What are the responsibilities of Product Marketing;
Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2025 10:26 am
The more complex Product teams become, the more the Product Manager gets involved with other areas to develop even better solutions for the market. In this sense, it is common to wonder, for example, about the difference between Product Manager and Product Marketing Manager .
To clarify this and other questions regarding the relationship between the positions and how they interact, we have selected some topics to cover in this content. Below, you will understand better:
The difference between Product Manager and Product Marketing Manager;
How this relationship is structured in companies;
Why it is important to separate roles.
Let's go?
What are the responsibilities of Product Marketing?
According to Joca Torres' explanation in his Product Management Course class, Product Marketing is responsible for 3 of the 4 Ps of the Marketing Mix: price , place and promotion .
Therefore, Product Marketing is the area that takes kazakhstan's basic information care of revenue and churn , together with the Product Manager, and is also responsible for generating new revenue. Why? Because the Product Marketing person communicates to the external and internal world about the product and its value.
External : customers;
Internal : people in the company.
Helping to train the Sales and Customer Success team, for example , is also an initiative that is within the scope of the PMM person.
What is the difference between Product Manager and Product Marketing Manager?
Considering the context of the scope of Product Marketing, we can see that this role interacts with that of Product Manager to the point that product management focuses on the P of product , looking more at engagement.
In other words, once the person has reached your product, are they really using the solution in the way you expected? Is the user's problem really being solved?
Therefore, the difference between Product Manager and Product Marketing Manager is the focus of each function within the 4Ps of Marketing.
Scope of Product Manager and Product Marketing Manager according to the 4 Ps of Marketing.
Learn more: check out a complete and free class on the difference between product management and product marketing, taken from PM3's Product Management Course!
How is this relationship structured in companies?
“But if product management is one of the 4 Ps of Marketing, does that mean that product management should be in Marketing?”
According to Joca Torres, this is very common in traditional physical product companies . In other words, at Unilever, for example, the person responsible for managing Omo products is within the Marketing area,
However, when we talk about digital products, the PM usually ends up either in Engineering, reporting to the CTO. Or – which would be the ideal scenario – ends up becoming an independent area: the Product area, as well as Engineering and Marketing. Therefore, there are three areas that are independent of each other.
But even if they are independent or distinct, they have to work together . Because only by working together can we build the right product, which meets the problems and needs of customers while achieving the company's strategic objectives.
This does not necessarily mean that there can only be one Product Marketing Manager for the entire Product team. This can be a good place to start for those who are just beginning to structure the area. However, ideally, each PMM should focus on one of the items in the product portfolio or on one type of user.
Why is it important to separate roles?
There is definitely no way for one person, alone , to perform the complete job of Product Manager and Product Marketing Manager. This is because the scope of both roles is very broad and complex .
To make this more tangible, let's look again at the 4 Ps of Marketing. What does each of them represent?
One is the P for product: making the product that solves the problem and meets the customer’s needs, while achieving the company’s strategic objectives. That, in itself, is a lot to do.
Meanwhile, the Product Marketing person has to look at the other 3 Ps: setting the right price, telling the world about the product and the problem it solves, defining which channels the product will be sold through, creating the entire go-to-market strategy for the product, among other activities. In other words, it's a lot for just one person to worry about.
It's not always what happens
In fact, having areas and functions structured separately is the ideal scenario, but in some cases, Product Marketing responsibilities end up falling into the lap of the Product Manager. This happens especially in the startup scenario, in which case the exception is even admissible for a while.
To clarify this and other questions regarding the relationship between the positions and how they interact, we have selected some topics to cover in this content. Below, you will understand better:
The difference between Product Manager and Product Marketing Manager;
How this relationship is structured in companies;
Why it is important to separate roles.
Let's go?
What are the responsibilities of Product Marketing?
According to Joca Torres' explanation in his Product Management Course class, Product Marketing is responsible for 3 of the 4 Ps of the Marketing Mix: price , place and promotion .
Therefore, Product Marketing is the area that takes kazakhstan's basic information care of revenue and churn , together with the Product Manager, and is also responsible for generating new revenue. Why? Because the Product Marketing person communicates to the external and internal world about the product and its value.
External : customers;
Internal : people in the company.
Helping to train the Sales and Customer Success team, for example , is also an initiative that is within the scope of the PMM person.
What is the difference between Product Manager and Product Marketing Manager?
Considering the context of the scope of Product Marketing, we can see that this role interacts with that of Product Manager to the point that product management focuses on the P of product , looking more at engagement.
In other words, once the person has reached your product, are they really using the solution in the way you expected? Is the user's problem really being solved?
Therefore, the difference between Product Manager and Product Marketing Manager is the focus of each function within the 4Ps of Marketing.
Scope of Product Manager and Product Marketing Manager according to the 4 Ps of Marketing.
Learn more: check out a complete and free class on the difference between product management and product marketing, taken from PM3's Product Management Course!
How is this relationship structured in companies?
“But if product management is one of the 4 Ps of Marketing, does that mean that product management should be in Marketing?”
According to Joca Torres, this is very common in traditional physical product companies . In other words, at Unilever, for example, the person responsible for managing Omo products is within the Marketing area,
However, when we talk about digital products, the PM usually ends up either in Engineering, reporting to the CTO. Or – which would be the ideal scenario – ends up becoming an independent area: the Product area, as well as Engineering and Marketing. Therefore, there are three areas that are independent of each other.
But even if they are independent or distinct, they have to work together . Because only by working together can we build the right product, which meets the problems and needs of customers while achieving the company's strategic objectives.
This does not necessarily mean that there can only be one Product Marketing Manager for the entire Product team. This can be a good place to start for those who are just beginning to structure the area. However, ideally, each PMM should focus on one of the items in the product portfolio or on one type of user.
Why is it important to separate roles?
There is definitely no way for one person, alone , to perform the complete job of Product Manager and Product Marketing Manager. This is because the scope of both roles is very broad and complex .
To make this more tangible, let's look again at the 4 Ps of Marketing. What does each of them represent?
One is the P for product: making the product that solves the problem and meets the customer’s needs, while achieving the company’s strategic objectives. That, in itself, is a lot to do.
Meanwhile, the Product Marketing person has to look at the other 3 Ps: setting the right price, telling the world about the product and the problem it solves, defining which channels the product will be sold through, creating the entire go-to-market strategy for the product, among other activities. In other words, it's a lot for just one person to worry about.
It's not always what happens
In fact, having areas and functions structured separately is the ideal scenario, but in some cases, Product Marketing responsibilities end up falling into the lap of the Product Manager. This happens especially in the startup scenario, in which case the exception is even admissible for a while.