Assistant Manager - Product Management

• Educational Qualification:
  
  

MBA (mandatory) & Engineering (preferred)

• Years/type of experience:
  
  

6~7 years of manufacturing industry experience with at least 3~4 years of marketing and category management experience

• Technical Skills/Knowledge:
  
  

Experience in NPD & stage gate process

Understanding of the building material and/or sanitary market segments

Proven track record in managing a product portfolio and category planning

Business acumen combined with technical knowledge

Excellent oral and written communication and presentation skills, plus a good working knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite

Ability to build relationships

Responsible for end-to-end management of products and services in assigned portfolio: range management (no. of SKU’s, extensions), packaging, inputs on pricing, technical product literature preparation etc.

Track sales and margin growth trends of category and propose corrective actions

Define value propositions of the category dependent on the end users

Build a category plan, including an innovation roadmap, translating customer needs into requirements for innovation (products & services)

Conduct market assessment to confirm market potential and develop business cases (integrated product definition, financials) for new products

Work closely together with R&D and production to prepare product launch strategy (introduction pricing, roll out pilots, follow up with supply chain, production issues) and implement the same going forward

Devise promotional strategies for products in own category and ensure execution through close collaboration with the sales and branding teams, covering areas of merchandising, POS Communication, Technical documentation for catalogues/ websites, exhibition participation etc.

Gather information on market trends and competitor product range / sale prices / distribution channels / market shares, assess competitor strategies for existing products and identify potential opportunities & threats within own category , prepare periodical reports for comparison

Carry out market visits to attain a better understanding of the current product positioning and perception , customer satisfaction levels, identify latent customer needs and competitive environment

Actively participate in trade conferences and exhibitions to stay abreast of industry trends

Recommend new geographies, collaborations & channels in the category to achieve sustainable profitable growth

Design and deliver training programmes training both internally, to ensure that sales team is technically equipped, and externally, to ensure that external stakeholders are well-versed for the assigned category