Richard King

Product Marketing Alliance

Product Marketing Alliance is a collective of passionate product marketing innovators committed to driving demand, adoption and the overall success of their products.

Founder & CEO

The Alliance

The Alliance is the go-to professional development platform for high-growth organisations and individuals worldwide.

CMO Alliance

The CMO Alliance is a global gathering of marketing leaders.

Founder

LinkedIn

Instructor profile: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/instructors/richard-king 

Courses: 

Product Marketing Foundations 
Product Marketing: Competitive Intelligence

LinkedIn Learning Instructor

Acara

Moving event marketing forward: A powerful event marketing platform  enabling you to drive business performance through in-person events.

VP, Product & Co-founder

Tito

Investor

Ignition

GTM Alliance

CEO & Founder

Sales Enablement Collective

The Sales Enablement Collective is a global gathering of revenue leaders, all striving towards one, shared goal: consistent and predictable revenue growth.

Product-Led Alliance

Fuel your growth with a product-led approach.
We’re the world’s fastest-growing community for product pros, growth gurus, founders, and thought leaders. You’re in the right place to master your PLG strategy.

VP Product Marketing

I’m a builder at heart, with five startups and three exits under my belt. 

My passion lies at the intersection of product, marketing, sales, and data - so you’ll often hear me talking about product marketing.

My entrepreneurial journey has taught me the value of resilience, innovation, and questioning the crowd rather than following it. Most importantly, it’s shown me the power of community.

👉 Why I share on LinkedIn:

I believe in collective learning: I want to provide tried and tested insights to help you navigate your career, whether you're a founder, marketer, or looking to learn something new. 

👉 What I talk about: 

1️⃣ Building bootstrapped companies
Why go-to-market efficiencies are a non-negotiable 

2️⃣ How to spot and nurture talent
Strategies for building high-performing and efficient teams

3️⃣ Product marketing - why won’t I shut up about it?
How effective product marketing drives business success.

4️⃣ Operational excellence + a great culture. It is possible.
The nuts and bolts of business operations and fostering a winning culture.

5️⃣ What does leadership really mean?
The changing expectations of what it means to be a “boss.”

Go ahead and hit the follow button, and I’ll see you around!

This is why product marketing matters

😂

"Nah man don't buy AirPods"

"You need the Sony WH-1000XM5-WHCH 720N-WF1000XM5-CH520"


Sony product naming meeting:

Engineering: "We're launching 4 new headphone models. WH-1000XM5, WHCH 720N, WF1000XM5, and CH520"

Product Marketing: "That's not a name, that's a license plate"

Engineering: "We should bring in OpenAI. They're good at naming"

Product Marketing: "The people who named their models GPT-3.5-turbo-16k-0613 and text-davinci-003?"

Engineering: "See, they get it"

Product Marketing: "You both need help"


Meanwhile at Apple:

Engineering: "We're launching new headphones"

Product Marketing: "Call them AirPods"

Engineering: "What about the premium version?"

Product Marketing: "AirPods Pro"

Engineering: "And the over ear ones?"

Product Marketing: "AirPods Max"

Engineering: "That's it?"

Product Marketing: "That's it"


** scene **

Happy Weds, hope you enjoyed this skit haha

Talking truth on leadership, growth & product marketing | 5x founder | 3x exits |

Give Maria Nimfuehr  an oscar for this

😂



The stages of every product launch.

10/10 visualization hahah.

 
 
Maria's POV:

"You're a founder. You successfully raised from VC. Do you think you nailed your value proposition and positioning?

There is one serious mistake that tech companies make. In their minds, how they pitch their product to investors and how they sell it to customers are the same. 

But they are not. Why?

When pitching to investors, founders are expected to sell the vision ✨ Convince a group of skeptics that they are the ones who will grow to $100M ARR very quick. 

All works towards this goal: they are selling the 𝗙𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗟 vision of the product, showing how big is the market and how customers lie awake in the night dreaming of buying their solution. Founders are selling the future, what they will become when they grow up 👦

In reality?

The product is often in the early stage and it can't do all that you promised to investors. When users try it, they quickly find out that your 'data powerhouse rocketship' is just a buggy, scrappy MVP. And they leave.

Your positioning, messaging and value prop for users should be focused on 𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗘𝗡𝗧. What your product can do today that solves my problem? Why should I choose you over alternatives NOW? If it's valuable to me, I will buy it."

---


👋 P.S. Make sure you give Maria a follow!

Still laughing at this, well played hahah

No alternative text description for this image

BMW turned their competitors into free advertising.

The full campaign playbook for you:



To celebrate their 100th anniversary, BMW set up a free toll lane on Moscow's M11 highway. The barrier used visual recognition to spot BMW logos and let them breeze through without paying.

Over 300,000 BMW drivers got free rides all summer.

Then Audi and Mercedes drivers got jealous.

They wanted the free pass too.



So what did BMW do?

They published printable BMW logo stickers on their social pages. Custom sized to cover competitor badges. Mercedes owners could slap a BMW roundel over their star and glide right through.

Read that again.

BMW got Audi and Mercedes drivers to voluntarily cover their own logos with BMW branding. And drive around Moscow as free mobile billboards.

So so good 😂


The results:

4 million cars saw the exclusive BMW lane. 15 million media impressions. 70+ articles in 2 days with zero paid media. And brand awareness among competitor owners went from 30% to 33%.

The kicker?

Mercedes responded months later by offering free airport parking to premium car owners but it wasn't nearly as effective.

BMW set the playbook and competitors followed.



My 0.02 for you PMMs:

We're entering a new era where product velocity is accelerating faster than ever. AI is compressing build cycles. Launches are happening weekly. The brands that win won't be the ones with the best product announcements.

They'll be the ones with the most creative distribution.

BMW didn't run a billboard campaign about being 100 years old. They created an experience that made competitors WANT to participate. And turned that participation into owned media.

This is the kind of thinking PMMs need to bring to competitive strategy. Not battlecards. Not feature comparisons. But stunts that flip the script entirely.


Find your M11 highway moment.

Make it impossible for competitors to ignore.

Then invite them to join ✌️



P.S. What's your take on this?

Hey PMMs, stop. Read this.

🔥 analysis by Jason Feifer:


Celsius struggled for years — because of a CRITICAL MISTAKE that many brands make:

It was selling the wrong benefit.

In this case, Celsius spent years screaming “BURN CALORIES!”

Problems:

❌ CONFUSION (how does a drink burn calories?)
❌ EMBARRASSMENT (would you carry that around?)
❌ SACRIFICE (the can says little about flavor)

In short, Celsius only reached people who want to sacrifice and diet — instead of people who want to enjoy themselves and feel healthy.

Now look closely at its new can, and the fixes it made:

✅ ENJOYMENT (flavor takes the spotlight)
✅ PRIDE (premium design, new “Live Fit” tagline)
✅ HEALTH (claims are small and refined)

Think of it like a conversation. Celsius used to open the conversation with a bold health claim — which turned most people off.

Now Celsius opens the conversation with enjoyment and lifestyle — and THEN, once people are intrigued, its health claims make them feel good.

In 2023, Celsius netted $1.3 billion in revenue.

Don’t ask, “What makes me unique?” Instead, ask “Am I meeting people where they are?” That distinction is EVERYTHING.


--

👋 P.S. Make sure you give Jason a follow!

Great POV by my friend Aatir Abdul Rauf:

"Will we see pure SaaS products opening retail stores in the future?"


I had this debate with a friend the other day that started as a joke.

Our first reaction was that it's not in any GTM playbook because it's a money burner. 

At the same time, we agreed that physical spaces do something digital can't.

In a world of vibe-coded apps, presence is a differentiator. You interact with a human, create outcomes in real-time, and trust hardens. 

We talked about Apple. Yes, they sell hardware, so it makes a lot more logistical/financial sense for them. But their retail experience accelerated their journey towards becoming a lifestyle brand. 

Could a SaaS store create that same feeling?

After all, SaaS brands already invest in non-digital advertising.

→ ClickUp plastered ads on buses.
→ Artisan ran billboards across SF. 
→ Ramp pulled off that giant marketing stunt in the middle of NYC. 

And at big conferences, you see these brands spending through the nose for elaborate exhibitor booths.

Those moments create something. 

Brand recognition jumps. 
People remember the experience. 
The product stops feeling "fungible".

A retail store can deliver that year-round, but obviously NOT if the math doesn't work out. 

We realized this works only for larger SaaS brands.

→ You need massive scale. Probably relevant for products with $500M+ revenue minimum. Think Canva, Hubspot, Slack.

→ Location discipline is everything. A 2,500 sq ft store in NYC's Flatiron runs about $1.5M per year, all in. If you pick vanity locations, the math collapses.

→ The store must produce measurable conversion lift or direct revenue to justify the burn.

For that to happen, it can't just be brand theater.

The store has to be an education and services studio first, a showroom second.

Example:

→ Canva would run paid design workshops and operate an on-site print lab for business cards and event materials. That's potentially $900k in annual services revenue.

→ Slack and HubSpot would turn the space into a solutions center. Workflow clinics. CRM migration sessions. RevOps audits. The goal would be to land 1 enterprise customer per month or 8 to 10 mid-market deals at $100k to $200k each. 

In other words, the store adds to the pipeline, not just awareness.

But what would happen at these stores?

Some ideas we riffed:
→ Canva could host stations where you design and print stuff live.
→ Slack runs workflow labs where entire teams optimize their Slack setup in real time.
→ One-on-one CRM sessions where staff sets up a HubSpot instance for a small business owner. 
→ Certification programs with expert coaching and exam days
→ Paid workshops that turn casual users into power users
→ Events that build community and turn customers into evangelists

I don't know. Maybe we're making no sense.

But curious about this
Would a retail store change your perception of a product? 
Or is there genuinely no utility here?
--

P.S. What's your take?

GXBank

Leading product marketing for Malaysia’s first digital bank as a “not-your-ordinary-PMM” with a background from creatives and an edge in content. A perfect flavour for Malaysia’s first.

**Also leading content production and social media

Product Marketing Manager

Mindvalley

I help brands and personality channels create viral social media video content effortlessly and fun. 

It’s a 2-way experience, we focus on content, direction, hooks, crafting flow/story structures as well as creating snippets from existing materials that sparks curiosity and 👀

In 2023 alone, made 16+ viral reels (only reel's with exceptional reach qualifies) for Vishen’s IG all in which each viral clip average at 6 million reach.

Viral Video Content Producer

The creative behind multiple million-dollar product launches, the person you go to when your own marketing videos make you cringe.

- Creative Campaign Manager for all things brand related 
- Content creative strategist (videos on various social platform and platform growth)
- Creating video content for all Mindvalley and Vishen Lakhiani social channels (YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter)

Brand Campaign Manager and Senior Content Strategist

- Video Content Strategist and Video Producer for Product Launches
- YouTube Creatives Lead for all things going on YouTube
- Content Creator
- Campaign Manager

Senior Content Strategist x Campaign Manager

- Set creative direction and art direction for video ads and content
- Collaborate with branding, marketing, analytics and story team to create engaging video content based on viewers behaviours and needs.
- Creating brand standards, animation templates and visual assets in this category
- Overlooking, training and growing a team of video creators and editors.
- Collaborate with creative operations to have an up to standard creative workflow environment in this fast pace team.

Creative Lead of Video Content

As our film team grew from a 5 person startup style team, I've help played support to envision a team of operation manager and production coordinator. I focus on research and innovation in areas of digital asset and general workflow while also support the core films operation team with solution from a bottom up perspective to compliment top down approach. 

Note: Balance of my experience is parked under my main role as cinematographer & video editor when the needed core role was not filled, I took a break from this role from Feb 2017 - Feb 2018

- Introduced Frame.io to Mindvalley films post-production workflow back in Jan 2017
- Collaborate and create architecture on digital asset file organisation for both active and inactive assets.
- Work with the IT team on managing and upgrading our physical server and creating / uplevel to hybrid cloud storage and to suit our remote friendly workspace culture.
- Create an environment with tech support and proper workflow that eases creative and ensure security for the company
- Collaborating with core film operations team on the best Jira / Wrike and other upcoming issue management platform workflow in overall media production.
- Moderate NAS server with IT team and looking into future tech integrations to the films pipeline.

Films Creative Operations

- Quest courses are long form paid courses chunked into daily bite size videos made to watch in 21 - 60 days on the Mindvalley App
- Collaborate with course creation, production and branding team to come out with an art direction in post.
- Creating custom motion template that aligns with content and brand. 
- Create heroes journey prologue for each course as warm up videos.
- Lead editor for multiple Quest course:

            // Rapid Transformational Hypnotherapy for Abundance with Marisa Peer
            // Feng Shui for Life with Marie Diamond
            // Chakra Healing with Anodea Judith
            // The Mastery of Sleep with Michael Breus
            // Conscious Uncoupling with Katherine Woodward Thomas
            // Mastering Authentic Networking with Keith Ferrazzi

Quest Course Lead Editor

A phase where I collaborate, innovate and self-initiated projects within the company that aligns to my personal core brand; "create content that inspires". 

Here are a few of our projects worth highlighting, click on link for case studies.

Video Content Creator

- Executing all video production and creative production from start to finish
- Execute set design, light setup, filming, editing, animation, motion graphics and color grading.
- Creating ideas, concept and learning experience for content, courses and social media
- Executing creative video projects, ads and photography
- Managing a film team of 10 people using agile scrum methodology, part time scrum master and sprint planner. (6-months acting head for the team)
- Handle operations for the film team and implement innovative tools in the process that increase productivity and speed. (6-months acting head for the team)
- Looking into new technology and equipments for film production

Cinematographer & Video Editor

Mimi Thian

"Let's Create Content That Inspires"

I provide creative consultation, direction, content creation, motion graphics, videography to photography services. This is my personal portfolio and side hustle channel.

www.mimithian.com
www.instagram.com/mimithian

Freelance Content Creator

28Spin

Film, edits, motion and photography works.

Content Creator, Social Media Specialist

We sell a wide range of yo-yos and skill toys. 

- 28Spin Online Webstore @ www.28spin.com
- 28DC @ Sunway Pyramid | PJ, Selangor
- 28Spin @ Summermall | Kuching, Sarawak

Provide yoyo performance services. 

Runs and manage yoyo events to grow the yo-yoing scene in Malaysia.

- Malaysia Yo-yo Championship, (MYYC) 2010
- Malaysia National Yo-yo Contest, (MNYC) 2013

Co-Founder

Rhythm & Hues Malaysia

Camera tracker and matchmover for VFX films. 

- Yogi Bear 3D 
- Hop (2010)
- X-Men: First Class (2011)
- Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (2011)
- Mr.Popper's Penguins (2011) 
- Chronicle (2011)
- Life of Pi (2012)
- R.I.P.D. (2012) 
- Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013)
- Into the storm

Matchmove Artist

Igloo Digital Arts

3D modeling and texturing for game art.

- F1 2009
- Sonic & Sega All-star Racing

3D Artist

"Let's create content that inspires."

www.mimithian.com

taplio

The Battle

Richard King

Mimi Thian

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreRichard King's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Richard King

Mimi Thian

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Richard King's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreRichard King's LinkedIn Performance