AMA: Mastercard Director of Product Marketing, Mandy Schafer on Global Product Marketing

Having worked in both the US and Europe, I consider a company really successful at Product Marketing when I notice that their identity is consistent wherever you are. One company i think has done a great job of this is Uber. Even from a global standpoint, Uber has always done a great job of their user-centric message, and has unqiue messaging wherever you are. In addition, being able to create target message for so many different audience types: drivers, riders, buisnesses, resturants and diners ...Read More

As the first and only PMM, the first thing I do when I come into an org looking for a product marketing plan is to assess the current situation. This involves meeting with your counterparts first: 1) Marketing Counterpart - What's their marketing budget, what are their goals this year, how are things (if they can be) measured? 2) Sales Counterpart - Who are they targeting, is it working, is there work required to identify the customer segment? How are the sales teams doing, do they understand th ...Read More

Great question, and timely as my team and I are currently going through a global launch across our major regions. HQ should be the centerpoint of the product definition, this includes being responsible for the core product messaging, aligning it with the corporate branding and naming guidelines and high level comms requirements. HQ should also be providing imagery and flow diagrams of the product, as well as the core fundamentals of how the product functions, how to set it up, etc. Then there ar ...Read More

This is where it's important to be close with your friends in branding. As a Global PMM building out your messaging, positioning and playbooks, you'll want to make sure that your brand personability is represented clearly in these documents. This way as your regional teams start leveraging it to build regional content, it'll already be present. In this, I mean your brand's tone, specific language being used,the approach, etc. In addition, you should make sure your regional teams have had trainin ...Read More

Yes, and I think there's various levels of how it's been misunderstood. The key is understanding where the disconnect between what YOU see Product Marketing is and where the COMPANY understands as PMM and try to either close the gap, or fit in with what the company perceives as PMM. If this does not work, then it's best to separate ways, because it is very difficult to change the structure and workings of how the company has already set up their PMM function, (unless you've come in as the CMO an ...Read More