The document discusses product data sheets, which some see as technical documents but others view as marketing materials. It notes that producing data sheets is a major responsibility for many marketing managers. The author received over 10,000 words of feedback from readers on what should be included in data sheets and how they should be presented. The article will be the first in a series discussing data sheets in more detail over several weeks. It considers how data sheets fit within a company's literature hierarchy and debates whether they should focus on product features for existing customers or benefits for potential buyers.

1. WHAT IS A DATA SHEET ?
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3. One thing which we’ve never really
discussed in all the years I’ve been
doing this blog is the product data
sheet. I know that some companies
don’t consider the data sheet to be
marketing collateral, placing it firmly
within the remit of engineering and
technical support; other companies,
particularly specialist distributors,
just put their stamp on something
provided by their principals.
A data sheet..

4. However, in my experience, for
a large number of marketing
managers, producing product
data sheets is a major
responsibility..

5. also the data sheet is something
which gets a lot of marketing
managers quite animated,
especially those who’ve moved
over from engineering. So before
tackling the subject, I emailed a
completely random selection of
readers and asked for their
thoughts on what should go in a
data sheet and how it should be
presented.
Fortunately, I didn’t email too
many readers, because the
response rate was amazing –
when I copied all the responses
into a single document, it
stretched to nearly 10,000
words. So thank you for that –
you all know who you are.

6. What is a data sheet?

7. The series of articles which I’m going
to put together on product data sheets
will probably stretch to five or six parts,
so I think I’ll run one each week. First of
all, however, we need to ask: “What is a
data sheet?”

8. That wasn’t a question I’d ever really think
about. To me (as a former engineer on the
receiving end, as well as someone who’s
written them in a marketing department),
a data sheet is a 2- or 4-sided document
with a photo of a product, a bullet-point
description of features, performance tables,
dimensioned illustrations and ordering
details.

9. Some of you will already be
thinking: “No no, that’s not
what we consider to be a
data sheet at all.” At some
companies, it seems that the
sales brochure and product
data sheet are the same
documents.

10. At others, the data sheet is an
annotated engineering drawing.
So we probably need some
context. Things may be different
in your industry, but I’m going to
place the data sheet as a unique
item in a defined hierarchy of
corporate literature, which will
be as follows:

11. WWW.EUSS.EDU
Corporate capability brochure
Catalogs or wider product
range brochures
Product group brochures
Product data sheets

12. I would expect there to be
an increasing number of
items as you go down the
list.
Alternatively, at some
companies, there might be
a brochure and a data
sheet for each product, so
the last two would have the
same number of items.

13. It’s fairly clear, however, that
there’s a divide between those
companies which consider the
data sheet to be aimed at end-
users who’ve probably decided to
buy the product already and those
which see the data sheet as being
a key sales document.

14. I understand the former approach,
which will only be listing features
for users rather than benefits for
buyers, but I’ll probably go with the
latter in these articles.

15. That’s a good point, and doubly
important in this internet age,
where a Google search can easily
result in a buyer finding your
data sheet and ultimately
missing out on the availability of
a sales brochure.
So my traditional view of a data
sheet being light on promoting
a product’s benefits is going to
get a little revision.

16. THANK YOU
Written by: Chris Rand