Product marketing: Creating successful products

Product marketing is the process of promoting an item or service. It involves ensuring the target audience—a specific group of people that a business aims to reach with its products, services, or marketing messages—understands the benefits of the product and how it stands out from the alternatives.

If a company doesn’t properly demonstrate its product’s value, it may struggle to attract customers, even if the product has the highest quality on the market.¹

Read on to learn how to successfully sell products through effective product marketing.

A product marketing strategy is a plan to launch and promote what a business offers to its target customers. It involves understanding the target audience, knowing what makes the product special, and crafting a message that resonates with prospective buyers.²

Before offering a new product or service to the public, it's essential to learn about the preferences and needs of the audience and create buyer personas, fictional profiles that represent your ideal customers. They are created based on real data and research about your existing and potential customers. These personas help businesses understand who their customers are and what they need.

You’ll be wise to use this information to ensure that your product marketing efforts reach the right people, have a high conversion rate—the percentage of the target audience who take a desired action as a result of the product marketing efforts—and drive sales.³

This market research may include collecting customer data such as age, gender, marital status, occupation, education, and interests. The goal is to develop profiles that identify potential customers. As a result, your product marketing team can create promotional materials that speak directly to the people most likely to value the new product or service you'll offer.^3,4

In addition to knowing who the customers are, understanding how they interact with the company is vital in product marketing. That’s where consumer behavior analysis becomes necessary. This involves observing people’s purchasing habits, such as:

• How often they buy⁵
• Specific products they prefer⁵
• Background factors, such as family influence and cultural traditions, that guide their purchasing decisions⁵

Consumer behavior analysis gives businesses insights into customers’ buying decisions. It also sheds some light on their priorities and motives for purchasing specific products.

Analyzing customer behaviors doesn’t have to be complicated. Instead of doing it manually, organizations can use customer behavior analytics platforms, such as HubSpot, Vertica, and Trifacta.⁵

Potential customers usually go through several stages from the moment they discover a business to the time when they decide they're ready to buy from that brand. This journey is called a marketing funnel. People at the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel have different needs.⁶

For example, those at the top of the funnel have just become aware of the company’s products. As a result, they need to learn more about the brand. On the other hand, prospects at the bottom of the funnel are ready to purchase—they may need persuasive content, such as testimonials and case studies.⁶

Audience segmentation ensures product marketing campaigns address the unique needs of potential customers at different stages of the marketing funnel. It also involves dividing the audience into categories based on:

• Demographics⁷
• Behaviors⁷
• Level of engagement⁷
• Interests (e.g., hobbies and aesthetic taste)⁷

Segmentation can help marketing and sales teams tend to the needs of specifically targeted audiences, instead of sending everyone the same message.

Branding involves making a product readily identifiable in a way that separates it from everything else on the market. The aim is for the business’s offering to stand out in a sea of similar alternatives.⁸

Branding strategies for product marketing include:

• Memorable brand identity: Brand identity refers to the unique characteristics that influence the brand’s appearance. Developing a memorable identity involves consistently using the brand’s logo, colors, and other visual elements in marketing campaigns.⁹ This helps ensure the organization’s products are instantly recognizable to improve brand equity—the value the company gains from having a product with an identifiable name compared to a generic equivalent.¹⁰
• Customer-centered brand values: Research by Consumer Goods Technology reveals that more than 80% of buyers want a brand’s values to be the same as their own. If there’s any conflict in values, 75% of them would abandon the business¹¹
• Seamless brand experience: The brand experience is the sum of all interactions customers have with a company throughout their buying journey. A great experience builds trust and loyalty. According to Sprout Social, these two critical factors influence nearly 60% of consumers' decisions to choose a particular company’s products over the alternatives.¹²

Product positioning is a marketing strategy that affects how people see a product. It involves communicating the benefits of what the company offers and how the product can solve customers’ needs better than its competitors.¹³ When positioning a product, marketers identify the most important benefits and then use that information to craft a compelling message. This helps organizations differentiate their offerings on the market.¹³

An item can be positioned differently for different audience segments, depending on what appeals most to each group. For instance, a business can present a product as the most convenient choice for an audience made up of busy professionals, and as eco-friendly to another group of consumers who prioritize sustainability when making their buying decisions.¹³

This course is designed to equip students with basic concepts associated with the marketing function. Principal objectives are to discuss the role of marketing in an organization, to describe the processes of buyer behavior and the impact of these processes on marketing decisions, to develop an understanding of approaches used to segment markets and factors influencing the selection of target markets, and to develop an understanding of elements of the marketing mix (product, price, communications, channels) and factors affecting decisions in these areas, and to integrate these concepts into an effective marketing strategy.

The marketing world keeps changing. To promote goods and services effectively, organizations have to stay on top of the latest industry trends, including:

According to HubSpot’s research, in 2023, 48% of marketing professionals used artificial intelligence to create content, such as product descriptions and blog posts, and the percentage of marketers who plan to use AI in some way is projected to skyrocket to 88% in 2024.¹⁴

AI tools are increasingly aiding the product marketing manager in developing efficient marketing strategies by analyzing customer data and automating content creation. This helps in crafting highly targeted marketing campaigns that resonate with a specific target audience.

Personalization involves launching promotional campaigns that speak directly to specific customers’ interests, needs, and buying behaviors. It’s important in product marketing because, according to McKinsey, 71% of modern consumers expect a tailored experience when interacting with a business.¹⁵ For this reason, a personalized brand experience can help increase customer satisfaction.

Product marketing managers use insights from customer feedback and market research to create personalized experiences that cater to both potential customers and existing customers. This approach not only improves engagement but also fosters customer success by addressing individual preferences and pain points.

Social media marketing continues to be a powerful tool for reaching a specific target audience. Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn allow businesses to engage directly with customers, gather valuable customer feedback, and promote their products in a more personal and interactive way. By integrating social media marketing into their marketing strategies, companies can create dynamic marketing campaigns that drive higher engagement and loyalty.

Product launches are no longer just about a single event. Businesses are adopting multi-channel launch strategies that include pre-launch teasers, influencer partnerships, and engaging content across various platforms. This approach ensures a broader reach and higher engagement from potential customers. Effective product marketing managers coordinate these launches, leveraging insights from market research and customer data to maximize impact.

While digital marketing is on the rise, traditional conventional marketing methods still hold value. A balanced approach that combines conventional marketing tactics, such as print ads and events, with digital strategies like SEO and email marketing can create a comprehensive marketing plan that covers all bases. This integrated approach allows businesses to reach a wider audience and adapt to different customer preferences.

By incorporating these emerging trends into their product marketing strategies, businesses can stay competitive and effectively meet the evolving needs of their customers.

When you pursue an online Master of Business Administration at the University of Kansas, you’ll learn the critical role marketing plays for just about every organization. The curriculum will help you gain the skills you need to analyze buyer behaviors and understand how to strategically segment your target audience to optimize your product marketing strategy.

With KU’s nationally recognized online program, you get an exemplary education, just like in an on-campus program, but with the added flexibility of studying on your schedule.¹⁶

Don’t wait to start preparing for a better future. Contact an admissions outreach advisor today to learn more.