Writing in Marketing Through Product Development

Context

Back in Fall Semester 2025, I took a course, New Product Management. This course was structured around a semester-long project in which students were broken into teams of four to create a go-to-market plan for a product they either created or an existing product that they improved. All lectures and assignments revolved around this sole project.

The audience for our projects was the other teams in our class and our professor who we would present a final deck. The purpose of this assignment was to learn the ins and outs of product launches firsthand, prove market demand, and justify the need for our team’s product launch.

My team and I chose to use an existing product - Brita FilterAlert, a self-purifying water bottle - and improve it by adding technology that allowed consumers to monitor the health of their bottle’s filter. Throughout this project, we engaged with several important marketing genres, including survey writing to collect consumer insights, industry report analysis to interpret market data, and pitch deck writing to persuade a business audience.

Learning to Think Like the Consumer

As the semester unfolded, so did my learning journey. The first main challenge I faced was thinking from the consumer’s point of view, and not leading with mine as the seller.  personally thought that the design of the Brita bottle was not very aesthetically pleasing or trendy, so we decided to improve the product by changing the aesthetic design. However, early in the course, we had to conduct surveys and use consumer data to ensure that the public would receive our product well, and throughout these, we learned that we had to change direction. 

My group had to learn how to write surveys and format questions, two types of writing that are very important within marketing when conducting market analysis. In the beginning, our opinions and biases were clear in the phrasing of our questions, subtly prompting our audience to agree with design upgrades.

One of our initial questions was: “How important is having a stylish, modern-looking water bottle design when choosing a water bottle?” However, after lectures and editing, we learned to shift from opinion-based writing to fact-based writing with more of a professional and academic tone than a personal one. This was so we would not sway any responses. That original question evolved to be: “Which of the following factors is most important when choosing a water bottle?”

After surveying sixty participants and conducting a focus group of ten, two resources that proved to be extremely valuable, the data concluded that 35% of consumers cared about filtration the most, with all other potential improvements like style, price, sustainability, and portability trailing behind. My learning evolved, and I learned to lead with a consumer-first mindset as their wants and needs trump my own.

Translating Research into Strategy

During our research phase, I was tasked with reading and analyzing industry reports on water filtration. This was a kind of resource that was unfamiliar to me; what was also unfamiliar was reading a highly academic journal and translating it into material that would fit in a pitch deck.

Marketing values academic and professional journals because professionals often need to distill complex research, technical data, and evidence-based findings into accessible insights that help businesses make strategic decisions quickly and confidently.

I was challenged to identify the most important findings and communicate them in a way that was concise, persuasive, and relevant to a business audience. My learning evolved as I realized that the creativity behind marketing writing is often in translating research and metrics into a story. 

Writing for Decision-Makers

Within our go-to-market pitch deck, there were many disciplinary conventions used.

I used professional and concise language that was data-driven and persuasive, not opinion-based. These qualities are especially valued in marketing because recommendations often influence high-stakes business decisions, so credibility, evidence, and strategic reasoning matter more than personal opinion.

The pitch deck followed a logical flow, explaining context, research, solution, and market opportunity, and marketing plans in that order.

It also proved to be incredibly important to build business credibility by using evidence. In our pitch deck, we included statistics, survey results, and industry reports.

Our writing also followed explicit, obvious rules and implicit, unspoken expectations within marketing conventions. Some of these explicit genre conventions included various sections like TAM/SAM/SOM, value proposition, and market analysis. The use of charts, survey data, and analyzed market research was also required. One last explicit genre convention was using professional business formatting and headings. Some implicit, unspoken expectations included things like using consumer research, supporting claims with industry reports and competitor research, and demonstrating our understanding of consumer needs before we proposed solutions.

Transferring These Skills Beyond the Classroom

Ultimately, my Brita FilterAlert project helped me grow many skills and transfer some to how I interviewed for internships this spring.

I learned to write for decision-makers, bosses, and professionals, not only professors. It was an impactful exercise to have in undergrad, and I am grateful that I learned how to write for these groups of people before I start my career.

I also learned how to translate my research into actionable recommendations.

Finally, I strengthened my analytical and strategic thinking skills through this project. These three skills showed up for me in interviews because I made sure to answer from a place balancing creativity and business thinking when asked questions. These skills also proved useful in my interviews because I learned the importance of evidence-supported claims, so I began pulling from real metrics to support my answers.

The same strategies of these skills learned from my New Project Management course showed up in my resume and cover letters as well.