Product Marketing Manager (Guitar)

Purpose of Role
Product Marketing owns the upstream portion of a product’s journey to market by leading the positioning of the product and the development of a go-to-market strategy to ensure the product is set up for success. Product Marketing leads the ongoing management of the products in the category by recommending and establishing effective and competitive pricing, monitoring product performance, and managing the overall product lifecycle in our market. 

Key Accountabilities Include
• Ensures Product Marketing strategy maps to the overall YCA product category (Guitar) marketing strategy
• Ensures sales growth through effective channel strategy and product positioning, pricing, and distribution
• Ensures that Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service teams (and other relevant internal stakeholders) understand the category’s product functions and features in support of overall product education objectives and successful product life cycle management
• Develops Yamaha product Go-To-Market strategies for assigned product categories to create customer demand and preference for Yamaha products
• Drives alignment between internal stakeholders (Product Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service teams) and YCJ to ensure product is ready for market
• Ensures accurate review and assessment of YCA product category supply chain

Primary Responsibilities Include
• Identifies target customers, their needs, and how products will meet those needs; be a conduit for the voice of the customer to the product team and company
• Owns competitive intelligence for the assigned product segment by ethically administering the competitive intelligence tool, completing and maintaining SWOT analyses, and reporting competitive product and market intelligence to the organization
• Develops product position and produce the following:
     o Market segmentation and product differentiation for targeted messaging
     o Value proposition and initial messaging
• Analyzes pricing impact and perform future pricing actions within the portfolio as well as implement steps in End-of-Life process when appropriate
• Develops an effective Go-To-Market strategy for new product launches and collaborates/communicates with cross-functional partners, especially Marcomm, to plan for in-market execution. Tracks and communicates progress towards relevant KPIs related to launch
• Works with cross functional groups to support dealer workshops, videos, and related initiatives

• Requires travel up to 20%

Core Functional Competencies
• Customer Insights (ADD): Ability to understand and interpret customer data, behaviors, and feedback into conclusions that can be used to make marketing decisions
• Market Understanding: Knowledge of market and Yamaha's position in it, as well as prospective customer base
• Marketing Strategy Development: Select a course of action to achieve marketing goals
• Pricing Methods: Determine best, competitive pricing for products and services to maximize profits
• Product Development: Modify and improve an existing product; introduce a new product so that new or additional benefits meet an identified customer need or market niche
• Technical Product Acumen: Demonstrate in-depth knowledge of Yamaha's products and services
• Product Marketing: Determine how to bring a product to market. This includes deciding the product's positioning, its customer value proposition (CVP), ensuring salespeople and customers understand it, and monitoring its health and product life cycle in market.

Core Behavioral Competencies
• Yamaha Way (Will, Integrity, Initiative, Challenge, Commitment)
• Customer Focus
• Decision Quality
• Plans and Aligns
• Collaborates
• Self-Development
• Situational Adaptability

Qualifications
Ideal
• Demonstrates success using qualitative and quantitative data to derive customer and/or business insights in support of product life cycle management
• Experience developing go-to-market strategies and plans for new product launches with top consumer brands
• Proficient in Microsoft Office with advanced PowerPoint and Excel skills
• Budget management

Preferred
• Demonstrates success influencing and leveraging research & development / product development within a consumer products organization to expand breadth and/or depth of a product line
• Demonstrates success translating product specifications into end-user features and benefits
• Experience presenting product information to a broad audience, up to and including senior leaders in an organization
• Experience collaborating across multiple geographies and cultures

Here’s What We’ll Bring

• Comprehensive benefits package including Medical, Vision, Dental, LTD, Life-Insurance and 401k with match AND automatic contributions
• Performance based bonus program
• Robust employee wellness programs including free music lessons
• Generous Wellness reimbursement program
• Tobacco cessation reward program
• Private concerts from award winning artists
• Discounted hotel, travel, entertainment, and other attractions
• Employee product purchase program
• Flexible work options (including hybrid and 9/80 schedule)
• Casual dress
• Vacation, sick-time and personal floating holidays
• Monthly events, for example -- Bring Your Dog to Work Day, Employee Singing Competitions, Spirit Week and other fun events
• Inclusive and passionate culture
• We foster a culture in which everyone feels welcomed, included, and valued; and recognize that diversity contributes to the success of Yamaha

Compensation:

• Range for this role is $79,600 - $112,700 bonus. This is the hiring range and does not include the value of benefits.  The hiring range does not reflect total earning potential over time.
• Final offers within the posted compensation range are based on qualifications, skills and experience required for the role.