Beneath the seemingly straightforward label – “product marketing” – lies a complex and multifaceted role that often leaves both insiders and outsiders scratching their heads. After all, product marketing is a complex discipline that sits at the intersection of product, marketing, sales, and customer success. 

With such a broad scope, it's no wonder there's debate around whether the term accurately symbolizes everything a product marketer (PMM) is responsible for.

In this article, we'll break down what product marketing is, what product marketers do, and we’ll explore potential alternative names that could convey the strategic nature of the role.

Let’s dive in.

What is product marketing?

Product marketing, in essence, is the art of bringing a product to market and ensuring its success. It's the connective tissue between the product and the market, serving as the linchpin that aligns internal offerings with external needs and preferences. 

PMMs are tasked with launching products to market and driving their success through positioning, messaging, launching, sales enablement, ongoing demand generation, and more. This function delves into the core of what makes a product tick and why it matters to the respective audience. 

Ultimately, product marketers act as the voice of the customer within an organization to ensure what's built and delivered meets market needs. 

PMMs create narratives that articulate the value propositions of products to convince both internal and external audiences that their solutions address specific pain points and solve real customer problems.

The responsibilities of PMMs tend to fall into four main buckets:

To accomplish those strategic goals, product marketers end up closely coordinating with product, marketing, sales, and customer success teams on a daily basis. When done effectively, PMMs become trusted advisors that unite different departments behind a common vision that aligns with customer needs.

Ultimately, product marketing is a multifaceted role focused on connection, problem-solving, and driving business growth.

What does a product marketing manager do?

A PMM is the orchestrator of the product's journey – from conception to market domination. The role extends beyond a one-size-fits-all approach. Some PMMs excel at scheduling roll-out activities with finesse, while others can dissect market nuances in their sleep. 

Given the complex landscape product marketers navigate, the day-to-day activities end up varying substantially depending on the organization. But some responsibilities tend to be consistent across companies.

Now we'll further explore some of the core responsibilities mentioned above.

Conducting market research 

Continuous research into buyer needs, the competitive environment, and product perceptions.

As a product marketer, understanding buyers is critical. You need to continually probe their pain points and desires through in-depth market research. Surveys, interviews, and competitive analysis – these are your tools to piece together a comprehensive picture of user needs and the landscape. Like an investigative journalist, you uncover key insights that will inform positioning and strategy.

 

Defining positioning 

Map product capabilities to the outcomes buyers care about.

Armed with research, you can start shaping positioning that resonates. This involves pinpointing the key outcomes buyers care about and mapping product capabilities to deliver those outcomes. It's like fitting together a complex puzzle – finding the right fit between user wants and your product's strengths. The ultimate goal of positioning is achieving product resonance.

Crafting messaging 

Shape value propositions and external narratives about the product.

Now for the fun, creative part – bringing that positioning to life through compelling messaging. This calls on your inner storyteller to shape narratives that spark interest and underscore value. The right messaging highlights differentiators, piques curiosity, and enables sales reps to have meaningful conversations.

Gaining competitive insights

Interview customers, run surveys, and analyze data to inform strategy.

To continually inform strategy, you need to be capturing insights. This means interviewing customers, running surveys, and analyzing data to uncover trends and opportunities. As an analyst, you derive meaning from information to guide product and marketing decisions.

Enabling sales 

Create sales collateral and train reps on the product and value stories.

You empower sales reps by creating collateral and training that arms them with product knowledge and value messaging. Like an educator prepping students, you set reps up for success in customer conversations.

Managing launches

Coordinate go-to-market (GTM) plans and product release logistics.

Product launches require masterful coordination of many moving parts – finalizing materials, briefing teams, and nailing down release logistics. As a coordinator, you bring it all together for a smooth GTM launch. It's a mad dash to the finish line, but so rewarding.

Creating content

Captivate and convert your target audience.

Strategizing programs, creating engaging stories, optimizing for SEO, and tracking engagement, product marketers oversee the content engine. From blogs to battlecards, you craft compelling assets to attract and nurture leads: Juggling strategy and execution, content is a PMM's secret weapon to accelerate the buyer's journey.

Fueling growth

Devise strategies, campaigns, and programs to drive adoption.

Even after launch, the work continues. As a strategist focused on growth, you continually devise innovative campaigns, programs, and tactics to drive adoption and maximize business impact.

As you can see, the scope is extremely broad. Product marketers end up having their hands in many disciplines, which requires a varied set of skills.

Product marketing specializations

As product marketing matures as a profession, we're also starting to see more specialized sub-functions emerge that allow product marketers to learn the intricacies of areas like:

Organizations large enough to support specialized product marketing roles are finding tremendous value in moving away from product marketers being a "jack-of-all-trades." 

However, we see these tasks as being a core part of a PMM’s role. As a professional product marketer, we’d prefer the term “multidisciplinarian” – it’s a more accurate description than jack-of-all-trades.

Key partnerships

To execute those responsibilities, product marketers work very closely with:

  • Product teams: Gathering customer feedback to influence roadmaps and identify market opportunities.
  • Marketing: Supporting campaign development, content creation, and event management.
  • Sales: Arming reps with in-depth knowledge and collateral to close deals.
  • Customer success: Providing training and resources to drive retention and expansion.

Product marketers interact with almost every department in some capacity. So, this begs the question: Is product marketing an accurate title? 

Alternative names for product marketing

Given the expansive nature of the role, PMMs find themselves juggling various responsibilities that transcend traditional product marketing roles. So, is the title too limiting, or is it an accurate, all-encompassing term?

Here are some alternative names that could convey the strategic value product marketers provide:

Market insight specialists

PMMs act as the keepers of customer knowledge, immersing themselves in market trends, buyer needs, and the competitive landscape; serving as market experts for the entire company.

Go-to-market strategists

Many product marketers focus heavily on crafting product strategies and guiding products through launch; the strategic drivers behind taking offerings to market.

Customer advocates

With such intense customer empathy, product marketers essentially act as the voice of the customer within organizations; customer advocates or champions have the potential to embody that perspective.

Growth engines

Driving product adoption and expansion is a core function as well. Growth engine or accelerator could clearly depict that demand gen role.

Of course, these are just examples of ways in which you could term your role if you wished to illustrate a way in which you specialize or paint a clear picture of your main focus area. 

Many PMMs find themselves at the crossroads of strategy and execution, often misunderstood by those unfamiliar with the intricacies of their role.

The disciplined generalist dilemma

Whether or not you’re a PMM who specializes in one area, the vast majority of product marketing managers still need to think strategically across the entire product lifecycle; delving into an array of tasks, and focusing on a multitude of operations. 

Product marketers thrive off intellectual variety and some find it difficult to resist the urge to dive deeper into the areas that intrinsically motivate them more, like product strategy over sales enablement, for example.

Remember that maintaining strategic alignment and upholding credibility across departments relies on consistency and reliability surrounding activities like creating sales assets or monitoring campaign performance.

Closing thoughts

Product marketing covers a tremendous amount of territory that lives outside the bounds of any single department. It's a complex domain requiring both intense specialization and ongoing flexibility to pinpoint market opportunities and align organizations behind product visions.

Amidst the discourse seeking alternative titles for product marketing, it's essential to acknowledge the inherent accuracy of the term itself. At its heart, product marketing is about shaping offerings to resonate with consumers to drive mutual value creation. In this sense, "product marketing" succinctly embodies the essence of a role that orchestrates the entire lifecycle of a product – from conception to market impact.

This title encapsulates the dynamic interplay between the intricacies of the product and the ever-evolving market landscape. While alternative names are proposed to reflect the diverse responsibilities of product marketers, the simplicity and clarity of the term product marketing effectively conveys the primary mission — to ensure a product's success in the competitive marketplace.