Opportunity Snapshot

This position combines both product management and marketing, and you will leverage your creativity, analytical skills, and leadership abilities as you "own" one or more of our tile installation product lines, from new product concept development to ongoing marketing. You'll showcase your entrepreneurial spirit in a company with a collaborative and progressive culture. As we continue to pursue an aggressive growth strategy (for example, we recently acquired new brands within several product lines), we are looking for high-potential professionals who can move up in our organization.

You will lead and oversee specific product introductions and promotions from concept forward, including identifying and analyzing new product opportunities, "pitching" your idea internally, collaborating with R&D and Operations to develop the product, creating the marketing literature and packaging, and more. While you will focus on a product line, you also will support a sales channel in which your product is sold.

To be a good fit for this opportunity you will have demonstrated success both in product management/development and in marketing existing products, ideally with consumer goods or construction products. Familiarity with tile and/or stone installation is strongly preferred, as is experience with big box retailers, channel management, and multi-item product lines. We're looking for a professional with financial and business savvy as well as creativity, and a proven ability to coordinate across functional areas -- including motivating and influencing people -- and drive projects quickly. The ideal candidate will have the potential to manage people.

Custom Building Products has been a leader in the tile and stone installation tools and materials industry for longer than 40 years. We have the best brands, innovative products, strong customer and supplier partnerships, and outstanding corporate leadership. This may sound like the same things a lot of companies say, but give us an opportunity to prove to you that it is more than just words: submit your resume, talk with our people, and let them tell you of their experience with Custom.

What Else You'll Bring to the Table

In addition to the qualifications detailed above, you'll need:

• A bachelor's degree; MBA preferred.
• A strong customer service orientation.
• Solid organizational skills, including the ability to multitask effectively in a fast paced environment.
• Excellent analytical (such as preparing market intel for the sales team) and project management abilities.
• Strong self-motivation and a proven ability to achieve goals with minimal supervision.
• Outstanding interpersonal as well as written and verbal communication skills.
• Reliability, conscientiousness, and self-discipline.
• Robust attention to detail and the ability to follow directions.
• Proficiency in business software applications, including Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint.

What's in It for You

Autonomy and ownership -- we'll look to you to run your product line as if it were your own business, bringing your ideas, challenging ours, and engaging in a creative and productive back-and-forth dialog with the Channel Manager (to whom you will report) as well as Product Marketing and Sales teams.

Broad impact -- you'll flex a variety of your marketing "muscles" in this role, from developing creative collaterals to preparing business cases to leading cross-disciplinary team.

Great work environment -- by taking a bottom-up approach and involving employees in the decision-making process, we have created high morale along with high productivity. We're proud of our collaborative, progressive, and team-oriented culture, as evidenced by an unusually high number of Custom employees that has been with us for 10, 15, and even 20+ years.

Excellent compensation -- in addition to a competitive salary and bonus potential, we offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes everything you would expect and some features that might pleasantly surprise you, such as flexible spending accounts; training, education and ongoing professional development, including tuition reimbursement; recognition and award programs; and more.

Pride -- in addition to delivering quality products and excellent service, CBP is recognized by our industry peers; we recently earned the prestigious 2005 American Institute of Architects (AIA) Continuing Education System Award for Excellence in the Commercial Stakeholder category, and in 2006 we received the "Most Valuable Product (MVP)" award from Building Products magazine.

More About Your Role

You will join a team that includes Product Marketing Managers for each of our major tile-related product lines: preparation and setting; grouting; and sealing, care, and maintenance. You'll need to be familiar with all of our products, but you will have solo responsibility for one or two product lines. In addition to the product line, you will support a sales channel, such as construction industry, consumer, or big box retail.

You'll "wear a variety of hats" in this role as you manage existing products and channels and develop new ones, or new ways of approaching existing ones. The new product development process typically looks like this at Custom:

• Based on feedback from the marketplace and the Sales team, you'll develop a concept, including conducting market research and analysis. Pivotal to your success will be your ability to "pitch" your ideas within Custom.
• If the analysis delivers promising results, you'll coordinate with R&D and Operations to evaluate feasibility and develop the product itself.
• You then will plan the market introduction, including packaging, pricing, and promotions.
• On an ongoing basis you will monitor the performance of the product and tweak the marketing strategy as appropriate.
• With any new and all existing products in the line, you will constantly evaluate the mix to keep the line healthy, including determining what products to introduce, enhance, or retire.

More specifically, your activities will include:

• Planning and coordinating product introductions and promotions.
• Designing product labels and packaging.
• Preparing analyses to manage product lines including analysis of existing product performance and promotional effectiveness, and reviewing market research to anticipate competition and market trends.
• Evaluating and analyzing projects and program results and providing recommendations as needed.
• Developing promotional tools and product literature in conjunction with vendors.
• Interacting and communicating effectively with all levels of management and employees from various departments within the organization.
• Interfacing with customers, suppliers, and vendors.
• Tracking departmental expenses and budget.

You may travel up to 15% of the time in this role, to trade shows or to visit end user accounts to observe and learn.

Keys to Success

In spite of our success and continued growth, we maintain a family culture that is casual and friendly; we're long on interaction and collaboration and short on hierarchy. You'll need to involve key stakeholders in your decision-making processes and motivate and persuade people in various functional areas to contribute and participate. At the same time, there are a lot of objectives to be achieved, and we place a premium on delivery and execution. In addition, in order to be an outstanding Product Marketing Manager, you will:

• Consider the Sales team as one of your customers, and act as a strategic partner to them, including providing analysis-based market insight.
• Understand your internal and external customers' objectives and concerns, and know when to listen and when to pitch.
• Hit the ground running; we maintain a fast and responsive pace, and development has to happen quickly.
• Pay robust attention to details while also grasping the big picture and how those details come together to create it.
• Achieve your goals independently while keeping the VP of Marketing in the loop.

Who We Are

Throughout our 40+ years in business, Custom Building Products' customers have come to rely upon us for high quality products and unparalleled service and support. We believe in more than just manufacturing a product. We believe in continually moving forward with improved products that are easier to use, work better and last longer. Because we measure our success by our customers' satisfaction, we feel it's equally important to provide reliable service and expert technical support.

Custom is headquartered in Seal Beach, California and operates twelve manufacturing and distribution facilities in North America. Our facilities are located close to major metropolitan areas such as Atlanta, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia and Indianapolis, as well as northern and central California and Canada.

We are a well-recognized and growing company that offers competitive salaries and benefits in a collaborative, progressive and team-oriented environment. For more information, please visit www.custombuildingproducts.com. Clicking on this link will open a new browser window, but be sure to come back to submit your resume!