The Life of a Consumer-Brand Product Manager Tracy Carson, senior product manager for Lever Brothers’ Wisk deter- gent, spends an inordinate amount of time with stains. In an effort to move her brand to become the best-selling liquid laundry detergent in the country, she has to convince consumers of the superiority of her product over Procter & Gamble’s Tide. Like her counterparts at other consumer-product companies, Carison is responsible for nearly every aspect of her product. More than being simply champions for their brands, product man- agers are viewed in some ways as running their own little businesses. They not only oversee product development, but also monitor adver- tising and promotion, as well as negotiate to obtain shelf space from retailers. With current product proliferation, manufacturers concede that there are few lasting competitive advantages from which to attain mar- ket dominance. Therefore, sensitivity, intelligence, and intuition are important traits for product managers facing these battles. But the real challenge of the job for product managers like Carlson is often simply getting the product onto shelves. A glut of new products has made retailers reluctant to open shelf space without generous inducements from manufacturers. The inducements include paying for In-store displays, fees for mentioning the product in store advertising circulars, and compensation for the increased processing costs of warehousing the new products. Carlson will not reveal the Wisk marketing budget, but she said that in general the proportion of consumer-products budgets for trade and consumer promotions has risen from less than half to as much as three-fourths, with the balance going to advertising. ‘Source: Condensed trom “High Stakes for Product Managers,” The New York Times (December 4, 1989): D1-D7.