Comments on: Product Manager Marketing Mistakes

By: Dr. Jim Anderson

Dr. Jim Anderson — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 17:33:45 +0000

Jason: I think that you missed my point here. If, as a product manager, you try to create a one-size-fits-all product, then you’re going to miss a key part of your customer base. I agree with you that both acquisition and retention are both important; however, retention provides a better return on your investment!

The classic example of this is Coke: think about all of the variations that they crank out – they want to capture all cola drinkers no matter if they want / don’t want caffeine, calories, carbs, cherry flavoring, etc.

By: Jason Allan

Jason Allan — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:56:51 +0000

Well, not so sure I totally agree with your comments regarding repertoire customers. It is the old addage keeping an existing customer is a lot cheaper than acquiring new ones. having said that, I dont think you should be isolating yourself to either strategy. Acquisition and retention should be an ongoing strategy of the CRM cycle. Essentially the overall goal of an organization is to grow the base…by either reducing churn (keeping customers more engaged in your product – maintain activity of current customers either by increased visitation or frequency of purchase) and by acquiring new customers (to offset attrition). so to say that product managers should turn a blind eye to drop in current customer engagement ..personally is off the mark.

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Thu, 05 Mar 2009 13:19:25 +0000

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By: Dr. Jim Anderson

Dr. Jim Anderson — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 15:25:24 +0000

Josh: got you on this one! Yes, some sort of segmentation is always a good idea, but what we PM’s seem to do is to focus too narrowly on what we THINK is our target market and often we end up completely missing other segments that would buy from us. The key is to do what I like to call a “soft focus” – go after a given segment but at the same time cast a wide net to other segments in a lesser way just to probe for interest. You may never be so happy to be wrong about what segments want your product!

By: josh duncan

josh duncan — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 04:09:33 +0000

Great food for thought!

hmm, not sure if i really follow you on mistake number one? are you saying a PM shouldn’t pick a segment to target? i would strongly disagree with trying to target too broad of an audience with a single product.

I think what you may be talking about the need for a product portfolio coupled with strong brand strategy.

Hate to bring up the auto industry, but Toyota is a classic example here of targeting different customers with their products backed up by a strong branding.

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Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:00:06 +0000

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