Simply put, product managers are responsible for putting products on the shelves. Product marketers are supposed to get these products off the shelves and to the customers. With this basic understanding, we will dive deep into the differences between product marketing vs product management.

Both these roles are different but also have overlapping responsibilities. At times representatives of these roles need to work together and create harmonious interactions between the product and the people who use it.

Product managers set the product roadmap according to the vision and identify customer pain points to build a better product. Marketers use the vision to market the product and enhance product outreach so the target audience can discover the product. They focus on positioning the product, build the messaging, marketing materials, and run campaigns for a product’s growth.

Deciphering Product Management and Product Marketing

From startups to established companies and enterprises, all companies need product marketers and managers.

Product Marketing and Product Marketers

It is about bringing the products to the right people and markets online or offline. Within this field, the professionals focus on understanding the target audience, building product awareness, and converting sales to grow revenue. 

A product marketer must first understand the customers and then communicate the value proposition of the product to the target audience. 

Throughout the years, this niche has evolved. In the age of online buying, mobile shopping, and social media, product marketers are often presented with marketing challenges. 

They create marketing campaigns for different audiences and target markets.

Key Responsibilities of Product Marketers

●   They develop and implement plans to take the products to the market.

●   They write product positioning statements and messages to attract audiences.

●   They create sales enablement strategies and plans.

●   They stay on top of the market trends, run analysis, and integrate insights into marketing campaigns.

●   They are responsible for managing bringing the product into the market and ensuring their marketing strategies are implemented.

●   They understand the customers and relay the information to product developers, designers, and managers.

Product marketers create a winning strategy to ensure that the products sell. With time, the role of product marketers has evolved to take on additional responsibilities and skill sets pertaining to creating the requisite strategies.

In addition to the principle knowledge, product marketers need technical skills for research and product development. They also need good relationships with the internal and external stakeholders to get complete product information and help build the right product.

Overall, product marketers represent the voice of the customers. They align product communication with customer preferences and ensure the product sells.

Product Management

Product management represents the development lifecycle of a product. It involves harnessing strategies that lead to the development of budget and time-constrained products.

A manager is tasked with understanding, supervision, development, and launch of the product. They work on the product strategy and execution from the point it is under research to the point of first sale. 

The managers have a cross-functional role as they are involved in multiple processes. Their inputs are required in the design, development process, and even in marketing.

Key Responsibilities of Product Managers

●  They help with the creation of product vision and strategy.

●   They build a product strategy from the first stage of ideation to the last stage of approvals.

●   Their duties include identifying the most important features and functions of the product.

●   They manage and supervise the entire product development process.

●   They monitor and track product performance and suggest improvements according to the feedback.

●   They collaborate closely with the marketers to conduct research and sell the product.

●   They interact with the internal and external stakeholders to acquire information about the product.

Through their impact on the product development process, they play a significant role in the company’s success. However, the specific roles and responsibilities of a manager can vary according to the company’s requirements, product, and goals.

Difference Between Product Management vs Product Marketing

A key difference in product manager vs marketer is that the former is about creating the right product, and the latter is about taking the product to the right audience.

Product marketers and managers are among the most critical roles companies must include in their teams. At several points, their roles intersect, but the differences remain.

Goals and Objectives

‍

Product managers aim to build the right product to meet the user’s needs and expectations. They help companies achieve business goals. However, product marketers focus on taking the product to the market and implementing ways to generate demand while maximizing product value.

Roles and Responsibilities

‍

The managers are the carriers of a product’s vision, strategy, and development. On the other hand, product marketers are the champions of product messaging, building product-adoption strategies, and increasing demand generation. 

Key Differences In Skills and Strategies

The main difference between a product management team and product marketing, in terms of skills, is that the former is about creating a strategy, and the latter is about translating that strategy into marketing.

Behavioral traits of Product Marketing and Product Management

Product managers are analytical and data-driven, and their focus is on developing products that work. Product marketers, on the other hand, need to be creative and have persuasive behavioral traits.

Can Product Managers and Product Marketing Manager Work Together?

Product marketers and product managers have somewhat similar responsibilities. Both roles focus on product development and ensuring that their products reach the target audience and market effectively. 

Companies that excel have a common trait where their product management and marketing professionals work together. They both are eager to learn more about the product and identify ways to bring the best user experience to the target audience.

Here are a few areas where product marketers and managers collaborate on their resources, ideas, and strategies.

1. Market Research

Both product marketers and managers need to understand customers. While the purpose of understanding the customer may differ, how they conduct customer research matches.

They use surveys to understand customer insights and shape the product’s positioning. During product development and marketing, they need to understand what drives a customer’s decision to buy and use the product.

Where marketers use this information to build campaigns, managers use this information to build product development roadmaps and designs.

For instance, product managers identify user’s frustrations in terms of design flaws. Product marketers taking this information can revamp their marketing material to demonstrate the ease of use or the intuitiveness of the user interface.

Professionals in both roles gather qualitative and quantitative data to dive into anything from product development to marketing. With Qwary, managers and marketers can conduct extensive research through surveys, use heatmaps to analyze customer interaction, and session recordings for deeper insights.

2. Influence on Product Development

Effective communication between both the professionals and their teams is required to build success-ready products. Their collaborative views on market sentiments, features, and design come together to build the best possible version of the product.

They work together to address development and marketing challenges. Where marketers may need help in framing the right content, managers need assistance in understanding customers’ emotional needs.

3. Product Packaging

Product managers and marketing managers together can determine the product packaging development process. Both teams bring their understanding of the customer, research, and insights to identify the best value proposition.

Since they are closely associated with the brand goals and objectives, they collaborate on decisions, which features to showcase on packaging, what information to share, etc.

4. Customer Understanding & Advocacy

Both roles work in close collaboration to ensure the end-users get the best experience they can from the product. Professionals in these roles advocate customer’s preferences by empathizing with them.

They identify customer preferences and leverage their understanding to formulate strategies in their respective domains. They bring their understanding of the customers to the table.

Using these insights, other teams like sales, product development, operations, packaging, etc. are able to gain a comprehensive view of the target customers.

5. Data Analysis

Data analysis is crucial for marketers and product managers to achieve the results they desire and learn more about product. Both leverage data insights and metrics like conversion rate, customer feedback, and other KPIs to get a better grip over customer behavior and preferences. 

Where managers use product packaging-related data to optimize product shelf appeal and marketers use it to design packaging that attracts attention and encourages purchase.

Product managers and product marketing managers work in close collaboration to build  strong relationships with the customers and product development teams.

Conclusion

A product manager and marketer are complementary roles that contribute towards the achievement of a common goal. They take decisions associated with product development, designing, packaging, and marketing.

However, there are some areas where both roles don’t intersect and need their own individualistic freedom to deliver results. For an organization wanting to hire a product manager & product marketer, they need to work on different job descriptions and hire different people for the job. 

However, both product managers and marketers can work together with tools like Qwary. Using real-time insights, professionals in both domains can use a wide range of in-built tools for data research, analysis, and evaluation.

FAQs

Can Product management manager & product marketer be the same person?

The two roles are different and so are their responsibilities, objectives, and goals. Hence, one person cannot take on both the roles. Although many startups trust one person to do both the jobs due to limited resources. The person wearing both the hats takes advantage of the overlapping objectives and duties.

Why is product marketing important?

Marketing a product is important for successful launch and developing detailed product communications. Moreover, they are required to create a robust sales narrative and increase retention. Product marketers create valuable marketing material that increases trust and enables the target audience to engage with the brand.

Why is product management important?

It is essential to ensure product-market fit and increase product adaptability. The product managers discover insights to create the best-in-class products for the target audience.

Which are the stages of product management?

A product management process includes finding the problem, questioning the problem, testing different solutions, designing the solution, determining product features and initiatives, building the MVP, and leading to successful product release.

Why should product managers learn to code? 

When a product manager learns to code, they gain the skills to better understand the product, communicate with engineers, and gain the problem solving skills. As a result, the product managers ensure that they are able to make better informed and analytical decisions.