Product Marketing

If it takes over a minute for you to explain a new product to me, then there’s something wrong with your product marketing strategy.

Just recently, I spoke to someone who was launching a new product, but they couldn’t tell me anything about it. That’s a problem. You have to know what your product is, how to describe it, and where it fits in the product market.

This is largely because potential customers need to know what your new product is so that they can fit it into a useful category in their mind. The two things a customer absolutely needs to know about any new product is 1) what it is and 2) what it does for them. Otherwise, your customer is lost. You’ve offered them something without explaining why they would even want it or need it. If they don’t “get” your product, they won’t spend time trying to.

Want to talk about product marketing? These two food-based items got it right. If I tell you something is a tomato-based condiment that tastes slightly salty and vinegary, you’ll almost certainly know what it is. Or if I tell you there’s a chocolate hazelnut-flavored spread that’s shelf-stable and tastes great on everything from crepes to graham crackers, again, you’re sure to know what I’m talking about.

This is good product marketing. You can sum up ketchup and Nutella in a single sentence, and almost any customer will know what product you’re talking about, where it fits in their lives, and why it’s useful. This is why ketchup and Nutella are so successful. In fact, I’ve never met a successful founder who couldn’t explain what their new product was like.

Sadly, after a few minutes, I was able to position this particular person’s product better then they had in months of thinking about their own product. And I still know nothing about it! I mean if you can’t position your product in your own mind, how can a customer?

What kind of product strategy do you use when you’re trying to introduce a new product?