The Marchitect

If there’s one thing April Dunford wants you to know about positioning, it’s that positioning is not the same thing as messaging. And while we’re on the topic, please stop calling it brand positioning.

“My personal pet peeve is when people talk about brand positioning, which really bugs me because I think there’s positioning and there’s branding, but those things are actually really distinct.”

In this episode of The Marchitect, legendary positioning expert April Dunford explains why Mad Libs “fill in the blanks” positioning statements don’t work. And she gives us a better way to position products to win. 

Pricing is the top profit lever at companies. Pricing can boost profits way more than increasing sales or cutting costs can. But most companies leave money on the table because they don’t charge the right price. 

Why is pricing underdeveloped in most companies? And how can companies do better?

In this episode of The Marchitect, pricing gurus Mark and Kyle explain which function should own pricing (cough, product marketing) and how to choose the right pricing strategy. 

Category is important because it’s how our minds make buying decisions. First, you think “I need a new car,” then “I’ll get a sedan.” And only then would you think about which brand to buy. 

If the modern, self-guided B2B buying team experience begins with category, then brands need to make sure they’re playing in the right category. And if the right category doesn’t exist, well—brave brands are designing their own. 

In this episode of The Marchitect, Udi and Sydney discuss how they approach category creation and rebranding. 

We’ve all been there. 

2022 is a clean slate, product marketers. There’s no better time to step back and assess what you learned throughout the pandemic. 

There’s no better time to ensure you’re using your finite resources on the right priorities.

Speaking of priorities … 

Rowan Noronha, Founder of the Product Marketing Community, kicked off season two of The Marchitect by chatting with Megan Heuer, VP of Strategic Initiatives at Winning By Design, and Amy Hayes, VP, Research Director, Portfolio Marketing at Forrester. 

Together, they identified five key priorities for product marketers in 2022.

If there’s one thing B2B content teams get a lot of that’s requests:

“We need a one-sheeter on our new product feature!”

“Our widget is live … let’s draft a press release!”

“Can you help me write a blog about [my obscure hobby that I think is interesting but that our audience couldn’t care less about]?”

Ah, the familiar scent of fielding content requests—while trying to make an impact on the metrics that matter (velocity, win rate, average deal size, etc.). 

The content conundrum is real: 

• How do we differentiate our messaging?
• How do we change up content format for a better buyer experience?
• How do we use content throughout the buyer’s journey to enable the revenue team and create engaged buyers?

On the latest episode of The Marchitect, Rowan Noronha, Founder of the Product Marketing Community, and Adam McQueen Content Marketing Manager at Klue, chatted with three content pros: 

Eddie Shleyner, Founder of VeryGoodCopy, Erin Balsa, Chief Picky Editor at Erin Balsa Content Marketing, and Camille Trent, Head Content Droid at Dooly. 

Each shared their top tips for creating compelling B2B content in 2022. 

Most companies struggle with how to unite the business around a unified GTM strategy. In this episode, we welcome Jeff Otto, VP of Marketing at Marqeta. He's responsible for laying the foundations for their GTM approach. What sage advice did Jeff dole out? Let’s just say he’s taken a seemingly complex mythical beast (GTM) and tamed it with gold dust and gold bars. Listen for Jeff’s take on:

• How competitive strategies can help build the foundation of your positioning
• Why you should engage PMMs when new products are developed
• How to execute a successful GTM on a global scale
• How to find your marketing moment trifecta.

In B2B, there’s lots of evidence that shows post-COVID buyers expect to do a lot on their own. This means marketing leaders need to build and structure their teams for self-serve. But what does that look like in practice?

While many marketing leaders look at the world through a marketing lens, Jessica—who cut her teeth on strategy and operations—looks at it through a biz lens: “I’m always the person when starting to talk about marketing, ‘OK, market share, by market. Customer segmentation. Growth rates. Competitive advantage. What do we know about our products and services and consumer proclivities that will allow us to invest to win?’”

And win is exactly what Jessica and her team at Indeed are doing—even in the middle of this new hybrid buying world and The Great Resignation. Learn HOW she’s driving success.

Most companies just don’t get it. The most successful companies are built on strong go-to-market teams. It’s time to stop assuming it’s a marketing problem and get to the root: Your CEO owning go-to-market. And our guest today is courageous enough to walk us through it with insight from his new book. Rowan Noronha, VP Product Marketing and Founder at Product Marketing Community, Megan Heuer, VP Strategic Initiatives at Winning by Design, Sangram Vajre, Chief Evangelist at Terminus, discuss the questions and stages every company should be aware of in regards to their go-to-market strategy. What we discussed: Understanding why great companies fail MOVE framework and its 4 questions knowing who owns go-to-market

The No. 1 reason sales reps miss quota is they can’t articulate value when speaking to buyers. In this episode, we discuss how product marketing can fuel more productive conversations. Sudeep explains the difference between sales enablement and revenue enablement. He also shares how LinkedIn obtains competitive intelligence—and how he analyzes the data to make sure the GTM team has the right insights.

Employees want their work to have meaning. So how can you create opportunities for people to do meaningful work? How can you build a purpose-driven company to attract and retain top talent? Robert talks about what he and the Atlassian leadership team are doing to create opportunities for work to be meaningful—and the impact so far. 

In this session, we discussed:

• The importance of having a purpose-driven company
• How can you build a purpose-driven company to attract and retain top talent?
• How can you create opportunities for people to do meaningful work?