Marketing Strategy Sample Questions – In this article, you’ll learn all the key components of a product marketing plan based on expert tips.
On this page, you’ll learn how to create and implement a product marketing plan with free downloadable templates, the key elements of a product marketing strategy, and how product marketing aligns with your company’s growth strategy.
Marketing Strategy Sample Questions
To help you get started with your product marketing plan, download one of the free, ready-made templates below to help you plan, strategize, and track your product marketing plans.
Marketing Interview Questions [updated 2023]
Once you’ve identified the key features of your product, it’s time to create a go-to-market plan that guides you how to promote and sell it. This launch plan covers everything from developing pricing and messaging for the product to creating training materials for your sales team. It keeps everyone on the same page and ensures your team is ready when the product is ready. The plan also specifies the timeline, release schedule, resources, and tasks.
You can frame your product marketing plan or marketing mix with the four Ps: product, price, place, and promotion, a process developed by E. J. McCarthy in the 1960s. In 1981 Bernard Baums and Mary Bittner added three more components: process, people. And to learn more about the physical proof, the four P’s, read The Definitive Guide to Strategic Marketing Planning. Here are some of the key elements you need to start framing your marketing plan:
Product: While you outline the designs, features, services, and other unique elements that define your product, your marketing plan covers more than just the details. It is a positioning statement that defines what makes your product different.
Price: There are several factors to consider when determining your price. First, you know how much it costs to make your product. Next, you need to know how much value customers will place on your product. Consider market conditions: Is your product in high demand? Are there too many competitors to respond with their own pricing strategies? What discounts, sales, payment terms or other terms can you include in your pricing? Ultimately, your product is only as valuable as your customers are willing to pay, so make sure you understand your product’s value in the marketplace.
Marketing Strategy Questions To Ask Before Building Yours
Location: Location can mean the store that operates in the actual location where customers find your product, but it also includes all the distribution channels you use to get your product to your customer. (For example, new software companies often sell online.) Delivery methods vary widely by product, but the goal is to get your product to market.
Promotion: This may seem like the most natural part of product marketing. Advertising includes all the channels and methods you will use to reach customers about the value of your product. Tactics include advertising, sales, events, email marketing, content marketing, social media, and more. Every aspect of your ad focuses on your product messages.
Process: Think of the process as the pipeline for your product. This is especially important when providing services. For a start, the first product launch has many advantages. First, you introduce your product to the market. Then you also learn how to improve your process for the next product development. For any company, this process will always reveal your strengths and opportunities for improvement.
People: The people behind your product are crucial to product marketing. From your engineers and product development team to sales and support, your success depends on your people. Do you have enough staff to manage product launch and completion? Have you given your sales team everything they need to explain what makes your product different?
Steps To Build A Go To Market Strategy (framework And Examples)
Physical Evidence: Successful product marketing provides a superior customer experience. How does your message shape the perception of your product, whether in-store or online? The consumer experience can be your product’s biggest differentiator.
The Four Ps are business oriented, but product marketing is customer oriented. To adapt to product marketing and put the customer in the place of the seller, the Four C approaches were developed in the 1990s: customer, cost, convenience, and communication.
Working on the marketing mix, you will identify the differences and details of your product. This is the information your sales team needs. Another responsibility of product marketing is to turn these positioning statements into materials that will help your sales team sell your product and meet the company’s revenue goals. A pitch should focus on what differentiates your product, not on price:
In addition to the sales guide, you should prepare datasheets, training materials and other helpful materials that your sales team can use to promote the product to your target audience.
Examples Of Marketing Plan And Why They Work
Product development and product marketing must be coordinated so that both are available at the same time. Imagine launching a product and not informing your customers about it in the market – you wouldn’t make a lot of sales and you wouldn’t be able to use false positioning statements about the product’s features and benefits. Either way, you alienate yourself from your customers. Customer satisfaction is your primary goal and you can share it across departments to achieve it.
Time is your most valuable resource. Don’t waste it by working independently from other departments or leaving key stakeholders out of the loop. Create a marketing brief early in your process and use it for regular organization-wide updates. Your project summary should include:
A product marketing strategy goes hand in hand with a product strategy – a plan that defines and defines what you want to achieve. A good strategy guides everyone (from CEO to engineering to sales and customer support) in the same direction. It allows you to focus on your customers and your market. This is your guide to working together on the issues that matter most.
A product starts with your organization’s vision. The product must fit perfectly into the strategic vision of the organization. This vision fuels product development and gives your customers energy and excitement. It defines your customers, what they need and how you meet those needs. You can even understand the product lifecycle, what it might become and when it might reach its final stage.
Comprehensive Guide To Product Marketing
You have a vision of what you want to achieve. Now you need information to make this vision a reality. Here are some critical areas:
You may have a rough idea of how your product works. Armed with these insights, you can pinpoint all the details that keep customers happy and move your business forward. From features and colors to additional services and warranties, you can confidently talk about specific product functions that meet consumers’ needs. The product description you create shows how the product meets your customers’ needs.
Few products last forever. You need to prepare for growth, maturity and decreasing demand from the very beginning of your product. In some cases, sales drop. Competitors will offer a comparable product. Insights are key to determining what stage your product is at. Always monitor your product lifecycle and be ready for improvements, updates or even a new product based on existing ones. (For example, although pay phones are rare nowadays, the problem they once solved still exists and has been replaced by mobile phones.)
Management guru Peter Drucker is often quoted as saying, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” This doesn’t just apply to the C-suite, it extends to every product and department in your company.
Marketing Strategy Template
Once you’ve defined the product, it’s time to define what you want to achieve. Without goals, how will you know if your product is successful? Use simple, clear, and specific goals (improving market share, re-engaging customers, or increasing revenue) to stay on track. Remember that product goals are not standalone. They should align with your company’s strategic and business goals. After all, your product is part of the company’s success. Read this article to learn more about writing SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals.
Finally, ask how the product fits into your business ventures. Your product could be a better mousetrap. It meets the needs of customers by creating a greater sense of security with fewer mice. (They buy solutions, not products). You can match your product features with your company’s larger initiatives.
The primary function of product marketing is to connect your customers to your products. Product marketing not only requires in-depth knowledge of your customers, you also need to understand your product and how to position it in a crowded market. As a product marketer, you are responsible for the success of your product. Key deliverables include:
As mentioned earlier in this article, product marketing started as brand management and works directly with product development. Working together, these two roles have different areas of responsibility: product management focuses on the product and its features and requirements, while product marketing focuses on the product.