SSA Product Specialist

SUMMARY:
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POSITION INFO:

REQUIREMENTS

• Affirmative Action South African Citizen
• Bachelor Degree/ Diploma in Commerce/ Engineering/ Finance/ Marketing
• 5 years product planning experience in the automotive industry (preferable)
• 2 years of experience in engineering, sales forecasting, markets research or brand management would be beneficial

ESSENTIAL SKILLS

• Strategic and conceptual thinking capability
• Sound understanding of Marketing/ Sales
• Sound understanding of the market and competitive environment
• Well-developed analytical skills
• Good communication skills (oral and written)
• The ability to speak German is beneficial
• Ability and inclination to work with detail
• High level of computing skills and in-depth knowledge of group MBV systems
• Presentation skills (internal and external e.g. PPT and Dealer Council)
• Ability to interact with customers under different situations
• Structured
• Project management abilities
• Negotiation skills

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Development of strategic product plans which optimize the competitive advantage of the company's passenger vehicle brand and secure the planned volumes and market share
• Management of product specification through the vehicle order, production and wholesale process and systems to ensure that local and FBU vehicles are correctly positioned, ordered, manufactured and accurately priced
• Management of product and customer requirement research
• Continually benchmark the company's products vs competitor offerings and monitor industry developments for threats and opportunities to propose appropriate action
• Development of strategic product plans to meet customer requirements (i.e. rationale, range, specification, positioning, pricing, volumes and model mix)
• Implementation of product plans as marketing representative in cross-divisional project team meetings, PPT and Pilot Hall
• Coordination of meetings with and negotiating product
• Development of product information bulletins for the dealer organization regarding all product innovations or changes
• Approval of point-of-sale material in terms of product specification in text, visuals and tables for accuracy (includes website specification and pricing)
• Management and implementation of unique product requirements for the car rental/ government market via cross-divisional interaction
• Supervision of the price indexing methodology to ensure correct price positioning and model build-up for all products relative to competitors
• Planning and implementation of feasibility studies for potential models to be imported into South Africa, including vehicle clinics
• Supervising the new vehicle introduction process to ensure all deadlines are met and launches are not delayed
• Ensure accurate vehicle specification sheets and order templates are delivered by the department on a timely basis
• Ensure that the Functional Unit ordering process is operating efficiently to ensure all units are available by launch
• Management of the vehicle specification tables in the SAP Sales Distribution system which controls the wholesale pricing of all vehicles