42 Rules of Product Marketing: Learn the Rules of Product Marketing from Leading Experts from around the World by Gary Parker & Brian Lawley & Phil Burton

Author:Gary Parker & Brian Lawley & Phil Burton [Parker, Gary]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Super Star Press
Published: 2012-02-26T14:00:00+00:00

Rule 27

Forget about Your Product

By Bertrand Hazard,

Sr. Director of Business Strategy, SolarWinds

The best product marketers strive to live, breathe, and think like their customers.

“Business buyers don’t buy your product. They buy your approach to solving their problem.”xvii —Jeff Ernst, Analyst, Forrester Research Forget about your product.

Product marketing is less about what you sell and more about who purchases it. Understanding your customer is what matters most, mainly what they care about and how they purchase and consume products. Only at that point should you strategize how to position, package, price, and sell to your customers.

Planning with the end in mind (the purchasing transaction) distinguishes a good product marketer from a great one. Great product marketers map their marketing strategy and sales initiatives around their customers’ buying journey. Most importantly, they strive to live, breathe, and think like their customers.

Doing so strengthens the product marketer’s best effort to:

Create a memorable story. The best product marketers create an emotional connection with their audience by casting their customer as the story’s main character and speaking in their customer’s voice. They search diligently for the perfect tone of authenticity that resonates best with their customers and focus their message on solutions, benefits, and value without superlatives and buzz words. Think Apple’s iPod “1,000 songs in your pocket” or Southwest Airlines “You are now free to move about the country.”

Create an enchanting experience. The best product marketers lead their customers through a beautifully orchestrated buying experience. They appreciate that their customer cares about the cumulative product purchasing experience including the initial website visit, first interaction with the sales team, online registration to community and support sites, and so on. They continue to escort their customers throughout the implementation phase ensuring that each customer is getting the promised value from their product. They know, especially in the B2B space, that a cohesive purchasing and on boarding experience will build the strongest relationship with their customer and increase the likelihood of an initial and subsequent purchase. Think Rackspace’s “Fanatical Support” brand promise and delivery.

Create passionate brand advocates. The best product marketers transform enchanted customers into their most effective sales agents by nurturing their customers’ passion and providing them the communication channels to voice their love for the product, whether an online forum or offline user conference. They root for their customers more than anyone else because they know that in these days of growing peer influence on purchases, their best customers are also their best marketing assets, their best brand advocates and ultimately, their best sales reps. Think Harley Davidson and their “Live to ride” official riding club (HOG) or Zappos and their mission to “Deliver Happiness.”

With the growing use of social media, product marketers have more ways than ever to connect, engage, and insert themselves into their customers’ habits while building a genuine relationship with their customers. With intimate customer knowledge, product marketers are best positioned to lead their company’s go-to-market strategy and execute upon Peter Drucker’s vision:

“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself.

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