公司所有内容背后都有一致的品牌信息。bob全站app

Why is product marketing important?

Product marketing is a critical part of any business’s marketing strategy. Without it, your product won’t achieve its maximum potential among your target audience. Let’s look at what product marketing does so you get a better idea of that I mean by this.

  • 更好地了解您的客户。
  • 有效地针对您的买家角色。
  • 了解您的竞争对手(产品和营销策略)。
  • 确保营销,产品和销售团队都在同一页面上。
  • Position the product appropriately in the market.
  • Boost revenue and improve sales.

There are also questions you, as a product marketer, will have to ask yourself and reflect on in regards to your product. Asking yourself these questions will help you ensure your product is a success among customers.

  • Is this product suitable for today’s market?
  • 该产品适合今天的客户吗?
  • How is this product unique from similar products of our competitor’s?
  • 有没有办法将该产品与竞争对手的产品进一步区分?
  • Are there any products we’ve sold in the past that we wouldn’t market or sell ever again now that we look back? Is so, why not?

作为you can see, product marketing requires you to look at your products from a strategic perspective to ensure they’re successful among customers in your current market.

Now, let’s take a look at the specific responsibilities you have as a product marketer (or product marketing manager).

您作为产品营销人员的责任可能会根据行业,公司,产品以及公司规模和资源而略有不同。bob体育苹果系统下载安装bob全站app如果您在初创公司工作,则可能是产品营销人员,还可以帮助创建更广泛的营销团队由于资源和预算有限而生产的内容。bob体育苹果系统下载安装随着业务的增长,您可能会进入一个团队,他们的工作是产品营销。

Let’s take a look at six common product marketing responsibilities.

1.确定您的产品的买家角色和目标受众。

您必须确定产品的购买者角色和受众,以便您可以以令人信服的方式定位客户,并使他们想进行购买。这将使您可以量身定制产品及其功能,以解决观众面临的挑战。

Use templates to create buyer personas for your business.

2.成功创建,管理和执行您的产品营销策略。

A product marketing strategy(which we’ll review shortly)allows you to create, build, and execute content and campaigns — this supports the steps that will lead your buyer personas and customers to make a purchase.

3. Work with and enable sales to attract the right customers for your new product.

作为a product marketer, you have to maintain a direct relationship with sales. You’ll work with sales to identify and attract the right customers for the product at hand and providesales enablementmaterials to reps to ensure they understand the product inside and out, along with all of its features.

This way, you and your teams are on the same page in terms of what’s being shared with customers, allowing you to provide a consistent, on-brand experience for anyone who comes in contact with the product.

4.确定产品在市场上的定位。

One of the most important parts of your job is determining the product’s positioning in the market. Think about this process in terms of评书— your positioning requires you to create and tell the story of your product.

作为a product marketer, you’ll work with the broader marketing team and the product team to tell this story by answering critical questions like:

  • Why was this product made?
  • Who is this product made for?
  • 该产品解决了什么挑战?
  • 是什么使该产品与众不同?

5. Ensure your product meets the needs of your target audience.

You must also make sure your product meets the needs of your customers and target audience. Through the research conducted to determine your buyer persona’s and target audience, you should have uncovered the pain points and challenges you’re working to solve with your product.

If your product doesn’t meet the needs of your customers, they’ll have no reason to make the purchase or choose your product over your competitor’s.

6. Keep your product relevant over time.

你的产品需要保持相关。作为needs, expectations, and challenges change and evolve, it’s your job to make sure your product marketing strategy, and the products themselves, remain relevant among customers.

This means you may have to manage slight changes in your product marketing strategy (which we’ll discuss next), or updates and modifications to the product itself (you’ll likely work with the product team, who actuallycreatesthe product, to do this).

Now, let’s take a look at five steps that can help you optimize your product marketing strategy.

1.定义产品的目标受众和买家角色。

作为mentioned, one of the main roles you have as a product marketer is to define a specific target audience and createbuyer personasfor the specific product being sold (different products will likely have different target audiences). This the first step to marketing your product.

By understanding your customers and their needs, challenges, and pain points, you’ll be able to ensure all aspects of your product marketing strategy (as in, the rest of the steps we’ll define below) are tailored to that target customer and persona. This way, the product and the marketing content that’s created for the product will resonate with your audience.

2. Determine the positioning and messaging to set your product apart.

After performing your customer research and learning about your audience, you’ll have identified their needs, challenges, and pain points. From here, you can think about how to highlight the ways your product resolves those challenges for your customers.

However, that doesn't necessarily mean you’ve differentiated yourself from your competitors. After all, they您的竞争对手是因为他们以与公司类似的方式解决客户的需求。bob全站app

将产品分开的关键是positioning(whichwe touched on earlier) 和消息传递。Positioning and messaging answers key questions your customers might have about your product and what makes it unique and then turns those answers into the main points behind your product’s marketing strategy.

It’s your job as the product marketer to ensure your customers and audience know the answers to these questions and don't have to dig around for (or make assumptions about) them.

Examples of questions you’ll need to answer to develop your product’s positioning and messaging include:

  • What specifically makes our product unique?
  • Why is our product better than our competitors’?
  • Why are our product’s features ideal for our target audience?
  • 我们的客户将从我们的竞争对手产品中获得什么产品?
  • Why should our customers trust and invest in us and our product?

回答这些问题后,您可以将这些回答汇编成一个,有影响力且可共享的陈述,捕捉你的定位和消息传递as a whole. To do this, follow these steps:

  • Turn the answers to the positioning and messaging questions into anelevator pitch
  • Use action words to excite your customers.
  • Ensure the tone of your statement captures the tone of your brand.
  • Focus on the benefit of your product as a whole (not just one specific feature).

And if you need more guidance, check out theHubSpot Marketing Hub product page。The main positioning and messaging statement reads as follows: “All-in-One Inbound Marketing Software: Everything you need to launch effective marketing campaigns that make people interested in your business and happy to be your customer.”

提示:作为产品营销人员,您应该确保销售,产品和(更广泛的)营销团队也知道您围绕产品的定位和消息传递,以便他们也可以向潜在客户和现有客户传达相同的信息。

This allows you to ensure the entire company is consistent in the content and information they share about your product. Additionally, you can provide this information to your support team if you think it’s necessary, as they may be fielding support calls and working with your customers who’ve already invested in the product.

3.设定产品目标。

接下来,您需要为产品设定目标。这些将根据您的特定产品,您工作的公司类型,整体营销目标等方面有所不同 - 您的目标将针对您的业务和情况。bob全站app但是,让我们回顾一些共同的目标产品营销人员的目标:

  • 增加收入
  • Engage with customers
  • Improve market share
  • 从竞争对手那里获取客户
  • Boost brand recognition

提示:Feel free to combine several of these goals or just choose one to focus on — every company and product will have different goals. The key is making sure you view and set these targets in theSMART goalformat, meaning they’re specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.

Use a free template to help you create and achieve your SMART goals.

4. Price your product.

作为产品营销人员,您还必须为讨论price of your product。Depending on the company you work for, you might work with other teams on this part of the strategy, or it might be a job just for you and your fellow product marketers. Either way, you can consider competitive vs. value-based pricing.

Competitive vs. Value-Based Product Pricing

Competitive pricing这意味着您将产品的价格从竞争对手出售的类似产品中脱颖而出。对于创建类似于其他几家公司出售产品的产品的公司来说,这是理想的选择。

If you believe your unique features warrant a significantly higher price than those of your competitors’, you might choose to price your product above the other similar products on the market. A good way to evaluate the fairness of the pricing of all of your competitors is by studying financial reports and industry trends.

Value-based pricingallows you to maximize your profit, although it’s a bit more time-consuming to establish in comparison to competitive pricing. It’s ideal for companies selling a product with very few competitors on the market or one with exceptionally new and unique features.

Value-based pricing quantifies your item’s value in a way your customer can relate to their profitability. It allows you to base your product’s price on its value for your customer rather than whatever the market, industry trends, and your competitors say.

5.启动您的产品。

Now it’s time for the most important part of your role as a product marketer — not to mention, the most exciting: the launch of the product you’ve been marketing.

There are two main parts to the launch to focus on as a product marketer: theinternal launch(what goes on within your company upon product launch) andexternal launch(what goes on outside of your company, with customers and audience members, upon product launch).

Internal Aspects of a Product Launch

作为previously stated, your job as a product marketer entails making sure the entire organization is on the same page about your product. This way, your customers only receive consistent and accurate details about the product.

您公司的营销,产品和销售团队应了解以下信息:bob全站app

  • The product’s benefits
  • Any available product demo information
  • Sales training opportunities on your product and details about how it’s used
  • What the positioning and messaging looks like
  • Who your buyer personas and ideal customers are
  • 产品的目标包括什么
  • What your product’s features are
  • The pricing of your product
  • How your product is being launched to customers (which we’ll discuss momentarily)

现在,您可能想知道如何提供这些formation to marketing, product, and sales. Which channels are ideal for sharing these details with your fellow employees?

以下是一些方法的例子:

External Aspects of a Product Launch

Externally, there are many ways to market your product launch so your current base of customers, prospects, and target audience learn about whatever it is you’re selling.

首先,确定您将在何处集中产品营销工作。以下是一些渠道和场所的示例(您可以选择其中几个或仅仅根据您的需求,目标和资源而重点关注)。bob体育苹果系统下载安装

  • Social media
  • 有存货
  • Product launch event
  • Blog
  • 网站着陆页
  • 独家产品预览(正式发布之前)
  • Promotional event/ campaign (in-person and/ or online)

On whatever channel you choose to focus your product launch marketing efforts, you should include relevant product information (focused on your positioning and messaging) so prospects and customers can learn all about your product and why they need it. This includes your product’s features, what makes it unique, pricing, demos for customers, training for customers, and any other materials you’ve created and want to share.

Congrats!You’ve just worked through the steps to marketing a product. Remember, this process is one that should be thought about and updated as your products change and evolve so they remain relevant among your customers. (This shouldn’t be an issue as long as you have a member of your team focused on product marketing,considering it’s one of their main responsibilities。)

让我们回顾一下恒星产品营销的四个现实示例。

1. Apple

苹果is a household name for leading technology products and software. Not only are its products gorgeously well-designed; they're also super useful. But Apple's product marketing doesn't focus on the many product features — they market the user benefits.

product marketing example apple product benefitsSource

苹果不仅列出了他们产品的令人印象深刻的功能;它使用这些功能来告诉消费者,如果他们购买了这些产品,他们可以如何工作。他们讲述了使用他们的产品的叙述,并鼓励人们在此过程中购买。

2.比利

比利is a women's razor brand. In a highly competitive market, Billie has helped its products stand out. How? It established a sharp competitive edge (no pun intended) by doing what no razor brand had done before — show body hair in its advertising.

product marketing example billie body hair campaignSource

Not only did this advertising approach get Billie's audience talking about the brand, but they also appreciated the brand's accurate portrayal of women's bodies and body hair. These differentiators were more than enough to set Billie apart from other razor brands and products.

3.可口可乐

Did you know that over95% of people around the worldrecognize Coca-Cola and its red and white branding? This comes as no surprise when you notice that most people order a "Coke" when purchasing a soft drink or cola. In fact, the brand recognition is so strong that Coca-Cola's competitor Pepsi used the narrative in its超级碗广告

Through highly targeted positioning, repetitive advertising, and consistent branding, Coca-Cola has become a truly global household name and product.

4. MailChimp

市场上有数十种电子邮件营销工具,但是MailChimp并没有被竞争所困扰。实际上,它通过将自己定位为more而不是电子邮件营销工具:这是一个多合一的营销平台,可帮助企业发展。

product marketing example mailchimpSource

Like Apple, MailChimp primarily highlights its benefits for the end user, not just its product features. Arecent rebranding and site redesign进一步推动了这个叙事的家。

Start Marketing Your Products

Product marketing is the process through which a company brings a product to market. Being a product marketer (or product marketing manager) means you’re at the center of your company’s marketing, sales, and product teams.

You’re an integral part to the success of your product, as you create and manage your product’s specific marketing strategy, but you also serve as a liaison between all three of these departments, ensuring everyone is on the same page with your product, it’s features, capabilities, and more. So, start developing your latest product’s marketing strategy to ensure it’s a success among your target audience and customers.

This post was originally published in February 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

产品营销套件

产品营销套件

Originally published Feb 3, 2020 2:30:00 PM, updated November 24 2021

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产品营销