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Job Profile: Category Manager

About Us:

Are you looking for an exciting career opportunity in the boating industry?  Brunswick is the industry leading manufacturer of Lowe Boats. We pride ourselves on building the highest quality, most durable, and stylish boats in the industry. If you have a passion for boating or being on the water and desire a career in a growing organization with a team focus, we encourage you to apply for a position with us. Brunswick is looking for individuals to join our team who are proud of our incredible legacy and share in our vision to create life-long memories on the water!

Business Title: Category Manager – Southern Fish / Lowe Boats

The Category Manager will work with an ecosystem of internal and external partners to concept, define, market, and sell an outstanding line up of boats that delight customers and our dealer network. This position will have significant exposure to cross-functional partners and senior leadership, offering a singular vision into a broad spectrum of cross-company marketing initiatives and strategies for all product categories within Lowe. This role will be responsible for supporting and developing the 4Ps strategic direction based on each category’s respective strategy in conjunction with insights from customers, dealers, and the sales team, as well as the quantitative feedback from the product development organization. Through proactive problem solving and strategic thinking, this role is central to delivering on continued growth of the Lowe business.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead the development of the overall lifecycle plan and tech roadmap for Lowe boats including product introduction and retirement, option strategy, and product refresh cadence.
• Develop an overall category strategy for Southern Fish boats (primarily mod-v style boats) that incorporates and balances consumer needs, market trends, product lifecycle, technology trends, profitability, manufacturing footprint and operational complexity.  

• Conduct bespoke quantitative and qualitative research and leverage secondary sources to gain consumer insights.  Analyze data, identify opportunities, and share compelling insights with internal teams and external dealers to lead future industry growth
• Establish strong relationships with internal business stakeholders by building a thorough understanding of the strategic business direction, requirements, and priorities across the business through cross functional collaboration
• Serve as internal resource to Sales, Marketing, Consumer Experience, Design, Engineering, and Brunswick Boat Group Technology Centers to shape new product innovation by connecting dealer, consumer, and category insights.
• Lead the data collection and analysis of market based pricing efforts; work closely with sales, finance, and engineering to determine optimal competitive/market driven pricing.
• Develop a process to consistently map the competitive environment and use this data to support product, pricing, distribution and promotion strategies.
• Provide data analytics for demand forecasting and Sales, Inventory & Operational planning
• Exhibit strong interpersonal communication skills and change management skills, demonstrated by motivating and inspiring a diverse group of internal customers to deliver customer needs
• Lead the front end of the product development process including timeline development and leadership of preliminary phase gate reviews.
• Close collaboration with the supply team to develop alternative materials and suppliers for cost effective consumer led solutions.
• Use a systematic approach to solving problems that involve breaking them into smaller pieces, tracking the implications of situations, generating multiple alternatives, and making comparisons of potential solutions before taking action.
• Contribute to driving company sales / profits and gaining advantage over competitors by driving strategic insights and value-added tools/programs.

Qualifications
 

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Design, Management, Engineering, or other related field is required.
• A minimum of 5 years of Product Management experience.  A broad background in sales, marketing, and product development experience is desired
• Excellent communication, presentation and influencing skills.  Able to sell ideas to both internal (peers, leadership) and external (dealer, customers) stakeholders.
• Able to work in a team environment and be a strong consumer and dealer advocate.
• Expertise in the use of core marketing levers: Price, Product, Place, Promotion
• Ability to interpret and analyze data, use the insights to develop strategies and tactics that will influence consumers
• Be curious about understanding consumer behaviors and not afraid of challenging the status quo
• Self-starter – ability to work independently and with teams solve problems
• Decisive: able to make fact-based decisions.
• Execution focused / able to make things happen in a matrixed environment
• Project management capabilities – ability to manage complex project work-streams across multiple dimensions.
• Proficiency in PC-based software including Word, Excel and PowerPoint is a must
• Must have strong Customer Service skills; ability to interact directly with customers and dealers
• Boating or recreational industry experience preferred but not required
• Ability to travel approximately 25-50%, with overnight stays, as business needs require

About the Company:

For more than 50 years, Lowe Boats has been delivering exciting boats to passionate anglers, hunters, adventurers, and fun-seekers. The Lowe lineup includes tournament ready bass boats, heavy water ready deep-V, tough built Roughnecks, and family friendly pontoons, as well as utility and jon boats. Founded in 1971 and headquartered in Lebanon, Mo., the company’s state-of-the-art facility builds boats that are inspired by our customers, and engineered for lifetime durability.  The current product line is distributed around the world by a network of exceptional dealers. For more information about Lowe heritage and passion for our customers, please visit www.loweboats.com. Lowe is part of the Brunswick Corporation, the largest marine manufacturer in the world

Brunswick Corporation (NYSE:BC) is home to the people behind life’s passions.  Our company is made up of some of the world’s leading lifestyle brands in categories such as marine propulsion, boats, and parts and accessories. While we are family to 14,000 employees around the world, three divisions in 27 countries create a local environment, with our global headquarters in the Chicago suburb of Mettawa, IL.

Brunswick Corporation is an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action Employer. (Minorities / Females / Disabled / Veterans).

We recognize that people come with a wealth of experience and talent beyond just the technical requirements of a job. If your experience is close to what you see listed here, please still consider applying. Diversity of experience and skills combined with passion is a key to innovation and inspiration. Therefore, we encourage people from all backgrounds to apply to our positions. Please let us know if you require accommodations during the interview process.

Equal Opportunity Employer: Minorities/Women/Protected Veterans/Disabled

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Brunswick and Workday Privacy Policies

Brunswick does not accept applications, inquiries or solicitations from unapproved staffing agencies or vendors. For help, please contact our support team at: hrsharedservices@brunswick.com or 866-278-6942.

#Brunswick Corporation