How does product marketing differ between France and the US?

Culture: risk, trust and the job description

The first gap is human. In the episode, Mathieu describes a US habit of taking a chance and testing, and a French preference for discussing, convincing everyone and then moving. Once a US team has taken a decision with data, it tends to go. A French team keeps talking.

Trust works differently too. In the US, a newcomer gets trust on credit and loses it by failing. In France, trust is earned first, which matters for a role that depends on influence: product marketing rarely has authority over the people who use its work.

The third cultural trait is initiative. French job descriptions tend to be tightly framed, and stepping outside them is not always welcome. Product marketing spills over product, sales and marketing by nature, so the job description needs a clear frame and enough room to grow beyond it. Mathieu points to the product marketing framework he built at Thiga as one way to set that frame, then adapt it to the company.

The market: size, research and competition

France is a small market next to the US, so products are often built for a European space with local specifics, where US companies tend to start with a broader, more standardised approach.

Market research follows the same split. French teams favour qualitative work and interviews; US teams lean on quantitative data and analyst firms to read trends and validate opportunities.

Competition is fiercer in the US, and buyers there are more willing to pay a little to try a product. That pushes US product marketing towards sharper competitive analysis and more aggressive comparisons. In France, comparison works when it stays nuanced: a comparison page can explain why you are a better fit without attacking the alternative.

Launches: preparation versus iteration

The episode opens on launches. The US approach is immediate: train the sales team, pitch and watch how the field reacts. The French approach is a long, careful preparation, a large launch that exhausts everyone, and then the team turns the page.

The opportunity for a product marketer is what comes after the release. Showing that the product keeps living, with demos, sales material and follow-up, is how a launch becomes a process rather than a one-day webinar. Over time it also earns the right to launch earlier, with less upfront preparation.

Product culture, and where product marketing sits

Product practices reached France around 2010 to 2013, roughly a decade after the US. Mathieu also points out that the role existed long before the title, in market manager roles in telecoms and retail, and that the know-how transfers well to digital products.

His reading of the difference: in the US, product marketing came largely from marketing and is strong on execution and messaging. In France it has often grown from the product side, pushed by product leaders who saw it work in the US. That makes it more strategic and closer to the value of the product, while the execution still has to be done.

His conviction, here as in his writing: put product marketing on the product side. Sitting in product rituals forces the product marketer to know the roadmap months ahead, anticipate launches and bring market insight to product managers early, without losing the execution work.

What breaks when you copy a US playbook

When the episode came out, Mathieu summed it up on LinkedIn:

It is tempting to look at what is done across the Atlantic, since they are years ahead. And that is exactly what you should do. But if this content is precious in our toolbox, we still have to be careful not to apply it to the letter.

Mathieu Seguy, LinkedIn post of 17 April 2023, translated from French

Mathieu describes two things that did not work for him in France: launching very early with a small paid entry offer, which US buyers accept more readily, and US-style messaging built on superlatives, which French buyers do not expect.

His advice to a first product marketer follows from it. Most companies do not yet know what product marketing is, so do not disappear for six months of market studies. Start with visible value on launches, then sales enablement, then messaging and positioning, and question every method you read about before applying it to your market and your culture.

How this maps to the twelve disciplines

The three gaps sit at the start of the method. Reading the market as it is, rather than as a US benchmark describes it, is the first discipline, Map the Terrain. Knowing who you really compete with, including the customer who does nothing, is Get Ready for a Fight, and the French preference for nuanced comparison is a constraint on how you fight, not a reason to skip it.

The point about launches is Orchestrate the Landing: a release announced but not adopted is a cost, and the work that pays starts after the announcement. Where the function sits and how it earns trust is Run the Operating Model, and the same position on reporting lines runs through what product marketing actually is.