Product Marketing Doesn't Work -- Fix It With Thematic Product Launches -

Do you and your group of product marketers having trouble organizing marketing resources that can keep up with the endless flow of launches? unclear release dates, and an unending flow of product managers hoping to get tons of marketing focus for every launch? Would there be some alternatives to accomplish this?

• Be sure to pay attention to all product releases.
• Make sure you tell a unified story about your product where the whole is more than the sum of its elements.
• Marketing should be organized and logical so that they are able to do their best in the job of promoting and promoting new products.

If you're overwhelmed by the number of roadmaps of your product, the never-ending "t-shirt" size for your project estimates that are agile, slipping product release dates and fretting about failing to keep your product management team at a reasonable level, it may be time to look at specific product releases. Discover how this can be done in the latest episode on Growth Stage!

|

Audio Interview Full: Audio

     Listen on the web or search for the podcast on different websites.

Podcast Full Interview Video

Transcript

David Vogelpohl () (00:04)

Hello everyone! We invite you to participate in this episode of Growth Stage podcast by . I'm your host, David Vogelpohl. I'm a community of digital products through my work as . And I love bringing the best of community-to-community and to you through The Growth Stage podcast. This episode, we're going to be interviewing one person who's really special for me. I work with him at . He's scheduled to speak about the ways in which the marketing of products has gone wrong and what the most effective way to fix it using thematic

brand new launches, we'd be pleased to welcome to Growth Stage Mr. Braden Steel. Braden, welcome.

Braden (00:39)

Thank you so much for your time, I appreciated the introduction. I'm excited to chat with you regarding marketing of the products of tomorrow.

David Vogelpohl () (00:44)

Awesome. Well, I love working together here at Braden. It was like I went through a period of fear because I never make use of your name when I'm in public. Is it possible that the pronunciation you used was a odd pronunciation that I wasn't aware about or forgot due to time or something else, but I'm glad you're to the forum. Yes, absolutely. What Braden will talk about are his thoughts about the shortcomings of traditional marketing for products and that's why we're using periodic thematic launches of the products.

Braden (00:58)

Yeah. Yes, I'm grateful.

David Vogelpohl () (01:14)

To give maximum attention to the new release of your product, to ensure you tell an integrated story for your product that is greater than its parts, and assist marketing to be more organized and careful to ensure that you can make the most of the new releases of your products. I was at Spryng held by Wynter, W -Y -N T - E -R I think, and S -P – R –Y –N But it's not a formal occasion.

We were at a roundtable to discuss the many challenges and marketing and the subject of marketing for products was brought up. People were complaining that they were exhausted trying to deal with each and every announcement of a new feature, or releases, and trying to achieve an impact for everything. The topic of thematic product releases was mentioned by someone other in the group. They suggested the idea. The group had embraced it in the past few quarters and

Therefore, I thought it would be interesting to discuss that topic here today. So, that's all there is to it. Braden Are you ready to get started?

Braden (02:18)

Yeah, let's do it. I'm eager to talk about the subject. it. it. it.

David Vogelpohl () (02:20)

Alright, good deal. I've been around for a while and I still don't have the correct answer to this query. Was the first item that you bought online?

Braden (02:28)

It's a cool subject. I spent some time thinking about it. The time was in my junior high years. eBay was in its heyday. That was also the moment I bought a PlayStation 2 with a bundle of games. It came with sports games, and other games. There was constant discussion about whether or not I should purchase it. But, I did purchase it and loved it. I gained a lot of enjoyment from that console, and had a lot of fun.

Another possibility is to utilize the money that I have purchased was an animal-friendly dogeridoo. It was the very first item I bought with my own funds. That was the only option.

David Vogelpohl () (03:06)

All is well. I appreciate the way in which you differentiated between the cash you have and the money of your parents. What did you find that was similar to the money of your parents? How did you fund the PSP?

Braden (03:14)

It's possible that I made it by weeding the lawn or cutting the garden or whatever. It was similar to earning money from work that I earned from my own initiative.

David Vogelpohl () (03:24)

If you're cutting the lawn, you're making some money. Braden. That's all good. Well, I kind of did it a in the beginning. But could you share with the viewers what you're doing or the ways in which you function in this area?

Braden (03:27)

Sure, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, sure. That's why I'm Director of Marketing Product, the Senior Manager at . My job is everything go-to-market for our entire range of products as well as the business we work within. When a new product is launched, it's the entire message underneath the product as well in the surrounding. In addition, we support things such as video games or B2B or other sectors that we're excited to market to. Merchant of Record.

Our method is by integrating everything from the purchase button, and culminating with a digital selling experience. We work with SaaS companies, gaming companies AI firms, B2B, things like that. that. that. that.

David Vogelpohl () (04:18)

Excellent, excellent. Now, when you describe what you did, it was many different areas. You touched on product releases and feature announcements. In addition, you spoke about verticals. The B2B category was mentioned. SaaS (or video game). Today's product marketers tends to favor the vertical position to promote a specific product. This, I believe, even further amplifies the complexity of product marketing.

But what do you think could be broken in the marketing of products? What was it that didn't perform for you using the traditional method?

Braden (04:56)

Yes, that's an excellent topic. It's true that product launches depend on many moving factors that are outside the control of product marketers. Examples include engineering problems and customer commitments required as well as sales suddenly have significance that's"hey you need to finish this product before it's launched. There are lots of shifting parts to these launches. So, working with the teams on the product team to set commitment dates, and to comprehend

When do these items will be available? What exactly does "release" mean? Does it have a general availability or is it at the early stages of being tested? After that, the questions be asked, for instance, when are we going to have a discussion about it? What are the topics we'd like to talk about? Can we even speak about this since we're trying out the product? This poses a lot of issues and plenty of unease happens with this model of simply the way that engineers and products work. So I believe the main thing that's broken is

It's hard to envision the final product. It's also difficult to plan for a release date and make plans for the product to be in a position to launch. What happens is that product managers like myself end up, just a week before launch one week prior to GA and then the product manager saying"This will be done. And then, get to and do this job. Then it's like, okay you're holding me for a second. I got other stuff I had to finish. It's true that you've talked about verticals. There's been a lot of discussion about verticals.

Yes, it's quite a long time too. Therefore, the question that I've been asked to resolve and think about is: how do I accomplish the work of launching the product as well as other facets of my work in the absence of control over the date of launch?

David Vogelpohl () (06:40)

It's been seen floating timelines. The product's not fully functional. The team discovers a flaw prior to the date. They can power through the publication and get the release out early. It's not easy to coordinate resources with other marketers as well as designers and content and webmasters, and things like that. It's a challenge to coordinate with floating dates. is exactly what I'm hearing. Is there a different side? Like the one you've...

It's true that I've was in the field of product marketing in various capacities during the time. It seems as if every when I talk to a person from product you know, they're thinking that I'm saying X and I'm going to announce it and then declare the product. Do you think that your expectations regarding the effort required to make the various product launches are sometimes too high? Could that be part of the reason for what's wrong with the traditional approach to product marketing?

Braden (07:28)

Sure, indeed. It's true that those are product managers. They're managers due to a motive. They're the ones that own these items. They're extremely excited about this. They've been working on the items for a long time for some time, trying to get these products to be released. Naturally, they'll need all the support they get from these items. When it's very challenging to have a senior member of the product team come into your home and say"I'm really excited about this new product.

I'm looking for a great deal of support, here's the complete list of suggestions and to have to say that we'll let the brakes go just slightly to allow for the A, B, or C reason, but I'm not in a position help your ideas, or because I don't have enough time or resources. It's difficult to sustain an ongoing relationship with the manager of your product, as you could think that because they feel, you don't wanna help anyone, however it's not the case. Naturally, your aim is to assist as many people as possible.

David Vogelpohl () (08:26)

Yeah. That's why you're in the position of organizing a go-to marketing campaign around a launch and dealing with floating dates which are typical to the model, and every other product manager and rightly so, because as you said, considering the time and money they're putting in it, it's like, lets announce this. However, with all the demands, plus floating dates you feel that you're not doing your best. You're distributing yourself amongst everything and it's hard to really be at your most effective working. It's the generalized impression I'm receiving. Do you think that's plausible?

Braden (09:01)

Yeah, yeah, that's right. The situation is where all aspects fall down all at once. Then you must discover how you can achieve each of them. Not only are there only 24 hours in a day, let alone having to be working for all hours of the day, but also the, tension of trying to keep the various things you need to think about in your mind. So, adopt this technological method and.

reduce them to an item that's market-oriented. There are a variety of challenges to face.

David Vogelpohl () (09:35)

This was mentioned in the past, in our discussion of supporting the product managers and their relationship with PMMs as well as PMs, in terms of. Do you think that the traditional form of marketing for product, is fair to suggest that it could cause certain tensions with PMs as well?

Braden (09:58)

Yes, it's real. There's been instances when, yes, it's definitely a bit tense in which you have to admit I don't have the resources to assist you in with the direction you wish to proceed. It's true that in those instances, you need to pay attention and discern what the PM is thinking about and it may result in tension. You know, you need to be able to effectively communicate when it is necessary to remain aware and present.

Clear, proficient in recording what you're doing and, if necessary, the instance of deploying the theme-based method of launch to assist in avoiding some of the issues which can arise when you are launching a conventional product.

David Vogelpohl () (10:41)

You have Product managers asking for the biggest microphone they can possibly get for their announcements. The majority of the marketing community saying that we must become more organized in order to perform better work? You've also talked about shifting to thematic announcements of product. Therefore, let's begin with the basics. What's a theme-based release?

Braden (10:59)

Yeah, great question. Thematic releases consist of items that are related to the theme. For instance, B2B as the umbrella and all the products are in line with the theme.

David Vogelpohl () (11:16)

So when we talk about thematic releases, I mean I'm guessing that there isn't a single release every week. Perhaps it's because you're extremely committed, however is it happening every quarter, or each month?

Braden (11:30)

Good question. There is a spring release or summer and fall release. The public isn't in the spirit for Christmas towards the end of the calendar year, therefore we do not release it during this timeframe. It's true, only three times per year, with ad hoc releases occasionally in between.

David Vogelpohl () (11:45)

The reason for this is that the company plans to announce each quarter we'll implement the theme-based improvements to this product or product line and integrate it into marketing campaigns of the product and we'll work to make it happen in a single marketing campaign. What happens if we incorporate the components of every of the releases and items within that topic?

Braden (12:08)

It is. It includes those elements. As we go through the customer's plan, we can say okay, what are we planning to accomplish next year? And that helps us categorize the products into themes. Therefore, we don't have to go in a downward-facing direction when we say that we must find a solution for theme A. Which products are in line with the theme A? Instead, let's examine the products will be introduced in the coming year?

What's the overall subject matter the merchandise could fall under during these seasons.

David Vogelpohl () (12:44)

This is what you'll get and you'll hear more. You're likely to not be able to hear it in the next quarter after the release or some other thing that could cause an issue with the timing, as I'm thinking, and you'll be aware when you've been affected. Yeah. That means that you're segregating the GA in case you want to, from the promotional.

Braden (12:51)

That's correct, yeah.

That's correct. Yeah. That's an approach, that's the reason we've come up with our GA activities that we execute because these products need to be promoted after they become live. As a result, as part of our thematic approach there are GA actions and themes that we are able to apply to each of our offerings.

David Vogelpohl () (13:18)

Any new product that you can, if you can, sort of can be a part of thematic releases. And then you have kind of a smaller version, such an event like the GA rollout. You sort of have the double dip that it sounds like.

Braden (13:31)

Yeah, that's right. Yeah. It's been really helpful in making sure that the employees within our organization can access GA. This means that customer satisfaction doesn't come from a sudden influx of feedback from clients. They are telling customers,"Hello, I'm using this wonderful product. I'd like to know more about the product. The customer success team was never set up. This isn't the case because at GA we are constantly publishing Value and FAQs to ensure that our employees know what's going on.

In addition, your go-to marketing messages, as you mentioned, could be slow occasionally. If you have a product scheduled to debut in January, however, you don't plan a thematically released until April, that product may not receive the same amount of marketing attention in the beginning, however it'll be able to go alongside the larger push later during the course of the year.

David Vogelpohl () (14:17)

If you were convinced that this was a highly strategic plan and strategically planned, why not throw in the X, a bigger release that was in between the various thematic releases in the event that you happen to be able to secure a GA date for some like highly strategic product you've been looking forward to?

Braden (14:30)

Yeah, absolutely. There are also occasional releases that we're able to assist with. We strive to limit these to a couple of releases if they are likely. We've devised a process in conjunction with the team of developers for product development, where we engage in conversations and then we think, okay, we have this great product. The product isn't part of the subject, but it's really important because of reasons A, B and C. So we've planned for that as a team to make sure everyone's understanding what we're aiming to achieve. Then, that it's given its own attention.

However, the advantage is that you don't have the risk of 15 things suddenly going into the ground at the end of the quarter. This is typically this happens since the software delivers every single thing at once.

David Vogelpohl () (15:08)

Thank you.

One of my favorite business quips is that in reality, the observation is that executives' are in Q3 and that's when they begin Q3 while the engineering team's Q3 signifies the conclusion of the Q3. That suggests that they're sort of naturally moving toward the close to reach the quarterly OKRs. Yeah. Okay. I'm here to help you.

Braden (15:33)

Yes, precisely.

David Vogelpohl () (15:38)

The theme is coming out in this quarter or the next, but you've got a significant new feature or product that's not compatible with the theme. Could this be one of those unique ones you were talking about that might come up within the time between the release of the thematic theme?

Braden (15:55)

It's exactly what you'd expect. So, I'll present you with an example from the work we're currently doing. The release of payments was completed in the beginning of this year. We were able to provide a number of interesting payment options. One of the payment options that it seemed engineering just couldn't be able to get it right at the time the theme launch took place included Google Pay and everyone knows Google Pay. So, we took a seat to take a look at the function and asked ourselves, how can you ensure that we're not in the right direction when we promote Google Pay? This isn't intended to be a service for businesses. We made a small release to Google Pay.

I have created some documents to accompany it FAQs, a blog post or blog post shared on social networks similar to the ones mentioned above.

David Vogelpohl () (16:29)

What do what do you do if you've the same kind of release as the anchor product but an unrelated theme release that's not quite as effective? It sounded as if you're still in the same anchor program but it was in a thematic launch Apple Pay slipped from or Google Pay slipped from. But what do you do? Wait to release the thematic release until the anchor products can be included? What do you do?

Braden (16:54)

Yeah, I mean, it depends. Oftentimes it can be an open-ended wait and see. We've had that happen. Yes, I was speaking with the team responsible for product today and said, Hey, B2B may be an option in the event of a delay and that launch at a certain point later in the year. The benefit of the Thematic Launch is that it's not a deadline that is hard to meet. We're setting the deadline ourselves. If we need to extend just a bit in order so that we can better meet the timelines for engineering as well as the final product, we are able to.

You can change the theme at any time. If a crucial feature suddenly isn't likely to be released or doesn't intend to become available, we might take some other minor aspects to build the perfect bundle that fits the theme in a new approach. There's plenty of possibilities to change your model in order to take into account the possibility of changes throughout the course of.

David Vogelpohl () (17:47)

It's an excellent idea. As I consider an old-fashioned product marketing campaign in the event of an announcement about an upcoming feature, it's similar to an announcement blog post or maybe a press release with some social media, contact our customers via email and send them emails or similar items. What is the difference between thematic releases in terms of format?

Braden (18:07)

It was mentioned at some point earlier in my life. A lot of these events continue to happen. In the present topic, they're happening however we do will call these GA tasks. This means that we have various options similar to internal enablement in app notifications. If anyone could gain access to that device or software, they could access it. we're offering that capability to our clients along with the internal team within us. This is distinct from this theme release.

Then, at the time rather than being attentive to a huge portion of what's more functions, such as, "hey there's this feature accessible, fragmented and bits, we're in a position to make a more persuasive story about the overall value of all of these features. This is an enormous distinction it's not possible to do by releasing an update, for example one piecemeal release over the course of a quarter or a year.

David Vogelpohl () (19:04)

Yeah. It's also a feeling that it can help you improve the narrative. As a lover, my ideal example is the improvement in quality of life that have been incredibly difficult to design however, they do not improve the value of the product. Since, are you conscious of the issues I'm speaking about? Someone on the opposite side isn't aware that there was a problem or that it could be something else. And, and so it's often hard for Phil as a marketing professional, to go out and say"Hey everyone, we've resolved the issue. The reality is that it turned out to be extremely beneficial both for the company as well as the clients.

Braden (19:08)

Yeah.

David Vogelpohl () (19:34)

It's that thematic releases don't just allow you to basically broadcast the megaphone, but they may also boost the tale of other high-quality of life improvements.

Braden (19:43)

There are many features benefit by this. They wouldn't receive marketing efforts or the benefit of a short announcement from Pendo. They're instead displayed in a web page which is at the top of a page with other functions. So, well, do be able to make use of this megaphone. There's plenty to gain from the less things, such as the quality of your life.

David Vogelpohl () (20:08)

Ok, so has this method worked? How many quarters of your daily time?

Braden (20:13)

We're in our third launch and we'll begin our third thematic launch themes this year during July.

David Vogelpohl () (20:20)

Three quarters after, can you consider that this has enhanced your ability to coordinate marketing resources as well as support new launches of products but is it still too early to say?

Braden (20:33)

I'd say that it has definitely been better than before, and I was the person who helped make the change happen. The improvement that I've noticed is not just that I'm able to better support, those who are that is behind the product. I also assist them and work with the other departments of marketing, especially demand gen. It's true that they get a lot of lead time they did not have prior to the product.

It is also possible to incorporate elements to campaigns previously were unable to achieve. This is the most significant advantage. The other advantage is that it's opened an opportunity to focus on other vertical expansion, such as video games or other games. We wouldn't have had as much time or enough personnel to propel those verticals forward.

David Vogelpohl () (21:28)

The video game area in the past. The company had video gamers for a long time from the very beginning of business. The company was kind of getting into the video gaming segment. Are you of the opinion that these segments could be in thematic releases but do you believe this is more a matter of feature sets?

Braden (21:51)

Yes, segmentation plays an important role. As I've said, that our upcoming launch will be focused on B2B. This is a market which we hope to enter into and are excited to expand into. It's possible to imagine a future where we're doing that with video games too. We've mentioned that the improvement we've made on our Apple Pay and implemented Google Pay. Also, the expansion of the vertical themes are not just opening up possibilities, but it also permits you to...

The benefits of the launch that is based on themes, but it is also a benefit of including things like thought leadership into your launch. These are things you could have a difficult time integrating with standard releases of items. And so you can get a bigger, potentially and even more powerful push for your campaign as well as greater value from these launches for the broader company.

David Vogelpohl () (22:44)

Excellent. Well, this has been very interesting Braden. I am grateful that you appeared on the radio and speaking about this. The debate was fantastic that took place during Spryng on the radio this past week, in Austin. I had the idea to bring it on the show and this debate was amazing. Thank you for joining us.

Braden (23:01)

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for having me. It was really enjoyable.

David Vogelpohl () (23:04)

Awesome. If you'd like checking out more of what Braden is doing and maybe his next theme album, visit .com. Thank you for taking part in this segment of the Growth Stage. The host for this segment this time is David Vogelpohl. I love supporting the web-based communities of products as part my job as a host at . It is my pleasure to bring all the great items from the community on Growth Stage. We appreciate everyone's support.

David Vogelpohl David is the CMO of . More than 25 years David Vogelpohl has led teams building elite engines of development and technology for top companies like WP Engine, Genesis, AWS, Cloudflare, and many more.

Article was posted on here