Before importing a file into Salesforce Marketing Cloud Engagement, it’s essential to have a target data extension that matches the structure of the data being imported. The marketing associate must create a data extension with appropriate fields that correspond to the column headings in the "products.txt" file to ensure a smooth import process.

Why Creating a Data Extension is Necessary: The data extension serves as the repository where the imported data will be stored. Without this, the data import would have no target location. The file's format and field names should match the data extension schema for the import to be successful.

Salesforce Documentation Reference: For additional guidance, refer to Salesforce Marketing Cloud Documentation on Importing Data, which details the process of creating data extensions and importing data.