Why “Product Marketing” Is the Most Misunderstood Function in Marketing
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Why “Product Marketing” Is the Most Misunderstood Function in Marketing
There are very few roles in marketing that sound as straightforward as product marketing, and yet in practice, almost no one agrees on what it actually means.
Ask five companies what their product marketing team does, and you’ll get five different answers:
- “They handle messaging”
- “They support product launches”
- “They build decks for sales”
- “They sit between product and marketing”
- “They own positioning”
All of these are partially true; however, none of them are truly complete answers of what product marketing truly is. And that’s the problem. That disconnect is exactly why the function is so misunderstood.
The Core Misunderstanding Starts With the Name
Product marketing implies the marketing of a product. Campaigns, content, ads, demand generation. The outward-facing work that most people associate with marketing. The challenge is that “the marketing of a product” is quite subjective and forever changing depending on the size of the organization, the leadership, the budget, and so much more.
So without calling out actual responsibility lanes, let’s re-position how we explain product marketing. Product marketing is how a product is understood, positioned, and translated so that it can be marketed effectively.
That distinction seems small, but it changes everything.
Because when that line gets blurred, product marketing gets pulled into execution. Writing copy, building one-pagers, supporting launches after decisions are already made. It becomes a downstream function when it should be shaping the thinking upstream and working on the full journey of it coming to life.
Why This Is Becoming More Obvious Now
This gap is becoming harder to ignore, especially as AI continues to compress execution.
It is now easier than ever to generate campaign drafts, landing pages, sales emails, and content variations at speed. The ability to produce is no longer the limiting factor. What still requires human judgment is deciding what to say, who it is for, and why it should matter.
When product marketing is treated as an execution layer, companies end up scaling output without clarity. When it is treated as a strategic function, they scale alignment instead.
Where Product Marketing Actually Sits
Product marketing sits across product, marketing, and sales at the same time. Some may even argue it sits within customer success as you think about product enhancements and customer advisory boards etc.; but at its core the discipline itself sits across three main functional areas of the business.
It is close enough to product to understand what is being built and why. Close enough to marketing to shape how it shows up in the market. Close enough to sales to ensure it lands in real conversations. It is the connective layer that ties all three together.
When it is working properly, product marketing is answering foundational questions long before a campaign is ever built including:
- Who is this product actually for?
- What problem does it solve in a meaningful way?
- Why would someone choose this over anything else?
- How should it be explained so that the value resonates beyond features?
Without clear answers to those questions, everything downstream starts to break. Campaigns feel scattered, sales teams improvise messaging, and performance becomes harder to diagnose. But in many organizations, product marketing is not asked to answer those questions. It is asked to package decisions that were made elsewhere.
The Swim Lane Problem
Most marketing teams are structured around outputs. Demand generation owns pipeline. Content owns assets. Digital owns channels. Brand owns identity. And the list goes on.
Each function has a defined swim lane. Product marketing does not.
It cuts across all of them, which makes it harder to define, harder to measure, and harder to place within a traditional org structure.
Over time, the role of product marketing gets shaped by whatever the organization needs most. If messaging is unclear, product marketing owns messaging. If sales needs support, product marketing steps in. If launches feel disorganized, product marketing is asked to run them.
The role becomes reactive instead of intentional. As a result, it turns into a catch-all layer that fills gaps. But the solution companies need isn’t a shift in responsibilities; it’s about timing.
The Real Role Lives Upstream
Product marketing should operate upstream, not downstream.
Downstream means supporting execution after the fact. Writing messaging once positioning is already set. Creating assets based on decisions that were never fully pressure-tested. Most organizations default to downstream because it feels more tangible. There is a clear output, a clear request, and a clear deliverable.
Upstream means being involved before the product is finalized. Influencing positioning instead of documenting it. Shaping the narrative before campaigns are built. Bringing real market insight into the room before decisions are locked.
What Strong Product Marketing Actually Looks Like
When product marketing is working the way it should, you can feel the difference across the organization. Ask yourself these five questions and see if you can check the box.
- Is messaging consistent from marketing through to sales?
- Do campaigns feel focused instead of fragmented?
- Are sales teams working from a shared, consistent story in every conversation?
- Are product decisions reflective of real market understanding rather than internal assumptions?
- Is there a clear narrative? Not just a collection of features and benefits.
Product marketing is misunderstood because it lives between functions, and most organizations are not designed to operate in the in-between. So it gets pulled toward execution, where the outputs are easier to see.
But its real value is not in producing assets. It is in shaping the thinking that makes those assets effective in the first place. If you want product marketing that shapes the thinking and not just the assets, let’s talk.
