An Easy Guide to Product Marketing in 2021

Introduction

MARKETING in simpler terms is defined as something which assesses the product, its specification, customer interest, customer education, brings together a similar set of customers with almost the same kind of requirements together, and then pitch in the product and complete the marketing circle by closing with a final sale.

Marketing stands on 4 major pillars or 4 P’s namely product, price, place, and promotion.

One of the most important pillars in marketing is Product that is in simple terms what is the thing one is running its business for or what is that the business is offering to its customers.

So, combining the above two words we get Product Marketing which can be explained as the process which manages the products, its features, specification and is displayed with the help of marketing tools and strategies in such a way that it catches the eye of its targeted customer set and is finally sold to them. 

Some of the companies who have excelled by example in using the Product Marketing strategy are:

Facebook guides its small business users with tutorials to market themselves in turn also promoting themselves and encasing their network.

To further understand product marketing let’s understand its strategy which can be used for the existing and new products:

• Vision: It is defined as the ultimate goal that the company has for its business and plans for its future.

• Insights: It is defined as the perception and the reality which the product has in the eyes of its customers, competitors, and its market position for the targeted customers.

• Life Cycle: Every product has its own life cycle and to understand where our product does lie in that cycle is very important to plan a marketing strategy for the product.

• Goals and Initiatives: These are the goals and initiatives which have been set by the company so as to enhance and increase their business. These initiatives can be in the form of new practices or discounts which can be given to the customers.

Further emphasizing the importance of product marketing let us understand the

1. Different Levels of Product
2. Different types of Product
3. Products can be categorized into two main categories namely

1. Different Levels of Product

• Core Product: it s defined as the level which explains the benefits that are provided by using the product in question.

• Actual Product: it the aspect that explains the specification as in color, style, quality, etc.

• Augmented Product: it is the outer mist level which explains the extra benefits that are provided with the product that is after-sale service, warranties, customer care, etc.

To take our understanding ahead on the concept of product marketing let us understand the

2. Different types of Product

• Consumer Product: as the name suggests it is the type of product which is used by targeted customers for their self-consumption, it has majorly two types :

• Convenience Goods: the goods that are bought for the daily convenience needs for the customer’s example newspaper, tea, cereals, etc 

• Specialty Goods: These are those types of goods that are dependent on the customer personnel choice or needs for example alcohol, medicines, etc

• Industrial Products: as the name suggests these are the types of goods that are used in industries for further production of goods; these are not for self-consumption only they are for mass production. There is some further division in this category namely:

• Capital Plant and Equipment: any heavy-duty equipment which is used for further production of the products fall in this category.

• Accessories: the accessories which help this equipment to perform well fall in this category of products

•  Material and Components: all the raw material used in the large equipment to produce the final product falls in this category.

• Services: Not all products are tangible in nature there is businesses where their products are services which they offer to their customers. It comes with further division namely: 

• Pure Service: a business that offers only pure service falls in this category.

• A Major Service:  A sector which offers mainly services with minor tangible goods falls in this category.

• A Tangible Good: the business which provides services with tangible goods to its customers falls in this category.

To put things in simpler way

3. Products can be categorized into two main categories namely

1) Tangible Goods- can be marketed using Product Marketing 

2) Intangible Goods-can be marketed using Service Marketing.

The basic conceptual formation is the same for product and service marketing but the only difference between the two is the type of product.

So to define Service marketing is the process through which the customer needs are identified, matched with the service provision, supported with the companies vision, and then finally presenting the customer with it so that the sale of the service could take place.

Product marketing is very important in today’s competitive world, to put it in academic terms it can be defined as a form of Niche Marketing. 

Niche Marketing is a branch of marketing that does exclusive or focused marketing for products and its set of targeted customers. This process helps to identify and research the exclusive customer needs, their specifications and matches them or places the product in such a way that it matches with the customer wants so that the final marketing step gets completed with the sale of the product.

So summing up the importance or duties of product marketing in academic terms it is the process which helps to position the product within the interest of customers and helping to eradicate the competition from other business in its way and finally ensuring the sales of the product is done thus helping in the growth of the business.

To get the best results from product marketing a product marketing plan needs to be developed which can help the business to achieve its intended goals. This plan not only helps to strengthen the existing product lines of business but also helps to develop and market the new product launches.

For making the marketing plan following are the foremost basic questions regarding our product which every marketer should know so that the plan or strategies can be made accordingly.

1. Which need of the customer does our product solve?
2. How is our product different from its competitors?
3. What is the USP of our product (USP is Unique Selling Point)?
4. What are the core features of our product?
5. What additional services can be offered to our customers?
6. Who would be a targeted set of customers for our product?

Post the marketers have answers to the above questions a good and effective marketing plan can be developed and can be used so as to achieve the final outcome of sales of the product and thus increasing the revenue for the company.

Conclusion

Interested to learn all about Product Management from the best minds in the industry? Check out our Product Management Course. This 6-month-long program takes place online through live instructor-led sessions. It is the only program in India that offers the ‘Bring Your Own Product (BYOP)’ feature so that learners can build their product idea into a full-blown product, and go through an entire Product Development lifecycle. Not only this, but this is the only program in India with a curriculum that conforms to the 5i Framework. Post completion, learners receive a joint certification from the Indian Institute of Management, Indore, and Jigsaw Academy.