Alas, I have never worked in a place that differentiated Product Management from Product Marketing. We do both. Some (very few) people can do both, many can’t do either, and it is the bane of my existence, balancing the two roles, and trying to recruit people who can do the whole enchilada.

I tend to agree with David’s assertion above. To do marketing (true marketing) you need to understand the product, the market (audience) and how to effectively communicate. In my world, our marketing communications group (loosely aligned with your description of marketing), is more of a service organization. They can schedule blasts, webcasts, mag ads, etc, but they know dangerously little about the products and the technology, so they really can’t work without heavy intervention.

In the dim past, we had a leader in that group that forced all the marketeers under her to get their hands dirty and understand our products (hardware and SW), so that they could intuit the best vehicles for communications.

Alas, that level of competency has gone by the wayside, and we are burdened with a group that is not much better than FedEx-Kinkos. Pretty good at turning around an order, but no real marketing.

I anxiously await the next installment(s)