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

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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?

PMM Camp

A private community of product marketing leaders. It's an incredible opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals and build lasting relationships. As Maya Angelou once said, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” You do better with a community.

Member

Sierra Vista Medical

Working in this family-run organization since its founding. Provide strategic go-to-market marketing expertise. Notable achievements:
• Independently drove strategic marketing programs, collaborating on creative solutions to establish and grow Sierra Vista Medical’s brand, resulting in a 50000%+ growth in clientele.
• Orchestrated the conception and execution of SVM’s corporate website and digital presence, driving a substantial online presence and significant client growth.
• Contributed to a successful brand launch by providing branding, packaging, and integrated growth marketing strategies leveraging standard frameworks.

Marketing Advisor & Fractional CMO

East Meets West Ventures

Advocating for Revolutionary Innovation and Solving Real World Problems through Strategic Thought as a Marketing Advisor & Yoga Teacher across B2B2C. 

Our work spans the areas of AI, Integrated Holistic Wellness, Mental Health Awareness, and Suicide Prevention.

See my Publications section for some samples of strategic thought leadership.

GumGum

Reported to CMO. Established and grew product marketing and field sales enablement + training, covering gaps such as solutions marketing, product strategy, project management, industry body certification go-to-market, marketing research insights, demand generation, and more. I hired and coached 3 PMMs across two business lines with the 2nd being newly spun up in 2021, and a 3rd in 2022. Notable achievements:
• Spearheaded cross-functional collaboration by driving inter-department alignment and achieving 100% of business objectives. 
• Produced 100+ customer case studies and collateral, driving global engagement and conversion. 
• Provided strategic guidance and developed sales enablement programs, exceeding revenue goals with impactful roadshows and coaching sessions.
• I implemented, owned, and independently managed Highspot and all corresponding playbooks, sales training certifications, go-to-market team training sessions, and more to improve company-wide and internal to external prospecting and client relationship management by all client-facing go-to-market teams.

About GumGum:
GumGum is a private company. GumGum is a contextual-first, global digital advertising platform that uses AI/Machine Learning to capture people’s attention without using personal data, servicing advertisers, publishers, and media platforms, and serving world-renowned clients across 10+ verticals, including Walmart, Chase, Target, Hershey's, BMW, Mini, Honda, Warner Bros, and Vodafone.

Global Director, Product Marketing

Integral Ad Science

Interim Head of PMM. Managed product marketing strategies and launch processes for Nasdaq-listed company's 10+ AI product portfolio, overseeing 4 PMMs. Notable Achievements: 
• Delivered product value proposition at conferences, briefings, and events, driving +40% YOY revenue growth and increasing market visibility.
• Conducted extensive market research to understand target personas, informing 100+ data-backed strategies for product development and marketing.
• Collaborated globally to launch 10+ privacy-compliant offerings, driving use case education and supporting new, upsell, and cross-sell efforts.

About IAS:
IAS became Nasdaq listed in 2021. IAS is one of the leading global media measurement and optimization platforms that uses AI/Machine Learning and delivers the industry’s most actionable data to drive superior results for the world’s largest advertisers, publishers, and media platforms, and serving world-renowned clients across 10+ verticals, including Coca Cola, HP, Mastercard, Toyota, Samsung, Dentsu, Danone, and Diageo.

Founding board member of IAS's multi-award-winning DEI, spearheaded messaging.

DEI Board Member

Managed product marketing and launch processes for the newly acquired Vista Equity Partners company.
• Established partnerships with industry leaders like Meta and Google, driving +10% YOY revenue growth through strategic go-to-market campaigns.
• Translated customer feedback into actionable insights, shaping product roadmap and offerings for enhanced customer satisfaction and market competitiveness.
• Created and disseminated client-facing materials, including presentations and 5+ case studies, to support sales efforts and grow advertiser interest.

**IAS was acquired by Vista Equity Partners, the 4th largest global software company, in 2018.**

Global Senior Product Marketing Manager

Undertone

Managed the product marketing go-to-market strategy for this Nasdaq-listed company's new ad products. Notable achievements:
• Executed GTM plans for 2 new products, driving +26% incremental revenue through strategic messaging, campaigns, and performance tracking.
• Communicated Undertone's value proposition via diverse mediums, boosting revenue growth by +20% through compelling sales materials.
• Increased demand by 20% through VOC-driven collaboration, resonating with advertisers and driving engagement across various programs.

About Undertone:
Undertone sits at the intersection of creative, data, and distribution, creating memorable ad experiences by thoughtfully orchestrating solutions across video, advanced TV, rich media, mobile, and social to deliver custom creative messages across publisher websites to help brands reach their target audiences online.

Global Product Marketing Manager

SigmaCare

🎯 Started as #18 in 2006 and grew throughout 9+ years in roles, PE acquisition, M&A, etc. You name it, I did it as I was shuffled to wherever the business needed my strengths as an analyst, strategist, and catalyst that drove the most momentum, growth and revenue for the business.

In this final role with the company: 
• Promoted as a founding Marketer of a newly re-established Marketing Office. Tasked with working alongside the Director of Marketing, part-time Events Manager, and managing Agencies supporting all initiatives from ideation, design, strategy and execution.
• Conducted buyer, user, market, and competitive research to develop and refine messaging and positioning across the product portfolio.
• Enabled go-to-market launches by crafting the value proposition and executing sales enablement tools for new offerings.
• Developed and delivered messaging into the market through landing pages, email campaigns, social media messaging, press releases, case studies, print and digital ads, editorials, events, and co-marketing initiatives in collaboration with PR agency.
• Developed and implemented multi-channel, integrated marketing strategies to generate and nurture quality B2B SaaS leads. I implemented, owned, and independently managed Hubspot and all corresponding campaign and social media activities. Increased Sales pipeline by 50%.

About SigmaCare:
SigmaCare started as a private company, and evolved through M&A. One of the leading providers of electronic health records for healthcare providers, producing a portfolio of products and services supporting wellness and prevention and providing clinicians with real-time decision support and analytics.

Associate Marketing Manager, Marketing Office

Promoted into a newly spun-up team after the Private Equity acquisition to craft Market Requirement Documents (MRDs) to guide the roadmap and development of specific Epics with detailed market, competitive, user research, and more.  Additionally, I guided C-Suite Corporate Strategy and Business Development decisions with detailed Executive Summaries of the market pulse based on news and trends I gathered from my micro and macro analysis.
• Developed and implemented go-to-market strategies for new verticals and existing product lines.
• Supported marketing campaigns and worked with marketing agencies to drive our product and service adoption.
• Worked with design and engineering teams to develop product roadmaps for vertical lines that supported customer and market demands.
• Consulted with customers, industry experts, prospects, and internal department managers to identify growth opportunities.

Market Strategist, Product Management Office

Promoted as responsibilities grew to cover clinical decision workflows for all clinical and non-clinical staff, including System Administrators, and mentoring new hires from other industries to offload my additional 4+ hats, I wore in addition to product management responsibilities: Business Analysts on two new R&D Teams, and newly spun up departments spanning Technical Writers, Knowledge Management Trainers, and more as we transitioned into Agile Product Management methodology to develop a hybrid of Agile + Waterfall.
• Collaborated in developing strategic product roadmaps by performing research across competitive, market, buyer, and user personas.
• Led the development and go-to-market of +65 new products/features to market, contributing to significant revenue growth and PE acquisition.
• Co-developed associated product and marketing materials to support new product rollouts. Successfully delivered the products nationwide.
• Participated in marketing conferences & and trade shows to understand current market trends and industry developments.

Senior Business Analyst, Program Management Office

Promoted into a backfill role, where I was responsible for clinical decision workflows for physician and nursing users.
• Managed user focus groups and client workflow sessions to understand needs and support the product roadmap.
• Updated/created development, user, and technical documentation procedures and manuals, and operational support documentation.
• Performed competitive market research and gap analysis as a part of a team to develop strategic product roadmaps.

Business Analyst, Program Management Office

Promoted to Senior IA to serve as the dedicated lead for the implementation and change management of all Archcare Facilities throughout the NY TriState area. I was tasked with establishing a repeatable project-specific implementation framework to be carried out to all 7+ Archcare facilities. The success of our year-long project resulted in my team’s framework spanning Implementation SOP + Project Management + Training + Change Management + Communication being adopted and replicated company-wide going forward.

Senior Implementation Analyst, Implementation Office

Founding Implementation Analyst for the company. Helped ideate, design, establish, and execute go-to-market implementation, training, and change management and plans serving 15+ clients in the Northeast and Midwest.

Implementation Analyst, Implementation Office

GE Healthcare

Analyzed key variables, costs and financial metrics, T&L, and Expenses; initiated and implemented a critical metric tracking system for Statistics and Productivity Metrics projects.

Summer Finance Intern

Welcome! I'm seeking a full-time Product Marketing position with a B2B or B2C company that has a strong DEIB culture, is revolutionizing the space they are in, and is on a mission to bring real solutions to world problems. 

💡Why I'm the right fit:

✨ I am a catalytic, forward-thinking Product Marketing leader with 18+ years of experience within the B2B2C SaaS startup and hypergrowth realm.

✨I thrive when driving growth through strategic partnerships, customer-centric marketing, and international team leadership.

✨I am passionate about fostering collaboration and innovation to amplify business potential. 

✨ I am skilled at inspiring teams and influencing stakeholders to drive impactful change and propel organizational success.

🏆 With a proven track record of achieving rapid product-market fit and elevating brands through visionary leadership, I excel as a “Jill-of-all-Trades”: 
ABM | AI | Building | Buyer and User Journeys | Campaign Ideation | Category Creation | Collaboration & Communication | Competitive Analysis | Cross-functional Team | Customer Experience Optimization | Developing Marketing and Sales Materials | Driving Product Adoption | Driving Product Communication | Effective Product Messaging & Positioning | Field Sales Enablement | Funnel Optimization | Launch Process | Market Intelligence | M&A Integrations | Presentation | Pricing & Packaging Strategies | Product Demo | Rapid Growth | Strategic GTM Leadership | Storytelling | Writing 

💡Why you could be the right fit:

✨ Champion DEIB, innovation, and personal + professional developmental growth.

✨ Champion the work/life harmony of your employees and how they are lighting up the world with their passion for what they do every day at your company.


🌸 If you can be anything, be kind. All thoughts shared are my own. I have successfully switched roles and industries throughout my career, always driven by my mission and mantra: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi. 

DM me or email me at rossmarygt@gmail.com to connect or discuss how I can champion the Voice of the Customer, and your GTM initiatives, establish product marketing best practices and playbooks, and drive revenue growth. Thanks for visiting my profile!


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Richard King

Rossmary Gil-Tian, MSc PMC-V PMMC™️ E-RYT KKY ✨

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The Battle

Richard King

Rossmary Gil-Tian, MSc PMC-V PMMC™️ E-RYT KKY ✨

Followers

Posts

Engagements

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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

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