Can you define product management? Be honest if you can't. To many of us, it's like defining internet pornography. We believe we'll know it when we see it.

Unfortunately, product management is not as easily recognized with its clothes off, so we end up managing haphazardly and then wonder why business stinks.

Poor product management is what many of us do from the moment we conceive of a new idea for a product, through its short-cut rapid design and production, up until the customer buys it, hates it with a passion and throws it back in our faces. Ouch.

While you may find it hard to believe, big budgeted companies screw this up just as much as the rest of us. Maybe even more. Great product failures include RJR's smokeless cigarettes, Vitamin C tissues, Crystal Pepsi, New Coke, NeXT computer, WebTV, Pets.com, McDonalds Pizza. The pain goes on and on.

And there are examples of products that once were good, but have since suffered from bad management: Michael Jackson (ever without his trial woes), New York's plan for a west side stadium and American made cars. In these examples, abandoning good management and taking customers for granted have resulted in deflating a once rising market, leaving the future in doubt.

American auto makers aren't alone in making cars nobody wants. Toyota Echo only sold 3,400 in '04. Suzuki's X-90 mini SUV, the slowest selling vehicle in history, sold around 7,000 units in three years through '04. Product management? I think not.

Examples where great product management made all the difference are iPod, Google and The New York Yankees. In each case, attention to detail and careful follow through have resulted in extraordinary successes beyond all expectations.

Good product management (or service management) includes the organized plan of product design, production, ongoing support and follow up that makes our customers fall in love with us, our product and our brand. They buy more and we earn more.

To be a successful product manager, or brand manager, here is your action checklist:

• research customer needs,
• assess competition,
• find smart positions for our product(s) in their respective categories,
• establish competitive pricing,
• insure quality production,
• create effective distribution,
• develop promotional and advertising campaigns,
• encourage, collect and respond to customer feedback, and
• create market momentum.

As you can see, there is more to success than simply producing and selling.

Peter Drucker, world renown management guru, once said that "the aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him, and sells itself." Drucker sets the stage for the need for good product management, your key to success.