Product Marketing Manager (Winds & Strings)

Yamaha employees are committed to helping everyone progress, express and connect through music and sound. We offer innovative, finely crafted and award-winning products for the entire journey. As the world’s largest musical instrument manufacturer, we are known for our quality, customer service and innovation.

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. 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

• Ensure Product Marketing strategy maps to the overall YCA product category marketing strategy
• Ensure sales growth through effective channel strategy and product positioning, pricing, and distribution
• Ensure 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.
• Develop Yamaha product Go-To-Market strategies for assigned product categories to create customer demand and preference for Yamaha products
• Drive alignment between internal stakeholders (Product Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service teams) and YCJ to ensure product is ready for market.
• Ensure accurate review and assessment of YCA product category supply chain

Core Functional Competencies

• Customer Insights - 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.
• Project Communication Management - 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

• Customer Focus
• Decision Quality
• Plans and Aligns
• Collaborates
• Self-Development
• Situational Adaptability: Adapting approach and demeanor in real time to match the shifting demands of different situations.
• Yamaha Way (will, integrity, initiative, challenge, commitment)

Qualifications

Ideal

• Demonstrated success in the Winds & Strings, Musical Instruments industry and its target market
• Demonstrated 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
• Demonstrated success working and influencing others in a high-volume, matrixed organization
• Proficient in Microsoft Office with advanced PowerPoint and Excel skills
• Budget management
• Able to travel up to 25% of the time, including overnight and weekends

Preferred

• Demonstrated success influencing and leveraging research & development / product development within a consumer products organization to expand breadth and / or depth of a product line
• Demonstrated 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 Is What We Will 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
• Gym and wellness reimbursement program
• Tobacco cessation reward program
• Free concerts from award winning artists
• Discounted hotel, travel, entertainment, and other attractions
• Employee product purchase program
• Flexible work options (including hybrid schedule)
• Casual dress
• Vacation, sick-time and personal floating holidays
• Inclusive and passionate culture

Compensation

• Up to $112,000 per year
• The posted compensation is the base pay. This is the hiring range and does not include bonus potential or the value of benefits. The hiring range does not reflect total earning potential over time