In the past 10 years I've led both Product Management and Product Marketing functions in hi tech companies with consumer offerings, with often the same people doing both. Terminology used in hi tech is a little different but we're still trying to accomplish the same thing i.e., develop products that consumers need, want and will buy. So how can the Product Management function do its part in making sure this happens? We all know and have heard endless lectures about being "customer driven" and all of that is valid. But some other elements — besides listening to consumers — get neglected that I would like to touch upon.

Here are FIVE strategies for successful consumer marketing that product management can own and influence. I've observed and learned these from my P&G, Kraft Foods years and my HI-TECH years. I want to very briefly share these with you:

1) Ideation & Idea Exploration: Don't cut short this process. Sometimes we have a technology, we have a few ideas on how it can be used for a consumer application and we start moving ahead with it. We also have a lot of very smart people giving us ideas and that's great. Sometimes that's enough. But often we miss out on bigger, better applications we could have started with only to have the next competitor launch with that. Sometimes companies start with what consumers lack and consumers can articulate this well so talking to consumers is always a good idea. But another methodology is to observe what consumers do today to see where their unmet needs or unarticulated desires lie. You'll be surprised how much is revealed by simply observing what consumers do today.

2) Testing, Testing, Testing: Online and other technologies have made market validation so easy that there's no excuse for not doing this at every stage. Don't assume you know your consumer and don't disrespect her. When there is even a shade of doubt, test. Ask consumers. And get the experts to test it right - get quantitative on the testing where it's appropriate and go with the evidence. Often it's not enough to ask consumers what they like — make them make choices, and decisions. When appropriate, tell them what the service will cost — pricing, advertising, and other costs. Make them make trade-offs and tell you what they'll buy. Ask them and know why they chose something. In today's world of online services and Web 2.0 (going on 3.0?), you can launch an alpha /beta, and effectively test your way to success but testing much earlier in the new product development process is equally important. Know why you threw out the 6 other application ideas you had and why you chose to launch with the features you did. As all good product managers know architectural decisions get made early on and you better have data to support why your products chose to go a certain route.

3) Pricing & Value: Spend time on this. Often the value is not simply about $ pricing and we may give away services for free, say in exchange for exposing consumers to advertising. And your basic service may be free but what about premium versions - what do consumers have to pay for that? Perhaps that's a future decision. No matter what the case, there is no excuse for not knowing exactly what value your consumer gets from your service. Ask your consumers. Articulate it. Enshrine it. And deliver on it. If you're going to change it know what's changing and why and what effect is it going to have on your consumer pull (how elastic is the demand for your offering?)

4) Tell them HOW they want to be told: Once you have something you want to expose to consumers - tell them. You can and should control the communication for a beta but beyond that getting the word out is really important. But that does not mean blasting the universe with a bucket-load of promises. Get your messaging right for the right audience and via the right vehicles. Ask yourself how your consumers make decisions. This is something often missed but crucial to success. What factors are important to them and why and how do they go about enrolling in and purchasing services like yours? If your offering is so new then look at adjacent market spaces or interviewing "early adopter" consumers in your target market. This will take less time than you think and can be invaluable. I've even seen cases where companies develop "consumer advisory boards" of highly articulate and highly interested consumers who give them feedback from time to time. Once you understand your consumers' decision making process, your marketing launch plan will be much more targeted and smart. Sometimes this might mean telling them BUT actually spending the bulk of your resources telling their influencers — key social "nodes", reviewers, endorsers, industry mavens, magazine editors, etc.

5) Positioning: This word is so belabored and so abused that I've been thinking about calling it something else. But for now I just want to define it properly. Actually positioning always comes back to good product management practices. Here's how. Positioning is about telling consumer why they should care about your offering. I've written a lot about this subject so I won't belabor it. Suffice it to say that good marketing entails that the product actually delivers on the promise and that the promise is meaningful to your target audience. All three of these elements are critical: tell the truth, make sure your promise is meaningful (which comes back to making sure you're working on the right stuff), and tell it to the right audience (which consumer cares about your offering).

Write to me and tell me what you think.