Category Manager

Astral Adhesives; Mumbai; On-site; INR 600,000 - 900,000; Full time

Job summary

Astral Adhesives seeks a category and product management professional to drive category efficiency, merchandising, and sales growth in the Indian retail channel. The role involves analyzing sales data, shopper behavior, and market trends to define strategy and optimize the product mix.

Responsibilities include designing marketing initiatives, executing promotions, and coordinating with distributors and retailers to enhance brand presence and loyalty in a competitive market.

Responsibilities

• Articulate bundling of products into category and coordinate procurement, merchandising, sales for the category.
• Analyze last six months data and shopper trends to drive growth strategy.
• Design and execute marketing strategies, innovations, and new product launches.
• Coordinate promotional campaigns across channels and position the brand in the Indian market.

Job description

Role Purpose

• This position is responsible to obtain long-term improvements in the efficiencies of the Retailors/Distributors, that leads to increased sales, an improved shopping environment and customer loyalty.
• Category Management provides the language, process framework, and metrics for communicating all strategic and tactical recommendations to the retailer.
• This role ensure that the right products are bought based on the analysis of the previous sales reports and current customer trends.
• This role involves in analyzing market trends in the category, competitors strategy, and common strategy is implemented and communicated from Distributors to Retailors.

Key Responsibilities

Product Management

1. Ensure to articulate the process of bundling products into singular category, business unit and address procurement, merchandising, sales and other retail efforts on the category as a whole.
2. Collect base data of last six months and analyze sales trends based on Shoppers behavior, demand/need and derive insights that form strategy to drive growth for the category.
3. Responsible for the design and execution of marketing strategies, innovations, designing, and rolling-out new products
4. Design and coordinate promotional campaigns and other marketing efforts across channels
5. Understands intimately the Indian marketing and communication landscape and can help position the brand accordingly
6. Product portfolio analysis, market mapping - consumer, competition, pricing, channels, sourcing, etc. aimed at growing the market share and launch of new products and undertaking other product-related innovations.
7. Product sourcing, pricing, and contribution analysis and work towards achieving bottom-line objectives

New Product Inputs

1. Provide inputs into NPD or promotions and review their shelf-layouts.
2. Track monthly performance in terms of sales and demand in market and put valuable efforts in product features enhancements and relaunches.
3. Innovation, new launches, and provide training to Sales and Channel Partners.
4. Responsible for product positioning, brand communication, media and promotion strategies and roll-out
5. Tactical campaigns and managing/supporting the implementation.

Periodic Visits-Distributors

1. Distributors meets for product feedback and insights; competitor product understanding and benchmarking
2. Ensure to analyze data before arranging distributors visit in order to discuss plans, briefing market research, updates on category reports.

Loyalty Program

1. Drive the success of Loyalty Programs by using targeted campaigns, consistent communication and collaboration with internal & external stakeholders for business development.
2. Leverage the Loyalty platform and drive adoption of its inherent Campaign management capabilities for the individual programs.
3. Focus on Continuous Improvement by ensuring a feedback capture and action basis direct interactions with Users, Field marketing teams & Issue resolution to particular division products.

Product Performance

1. Understand product performance category wise A, B and C in terms of Sales achievement.
2. Ensure to weave strategy and impart training to target participants in order to shift sales performance from lower-range (C category) performance to mid-range (B category) performance.
3. Product Promotions
4. Provide Promotional inputs to improve sales and market share as per the brand objectives both through advertising & below-the-line activities
5. Ensure to include prompted signage, category markers, category usage tips.
6. Ensure optimum product display and planogram (shelf-layout)