Product Marketing is BrokenRepair It By Using Thematic Product Launches

Are you and your group of product managers trying to coordinate your resources for marketing and managing an unending number of launches that have no release date as well as a constant flow of product managers demanding lots of attention from marketing departments at every launch? Do you think there is an alternative?

• Make sure you give the highest level of attention to every new product release.
• Make sure you tell an overall story with the overall story being superior to the individual parts.
• It is important to ensure that the marketing team is organized and thoughtful so they can perform at their best in promoting the latest product.

Are you struggling getting through the constantly changing roadmaps for your products and the constantly changing "t-shirt" sizes that are used to calculate the estimates of your agile projects and the slipping deadlines for the launch of your products or fretting about failing to keep your employees on the wrong side Perhaps it's time to consider the themes you'll use for your launches. Learn how this could be achieved in this segment of Growth Stage!

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David Vogelpohl () (00:04)

Hello everyone! You are invited to join The Growth Stage podcast by . I'm your host, David Vogelpohl. I am a part of the digital product community by putting my energy into . and am thrilled to bring all the best of the community back to the community as well as to you through The Growth Stage podcast. This episode, I'm going to discuss a particular person that is an absolute favorite of mine. This is one of my coworkers here at . He'll be speaking about how product marketing is not working and how you can fix it using thematic

New launches for brand-new the products we'd like you to welcome our newest member to the growth Stage Mr. Braden Steel. Braden, welcome.

Braden (00:39)

Thank you, I appreciate your introduction. I'm looking forward to talking with you regarding marketing the products of today.

David Vogelpohl () (00:44)

Awesome. And I am so happy to work with you here at , Braden. It was clear that I felt a little anxious initially, as I rarely speak your name out loud. But then I was wondering whether it was a coincidence? Could this be a strange spelling I wasn't conscious of, or has it changed throughout the years, or is it something different, but I'm glad you're there. It's true, it's. What Braden will be discussing are his opinions on shortcomings of traditional product marketing along with the ways that we, is using periodic thematic launches of the products.

Braden (00:58)

Yeah. I appreciate it.

David Vogelpohl () (01:14)

to give full attention when it comes to launching new products make sure you tell the complete story of your product that is not just about the pieces. It will also assist marketing to be more strategic and logical so that you are able to give the best effort to your releases. I went to Spryng organised with Wynter, W -Y -N The -T-E-R is what I'm certain about, and S P -R Y -N the -G. The event isn't an official event.

Discussions were focused on the various issues and challenges related to marketing. A discussion on marketing-related products came up. Everyone was complaining that they were feeling overwhelmed dealing with each and every feature launch, new product releases, and attempting to create the most of each one. When the topic of thematic new product launches came up, and an another member of the group had suggested that idea. The idea was adopted here at the time that was a few months ago.

It was then that I thought it would be fun to talk about this issue this morning. This is it. Braden Are you willing to get started?

Braden (02:18)

Yeah, let's do it. We're looking forward to discussing it. it. it. it.

David Vogelpohl () (02:20)

Alright, good deal. I've been around for some time and I'm still unsure of what the correct answer is to this question. Was the first item that you purchased online?

Braden (02:28)

It's definitely a great concept. It took me a while thinking about this subject. This was the time of the junior high school. The auction site was booming. This was also the time I got the PlayStation 2 with a bundle of games. The bundle included sports games, and more. There was also a discussion about whether or not I should purchase the item. It was then that I purchased it and thoroughly enjoyed the gaming experience. I learned a lot value from the console as well as had many hours of pleasure.

Another option was to pay with my personal cash. The first thing I earned was a didgeridoo was the first item I purchased with my own cash through the internet. Another option was to buy it.

David Vogelpohl () (03:06)

All is well. I like how you differentiated between the money you own as well as that you have from parents. What do you think of it as parent's cash? Which way did you finance the PSP?

Braden (03:14)

There's a chance that I earned it by weeding the garden or mowing the lawn or anything other. The other was my income, that I earned by working for myself.

David Vogelpohl () (03:24)

If you're trimming the lawn, you're essentially paying Braden. That's okay. Okay, well I gave it away a little during the introduction, but could you describe to the viewers things you are doing in the blog or what you're working on in your position?

Braden (03:27)

Sure, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, sure. As an Executive Product Marketing Manager for . My job responsibilities encompass everything related to marketing across all our products, as well as the field we work within. If a product goes up for sale, it is clear that all the information underneath the product and surrounds it, and also helping things like B2B games, video games and various other areas we're excited to get into. is an authorized retailer.

The method we employ is to connect everything with the press of a button into an online experience for sales. We collaborate with SaaS businesses, gaming firms AI-based businesses, B2B companies that are similar to. that. that. that.

David Vogelpohl () (04:18)

Excellent, excellent. If you were to describe kind of what you did you'll see that you dealt with numerous aspects. It was a mix of topics, including product releases and feature release. You also mentioned verticals. The B2B category was mentioned. SaaS or video games. The modern marketer is inclined to adopt this type of vertical positioning in order to sell the product they are marketing. It, in my opinion can be a significant obstacle in marketing of goods.

However, what is wrong in the marketing of products? Did you find anything that was not working with the previous strategy?

Braden (04:56)

This is a great question. It's true that launches of products depend on many variables that are out of the control that of the manager responsible responsible for products. For instance, in the case of engineering, for instance, if there's customer commits that must be met or sales start to become a major problem, then it's like"hey you need finish this prior to the introduction of another product. Additionally, there are many shifting elements to these launches. This is why it's important to work together with the team responsible for developing the product to determine the date of commit and to stay informed of

Are these things set to be out? What exactly do you think "release" refer to? Does that mean that it is able to be accessed by everyone or is it being tested for beta? Now is the time for the next question to be asked, what best way to discuss it? What are some topics we'd want to debate? Can we talk about it since we're doing tests of the product? This issue is raising a lot of questions are being asked, and there's plenty in uncertainty that's a result of this particular way of the process of how manufacturing and engineering work. The most significant thing that's broken is

It's a bit difficult to understand how difficult it is to view the finished product before deciding on an exact date to release it and have the product go live. There are times when managers like me are aware that they are aware of the time prior to launch, one week before GA and the manager of the product saying,"Hey it's going to be done. The time has come to get it all done. And then, it's like I'm holding my rope. That's not all I've been required to do. You've certainly talked about verticals. There's been a lot of debate regarding verticals.

It's a huge amount of time. The question I've had to think through and answer is, how will be able to launch my product, in addition to the other tasks I have to accomplish without having any influence over dates for launch?

David Vogelpohl () (06:40)

In case you're running the floating timeline. The product isn't yet fully functioning. A flaw is discovered by the team in the last second. They manage to make it through the release and then they release the update as soon as they can. It's not easy to coordinate the efforts of others like designers, other marketers and the content specialists and website owners and other things such as the. The coordination of floating dates is one of the things I've been hearing about. Do you think there's a second aspect? Just like there's...

Yes, I've been involved with product marketing in a variety of different ways throughout my career. I'm thinking every time I'm speaking to a person from the department of products, they'll announce that they're releasing X and I need to announce the announcement. Do you think that expectations regarding the time and energy required to market different product releases is sometimes too much? This could be one of the reason you're missing in traditional advertising for your products?

Braden (07:28)

Sure, indeed. They are also product managers due to the reason. They are the people who control the product. They're extremely excited about it. They've been working on the product for quite many years trying to get these items to the market. Therefore, naturally they're likely to wish to have as much support as they can get for their products. It's difficult to locate someone on the company's product team who comes up to you to declare that they're extremely excited with this new feature.

I'd like many help, here's all of my suggestions as and when to say"Let's pump the brakes up a bit in order to consider the A and B reasons, but I'm not capable of assisting you or doing this because I'm not in the mood or I'm difficult to maintain a strong connection with some of the people in charge of product development. You could consider that it is because they are unwilling to support the cause they are fighting for, or something else. This isn't the case. It's obvious that you do not want to assist everyone you can.

David Vogelpohl () (08:26)

Yeah. It's as if you're viewing this from a perspective of that you're coordinating going-to-market in the event of the launch of new products and you're dealing floating dates as a an element of your standard procedure, as well as all other managers and, just like you've stated, given the amount of time and resources they're spending on it It's like, lets launch an announcement regarding this. With all these expectations, and the floating dates, it feels that you're not performing the most effective job that you could. You're spreading your efforts across many things and you're struggling to complete your very best work. That's what I'm experiencing. Is that what you are experiencing?

Braden (09:01)

Yeah, yeah, that's right. This is the situation where diverse things go down in one go. You are forced to determine what you can do to get everything done. And not only is there only a 24-hour day, let alone the fact that you must work throughout the day. Add to that the stress of trying to think about all other things in mind, adopt this method that is highly tech-savvy and.

Condense the information to something that is commercially useful. That's why there are many obstacles to be overcome.

David Vogelpohl () (09:35)

It was something you mentioned a moment ago, when we were discussing the support for product managers as well as the relation to PMMs, as well as the terms of. Do you think that in the conventional form of marketing for products is appropriate to state that it experiences some friction with PMMs and PMs?

Braden (09:58)

It's true, I'm sure. I've been in situations where yes, it's certainly an a little tension-filled discussion in the event that you have to state that you do not have sufficient funds to fund the direction you would like it to go. If you must make that decision be sure to listen and be aware of what the Prime Minister will be looking for. However, it causes tension. Also, you are aware that you need to be able to communicate effectively when in a situation where you have to attend to and participate in the discussions, as you take notes of discussions.

Make it clear, and be proficient in logging your activities or, as in this case, deploying the method of thematic launches to eliminate most of the challenges that come up in launching a traditional product.

David Vogelpohl () (10:41)

Now you've got the Product managers asking for the biggest megaphone they can get to launch their latest product. You have the Marketing departments in other departments requesting, how do we better plan our marketing in order to make our be more efficient? And you kind of have talked about moving towards themes for your products. We'll start with the fundamental concepts. What is a thematic product release?

Braden (10:59)

Yeah, great question. Thematic releases include products that fall within the umbrella of a particular subject. In this case, B2B as the umbrella and other releases are aligned to the subject.

David Vogelpohl () (11:16)

When we discuss themes, I'm guessing there's no weekly release. This could be the case if you're extremely fast, what happens when you release them on a quarterly basis in a month-long period?

Braden (11:30)

Good question. The release is either spring or the fall and summer release. The release doesn't draw a lot of attention during the Christmas time period towards the end of the calendar year consequently we do not release it during that period. However, there are just three releases a year. There is also a release each and every so often.

David Vogelpohl () (11:45)

The reason for this is that the business will declare that every quarter, we're going to make these theme-based enhancements to the product or product range as well as later incorporate this in the advertising of products. Additionally, we'll present it with a huge advertising campaign. How would it work in the event that we incorporate key aspects from all the products and releases that are related to the subject?

Braden (12:08)

Indeed, it is. It's got those features. As we review the plan of our customer it allows us to say"OK What's on the plan for the coming year? It allows us to organize the items into themes. Therefore, we don't necessarily have to shift to the left in stating that we have to determine for theme A. Which items relate to the theme A? Instead, we will consider the suite of items we are planning to launch in the coming year?

What's the general theme each of those items can be categorised into during the current seasons.

David Vogelpohl () (12:44)

This is possible to see and all you can do is to increase your impact. It could be that you're off by a quarter maybe, during the announcement or other event or there might be a delay suppose, and it will be obvious that you're. Yeah. So you're decoupling the GA to the extent you'd like to do your promotional.

Braden (12:51)

That's correct, yeah.

That's correct. Yeah. This is a plan, you know, we've put into place our GA actions we carry out because these products require promotion once they become operational. As a result, as element of the thematic process there is the possibility of having GA tasks and then specific actions we could apply to every product.

David Vogelpohl () (13:18)

Every launch, if the organizer wishes, will be included in the themes being launched. It is possible to have a type of smaller version combined with the GA launch. It's basically an inverse dip, as it is.

Braden (13:31)

Yeah, that's right. Yeah. It's been great in ensuring that all team members within our business are able to access GA. That means customers aren't being able to get comments from customers. Customers are saying, Hey, I'm using this awesome product. I'd love to find out more information about the product. The team for customer service was not established. It's not the case since the time we're currently now in GA We're providing FAQs, as well as information based on values so that our employees are aware of exactly what's happening.

Additionally, the most frequently used advertisements, as you mentioned, may not be as effective at times. If the item was scheduled planned to be launched in January, but do not have any theme-based releases until April The product may not be given the same amount of marketing focus at the start, however it will get tagged with the larger campaign later in the course of the year.

David Vogelpohl () (14:17)

If you thought that it was a very strategic plan could you consider adding an X or another release in between theme releases, if you were able to secure a GA time for that very important event that you've been waiting for?

Braden (14:30)

Yeah, absolutely. There is a possibility that we periodically release an ad-hoc version we're willing to support. We strive to limit these to one or two releases if they are possible. As of now, we've developed a system which we have with you and the developers of our product which allows us to participate in a debate and think"okay now we know about the incredible product. The feature doesn't belong in the category, but it's necessary due to reasons such as A or B. We'll be working for it together as a team, to make sure everyone is aware of the goals we're aiming to achieve. Then, as you can imagine, that does get separate attention.

It means that you will not need to think about 15 different product lines all at once which would fall to the floor after the end of the day. This happens typically the case in the case of items that provide all at once.

David Vogelpohl () (15:08)

Thank you.

One of my favourite business jokes is that it's actually not a joke but rather an observation. The concept is that the executives' Q3 is an opportunity to begin Q3 and the engineering teams are at the conclusion of the quarter. All teams are kind of easily, gathering towards the end of the quarter to finish those monthly OKRs. Yeah. Okay. I gotcha.

Braden (15:33)

Absolutly right.

David Vogelpohl () (15:38)

It's the theme scheduled to release either this quarter or next one, however you're able to find some exciting brand new product or feature that does not seem to fit with the theme. Do you mean some of the subjects you've discussed and that could also be component of the theme's release?

Braden (15:55)

It's true. So, let me provide you with an example of the current effort. Our payment option was announced at the middle of the year. It allowed us to offer numerous payment alternatives. One of the payment options that was able to slip through the cracks in technology, but was not able to be perfect by the time it was launched came with Google Pay and everyone knows Google Pay. The team sat down for a review of the features and asked what can we do to make it easier to market Google Pay? This isn't a B2B service. We therefore created one small release to Google Pay.

Created some documents for it FAQs, a blog post or posted on social networks similar to this.

David Vogelpohl () (16:29)

What happens if you have this kind of anchor product release as well as a thematic release which falls? This sounds like you were engaged in using an anchor product. This was also the case with the thematic release Apple Pay slipped from or Google Pay slipped from. What should you do? Do you wait to announce this theme release until anchor products have been included? What other options do you have?

Braden (16:54)

Yeah, I mean, it depends. Sometimes, it's all it takes is an open-ended waiting to see. There are occasions of this. Yes, and I'm talking with the folks behind the product this morning who told me that B2B could be worth waiting and that the launch is expected to come a little bit later this year. The benefit of having a theme-driven launch is that there is no time limit. The deadline is determined by us. Therefore, if we need to extend it so that we can complete the engineering and product development it's feasible to do this.

It is also possible to alter themes at any point. In the event that the new product of the year is not being released, maybe we could select one or two alternatives to create the perfect package to match the theme in a new method. There's also the chance of an adaptable model that can still allow for modifications throughout the entire year.

David Vogelpohl () (17:47)

This is a great concept. In my mind, if I look at an old-fashioned advertising campaign that aims to announce the new product, it's similar to the announcement blog, or maybe an announcement in a press release, social coverage, email our customers, or even contact potential customers such as this. What is the difference between a theme release and a press release with regard to the structure?

Braden (18:07)

Yes, I've spoken about the subject in the past. The majority of those instances continue to take place. In the present theme, these things continue to take place However, there are also things we'll call GA task. There's more than just internal notifications within the app. In fact, when you grant access to applications or devices and you're giving them access, as well as our own teams. This differs from themes-based releases.

Today, instead of being focused on the many similar features, with the ability to access this feature in bits and pieces it's possible to determine the total value of all of the elements. This is an enormous contrast that's impossible to do with the release of something similar by releasing it in pieces over the course of the period or the year.

David Vogelpohl () (19:04)

Yeah. This can be a smart concept because it can make you feel as that it has a greater impact on the plot. As a lover of this genre, an example that I consider to be ideal for me is the enhancements to quality of life which were a huge challenge for engineers yet don't always help to make the product more appealing. The concept is simple enough, isn't it? A person who's in the world isn't aware of the existence of a problem, or a problem. It's not always easy, since Phil who works for of the business that sells products is required to come out and say"Hey everybody, we've solved this. This is beneficial for the company and the customers.

Braden (19:08)

Yeah.

David Vogelpohl () (19:34)

So, we believe that thematic releases don't just give you the ability to share the megaphone, they also aid in enhancing the story of more quality of life improvement.

Braden (19:43)

It is possible to gain access to various functions however they aren't appropriate for marketing purposes, or even the benefit of a quick announcement from Pendo. Instead, they are displayed on a landing page along with different functions. Be sure to to share your megaphone. Make sure to share that megaphone. There's a lot of value in small changes that improve the quality of life.

David Vogelpohl () (20:08)

If you opt to go with this route, how many quarters the amount?

Braden (20:13)

The third theme is here, and within the coming month we'll have the third theme's release month. It's scheduled for July.

David Vogelpohl () (20:20)

Now, at three quarters, would you say that the experience you've had is assisting in managing your marketing budget and aid in the introduction of new products, or is it too for you to know?

Braden (20:33)

It's a given that it's enhanced on my own. The thing I'm seeing is not only I've been able to help the entire team of developers rather than just assisting their work, but also to coordinate with the other aspects of marketing, especially demand generation. They have a substantial number of lead times, which they didn't have prior to the launch of this product.

And we could fit elements into campaigns that were previously impossible to attain. This could be the greatest benefit. But then the other benefit is that it allows the time to work on vertical expansion in other areas like video games, for instance. we may not be able to devote sufficient time or resources to push the verticals forward.

David Vogelpohl () (21:28)

The company was told that it had a video game section during a time. It has customers that played video games for a long time, almost since the inception of the company. It has been involved in the industry. Do you believe that segmentation of customers can be a factor in themes or do think they're more focused on the features?

Braden (21:51)

Yes, segmentation plays a big role. In my last article, I wrote that the coming launch will focus on B2B. This is an area we'd prefer to expand to and are eager to grow into. I see a place where we're working with video games too. The discussion has been about how we've enhanced the functionality of Apple Pay and implemented Google Pay. Additionally, the extension of the vertical theme does not simply opens this possibility but also regarding the options...

This type of launch, however it provides the advantage of having can incorporate things such as thought leadership into your theme-based launch. It's something that you may struggle to incorporate with traditional launches. Therefore, you'll be able to get more, and possibly an more significant impact from your campaign and greater impact from this type of launch for your organisation.

David Vogelpohl () (22:44)

Excellent. The story was very informative Braden. I appreciate the fact that you sat down to chat on air about the topic. This was an extremely interesting discussion Spryng the City of Austin. I thought it would be fun to have this conversation on the stage. It was great. Thank you for taking part of this show.

Braden (23:01)

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for having me. It was an absolute blast.

David Vogelpohl () (23:04)

Awesome. If you'd like to know more on what Braden is working on, including maybe his next theme-based release Please visit .com. Thank you for being part of this area of Growth Stage. Your host can be David Vogelpohl. I love supporting the web-based product community in the job I do as . I am humbled, and thrilled by the opportunity to showcase everything that is wonderful about the community for people in the Stage of Growth. Stage. I am grateful for the help of everyone.

David Vogelpohl David is the CMO of . Over the past twenty-five years David Vogelpohl has led teams in the creation of elite engines for innovation and technological advancement for some of the most prestigious firms like WP Engine, Genesis, AWS, Cloudflare, and others.

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