AMA: Microsoft Sr. Director, Microsoft 365 Product Marketing, Malli Vangala on Messaging
October 7 @ 10:00AM PT
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Can you share your perspective and best practices for repositioning a mature, market-leading product?
We often talk about product messaging in the context of a new product launch.
Circana Chief Strategy Officer | Formerly Microsoft, SAP, McKinsey • 4y
ah yes - that can be tricky! on the one hand you don't want to alienate existing customers (for whom the product and message likely are working) but you also may want to ...
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Circana Chief Strategy Officer | Formerly Microsoft, SAP, McKinsey • 4y
We try our best not to get too caught up or carried away with our great product features! Ultimately - it's about the value we deliver to customers and so we try to infus...
505 Views
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Circana Chief Strategy Officer | Formerly Microsoft, SAP, McKinsey • 4y
We do - however, important to bake in some flexibility/adaptibility as each product/capability/solution tends to have it's own nuances/objectives. Having said that, gener...
1239 Views
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Circana Chief Strategy Officer | Formerly Microsoft, SAP, McKinsey • 4y
We try to validate our messaging and positioning prior to finalizing them. We try to obtain feedback from the sales team (ultimately they will use this messaging/position...
1951 Views
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Circana Chief Strategy Officer | Formerly Microsoft, SAP, McKinsey • 4y
Great question and not sure I have a very scientific answer here! I'd say we use a combination of things to validate effectiveness of messaging: feedback from customers (...
488 Views
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Circana Chief Strategy Officer | Formerly Microsoft, SAP, McKinsey • 4y
Great question and one that took me sometime to figure out as well when i was new to product marketing few years ago! We have used positioning to get clear on who the pr...
663 Views
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How do you incorporate voice of the customer into positioning and messaging?
Curious to know how customer research works best in your experience and how to drive to actionable outputs like positioning and messaging.
Circana Chief Strategy Officer | Formerly Microsoft, SAP, McKinsey • 4y
We collect and incorporate the voice of the customer in a few different ways: First - the sales team tends to be a great proxy as they are on the front lines and can prov...
579 Views
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Circana Chief Strategy Officer | Formerly Microsoft, SAP, McKinsey • 4y
Sure. While I cannot share internal documents necessarily, I can share a few elements that I think make up good messaging frameworks. Market and competitive context Prod...
9883 Views
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How do you as a product marketer create brand messaging that appeals to three highly distinct segments?
My company’s product (we’re a marketplace) serves three distinct segments with very different motivations. I’m struggling to create brand messaging that speaks to all three. Any advice on how to approach? Or is this a matter of needing to choose one segment to focus on?
Circana Chief Strategy Officer | Formerly Microsoft, SAP, McKinsey • 4y
Great question! We faced a similar challenge a few years ago for one of our suite of solutions. It may boil down to how critical each of those three segments are to your ...
617 Views
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Circana Chief Strategy Officer | Formerly Microsoft, SAP, McKinsey • 4y
Inward focus vs. customer centricity Marketing jargon vs. simplicity silo-ed message vs. integrated messaging across our portfolio Very often - it's easy to get caught ...
647 Views
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Circana Chief Strategy Officer | Formerly Microsoft, SAP, McKinsey • 4y
We typically prepare and validate a strong Messaging and Positioning Framework (MPF) document first. Our template typically includes things like the market context, objec...
2190 Views
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Circana Chief Strategy Officer | Formerly Microsoft, SAP, McKinsey • 4y
I am a believer that your messaging/positioning has to be consistent with how differentiated your product really is. Customers will quickly figure out what is marketing f...
2509 Views
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