Product Marketing is the Factory and the Other Competency Areas in Marketing Are the Distribution Channels

I’ve used this analogy before and the last time I did was a couple years back when interviewing with the head of Demand Generation at the company I currently work for. When I brought it up, in response to a question, she smiled. She understood and agreed with exactly what I was saying – we were on the same wavelength completely.

Product Marketing is the factory and all other teams within Marketing largely represent distribution channels for Product Marketing’s “product.” And by “product,” I mean positioning and messaging.

The Factory and the Distribution Channels metaphor is because I believe that Marketing teams work better with this understanding. It provides a sharper line that keeps teams focused on excelling and delivering excellence in their respective swim lanes. It’s when this is less clear across an organization that you see teams muddy the waters through incursions of overstretch, misunderstandings and overconfidence.  

Equally Important

Now, let me be clear not to offend as someone might feel like I’ve suggested the Factory is more important than the distribution channels. It’s not. The Factory and the Distribution Channels are on equal ground. However, the factory is the best at creating and producing its product. Product Marketing has the best sense of the market, competitors, the company’s portfolio and so on so it makes sense that Product Marketing essentially excels at creating messages that will resonate. Product Marketing is also, or should be, great at ferreting out what types of content will resonate as well.

The distribution channels of Demand, Social, Events, AR/PR, Web and so on are the best at what they do in terms of maximizing the impact of that messaging in their channels. They are better versed in how to amplify the message, what new avenues and approaches to try, measuring the impact of the messaging, and so on.

When the Factory and Distribution Channels metaphor is largely in operation, I’ve found that Product Marketing and the other Marketing centers of excellence are very well aligned. There’s less interpretation and changes to messaging as teams work hard to stay on point in substance and nuance. When this understanding is more vague, you see where individual teams will massage messaging, emphasize or deemphasize aspects of it unintentionally and intentionally, and so on. And because the message is in many respects, the final culmination of so many elements and efforts on the part of Product Marketing, preserving the original intent of the messaging is highly important.