PRODUCT & BRAND MANAGEMENT

UNIT 1 TOPIC 1

INTRODUCTION TO THE PRODUCT MANAGER CONCEPT

Prof. M. Jyothsna
Department of Marketing,
GITAM School of Business
 Product Manager concept
Role relevance, and importance in a marketing context.
The title product manager here is to apply to different kinds of organizational structures and different kinds of companies,
whether they provide consumer goods, industrial products, or services.
The product manager has two responsibilities
1. First, the product manager is responsible for the planning activities related to the product or product line. Thus, the
product manager’s job involves analyzing the market, including customers, competitors, and the external environment,
and turning this information into marketing objectives and strategies for the product.
2. The product manager must get the organization to support the marketing programs recommended in the plan. This
may involve coordinating with other areas of the firm, such as research and development for product-line extensions,
manufacturing, marketing research, and finance.
3. It also involves internal marketing of the product to obtain the assistance and support of more senior managers in the
firm.
Booz Allen and Hamilton (1982) identified six kinds of new products:

1. New to the world

2. New product lines
3. Additions to existing product lines
4. Improvements and revisions to existing products
5. Repositioning
6. Cost reductions.
A product manager is the person who creates internal and external product vision and leads product
development from scratch. This individual defines customer needs, works with stakeholders and teams on
creating the required product, and carries responsibility for overall product success.

The goal of a product manager is: “to discover a product that is valuable, usable and feasible.” So, a
product manager has to be knowledgeable in three main spheres: business, technologies, and user
experience.
 1.Identifying opportunities. The first thing that a product manager does is see the opportunity to develop a new
successful product or improve an existing one, adding necessary features to it. The product manager must be
aware of current trends and have a deep understanding of the market to make the right decisions when a
company decides how to build or improve a product. This person is also responsible for the outcome of a product

2.Team and stakeholders management. A product manager has to make sure that all members of a team work
harmoniously to achieve the main goal. One of the most important functions of this person is to clearly
communicate the requirements to the development team and organize the development process in the most
efficient way. On the other hand, the product manager has to negotiate with stakeholders and balance their
demands and expectations.

3.Marketing activities. Marketing is one of the main factors contributing to product success, so product
managers collaborate with product marketing managers. That involves market research, observing current
industry trends, collecting and analyzing customer feedback, defining pricing, and developing a
marketing strategy.
4. Constant product improvement.
They are constantly working on the improvement of the existing product, testing it, analyzing data, and
managing defects. Eventually, a product manager has to make the final decision on what the end-product
should be like and the strategy for its development and launch.

While there’s no single set of KPIs and responsibilities for a product manager, they usually include
monetization, user engagement, and the level of user satisfaction. The KPIs may vary depending on the
company and industry
Project managers and product managers

A project manager organizes the internal process of product development making sure that the project
follows a timeline and fits a budget. This person tracks progress and coordinates all internal resources
and members of the team (engineers and designers) to deliver the product on time.

The product manager’s responsibilities are more high-level as he or she sets the overall vision,
develops the strategy, and identifies and prioritizes the requirements -- with the project manager then
following this vision and strategy to fulfill the preset requirements by assigning tasks, planning timelines,
and allocating project resources. In other words, the product manager’s role is more strategic while
the project manager’s is more tactical.
The product managers also cooperate closely with other departments such as marketing and sales. Project
managers don’t do that, placing most of their focus on working with the development team.

So, these roles, being clearly distinct as they are responsible for different aspects of product development,
are still complementary.

Product Manager
1 The Product Manager deals with the all-around
needs of a product, from strategizing to branding
the Product.
2 The Product manager focuses on building up the
value of the product.
3 The Product manager owns the “what”.
4 The Product manager must be good at market
research and strategic thinking
5 The Product manager brings the idea related to the
product into the marketplace.
Project Manager
The Project manager deals with applying techniques to
complete a particular Project.
The Project manager focuses on work coordination.
The Project manager owns the “how”.
The Project manager must be good at planning and
budget organizing.
The project manager uses specific skills to deliver a
valuable product.
The differences between the product manager and a more general marketing manager

1. marketing managers in charge of a division or strategic business unit have more concerns about managing
“portfolios” of products and about the long-term strategic direction of their business groups. Because
product managers in our sense are in charge of a single product or a closely related product line, they are not
concerned on a day-to-day basis about the health of the general business area in which they operate.

2. A second key contrast is in the nature of decision making. Divisional marketing managers typically make
strategic decisions about which products to add or drop and manage to meet an overall divisional financial
objective. While product managers are involved with developing marketing objectives and strategies for their
products, their key decisions are tactical and revolve around the marketing mix: how much to spend on
advertising, how to react to a competitor’s coupon promotion, which channels of distribution are appropriate,
and similar questions.

3. Product managers face substantial pressure to attain and hence focus on short-run market share, volume, or
profit targets. Product manager’s tasks of marketing planning, developing product strategy, and
implementation. Marketing managers are also concerned with short-run targets, but they more often take a
longer-term perspective of where the business is going.
Product versus General Marketing Management

Product Management General Marketing

Management

Scope of responsibility Narrow: Single product or Broad: Portfolio of products

product line

Nature of decision making Mainly tactical Mainly strategic

Time horizon Short-run (often annual or Long-run

shorter)
Product-Focused Organizations
Head of company/division

Finance Corporate
Manufacturin Marketing communications
g

Product
Marketing managem Support
research ent

Manager of Manager of Manager of

product A product B product C
 Manufa Ad.
cturing Agenc Medi
& y a
Distribu Promo
tion tion
Servic
R&D es

Product Packagi
manage ng
Legal r
Purchas
ing
Fiscal
Market Public
Sale ity
researc s
h
Market-Focused Organizations
This structure defines marketing authority by market segment. Segments can be defined by industry, channel,
regions of the country or the world, or customer size. The market-focused structure is clearly useful when there
are significant differences in buyer behavior among the market segments that lead to differences in the
marketing strategies and tactics used to appeal to them. For example, banks often define their activities in
terms of corporate versus consumer business, and within the corporate business they often define market
segments in terms of customer size.

The product management system has several advantages.

The locus of responsibility is clear because the person responsible for the success of the product is the product
manager and no one else. Because of this, it is also clear to whom the organization can turn for information about
the product.
Product managers’ training and experience are invaluable; they develop the ability to work with other areas of the
organization and the persuasion and communication skills necessary to be an advocate for the product.
The product management system also has its weaknesses.

• The narrow focus on one product can lead to an inability ask more fundamental questions about customer needs.

• It can also be a very centralized structure in which the product manager is somewhat removed from “where the
action is” in the field. One of the changes in marketing organizations is an attempt to flatten the organization and
decentralize product management, particularly when significant differences exist in regional tastes for a product.

• Product managers are too myopic in their quest for quarterly or even shorter-term sales and market share goals.
One result of this perspective has been the dramatic increase in the use of short-term marketing tools, such as sales
promotions, for consumer-packaged goods.
• A final risk in a product-focused organization, particularly for industrial products, is that it could result in several
salespeople representing different products from the same company calling on the same customer. This problem is
most likely to occur when the sales force is organized by product specialties and is not necessarily a general characteristic
of product management organizations.

• In companies that use “family” brands the separation of brand managers’ activities can result in inefficient use of
marketing funds to build that brand name
Responsibilities of a Product Manager
A product manager is responsible for managing a variety of tasks and business activities. The following are some of the
duties of a product manager:

 Monitoring Competitors- Finding and analyzing your competitors' products, prices, and sales and marketing
strategies is known as competitive monitoring, sometimes known as competitive analysis.

 Understanding the User’s need- To design a service that works for the target audience, you must first understand the
people who use your service (your users) and what they want to accomplish. This is your obligation as a product
manager.
 Assembling Market Research and competition data- By doing market research, clients could be found for the
business. Investigating your competitors could help you set your business apart. To gain market insights, product
managers communicate with data scientists.
 Monitoring internal stakeholders- Monitoring stakeholders is the process of looking closely at stakeholder
relationships for goods, tailoring engagement techniques for stakeholders through changes to engagement strategies
and plans, and observing and managing the team. Translation: transferring information from the design team to the
development team.
 Achieving the Product Goals and Objectives- Product goals translate the product vision into specific, measurable
objectives. They are quite detailed in terms of what your product will perform after it is completed and how you'll
measure it.
 Depicting the Parameters for the Product accomplishment- Providing all the metrics and parameters to get a
sense of how to make the product profitable.
Skills Required for a Product Manager
 Strategic Thinking- The ability to develop plans for the future may be aided by knowing your place in the market,
focusing on your objectives, and seeing opportunities.
 Leadership Skills- A person's ability to motivate and lead a group of others who are cooperating to achieve a shared
goal.
 Time Management - The ability to efficiently manage time so that the product may be delivered within the allocated
time is referred to as time management.
 Empathy Skills- The ability to understand and empathize with another person's thoughts and feelings. Empathy
necessitates putting oneself in the other's shoes.
 Communication Skills- The capacity to interact with people and impart knowledge. With the use of our
communication skills, we can convey information so that the audience may understand it easily.
 Analytical Skills- The ability to communicate information more clearly and see patterns in order to develop
conclusions.
 Presentation Skills- The ability to create presentations that are interesting, unique, and aesthetically appealing is
referred to as presenting abilities.
Product manager deliverables
 1.product vision - to define the idea of what a product should be, why it has to be created, and for whom;
 2.marketing research report and user personas to analyze competition, describe the target consumers, and
define the product/market fit hypotheses;
 3.product strategy and roadmaps to outline the development process, roles, milestones, and KPIs;
 4..product requirements that list essential features;
 5.execution metrics dashboards to monitor the development process;
 6.testing reports that help discover flaws and improvement opportunities;
 7.marketing and pricing strategy to plan the product launch and sales; and
 8. product metrics dashboard to monitor product success.
To cope with such a workload, product managers use various software tools that are also worth mentioning.
Product manager tools
Product manager’s digital helpers should assist with planning and monitoring resources, managing workflows,
tracking productivity, collaborating, and exchanging information. Since product managers have a wider range of
responsibilities, they often use more diverse software in their daily routine:
 communication tools, including email, messaging, and web conferencing software (e.g., Outlook, Gmail,
Zoom, Skype, Slack, etc.);
 roadmapping software (e.g., Wrike, ProductPlan, Aha!, etc.);
 issue-tracking tools (e.g., Jira, Bug Tracker, Bugzilla, etc.);
 customer feedback and survey software (e.g., SurveyMonkey, Typeform, Usersnap, etc.);
 business intelligence tools (e.g., Power BI, Tableau, Qlik, etc.), and so on.
Depending on the scope of work and personal preferences, many product managers also take advantage of
presentation platforms, notetaking tools, designer software, and more. Some comprehensive tools such as Jira
or Wrike provide functionality that covers multiple workflows – plus numerous integration opportunities to
seamlessly connect to other specialized systems.