Bob Lauer

- Division of TTI Inc (http://www.ttigroup.com/en/our_brands/).
- Managed advanced development product initiative, working with Marketing and Engineering teams to drive technology innovation.
- Lead ID and branding efforts for ORECK Commercial division of TTI Floorcare.

Vermop is a leading European cleaning equipment manufacturer, with 84 years experience.
- Managed all Marketing functions for North America.
- Managed all trade shows (ISSA, AHE) and advertising (Sanitary Maintenance, etc).
- Worked with leading industry web-marketing groups on US strategy (Trade Press).
- Personally responsible for handling relationships for select larger US customers.
- Opened US office in Charlotte (2012), closed February 2014 for corporate and economic reasons.
- Managed Industrial Design for all of Vermop Gmbh, in Charlotte, NC supervising staff of two (2) industrial designers.

- Reported to VP of R&D, managing Rubbermaid Commercial’s team of 5 industrial designers, with combined career experience of 60+ years.
- Managed product design and branding for RCP’s international business:
http://www.rubbermaidcommercial.com/rcp/products/categorylist.jsp
- Effectively managed the deployment of ID resources, ensuring ID efforts followed Rubbermaid’s stage-gate product development processes
- Ensured ID output focused on meeting consumer needs, and corporate branding strategies.

- Launched RCP’s most successful new product line in last 10 years:
http://www.rubbermaidcleaningcarts.com/rcp/micro/cleaningcarts/en/
- Next Gen Cleaning Cart system topped $1mm incremental global sales in first 5 months
- Doubled RCP janitor cart sales globally within 5 years and increased profitability 43% over 3 years.
- Managed product marketing categories within Cleaning Equipment; mopping equipment,
cleaning carts and safety, with net sales over of $75million.
- Lead new product development stage-gate process: identifying new product opportunities and
developing from concept through entire product marketing cycle:
• Competitive benchmarking
• Pricing and sales strategy to optimize category profit and growth
• End-user research
• Industrial design
• Commercialization and training of sales staff.
- Researched existing global market conditions, traveling extensively in Europe, Latin and North America, conducting surveys and determining market demand.
- As product expert, educated RCP Sales team at national and regional sales meetings and regularly supported Sales with presentations to key customers and at trade shows.
- Maintained a thorough understanding of the competitive landscape, both domestic and globally including competitive pricing, features, and specs.
- Insured competitive product positioning within each appropriate channel category.
- Facilitated marketing communications: segment specific brochures, web-sites, training materials and promotional activities for RCP’s Sales Team and other key functional teams.
- Worked closely with not only marketing research, sales, advertising, and advertising agencies but also operations, distribution, and legal in the development of marketing plans.

- Reported to EVP, interfacing with VP Merchandising, VP Marketing and VP Overseas Production, and their staffs.
- Planned future product lines, determining product features and functions.
- Provided ID direction and leadership, improving and updating on-product branding.
- Won CES 2000 award for RadioShack's innovative new line of remote controls, as seen on front page of USA Today, and in WIRED magazine.
- Traveled to 3 overseas product development offices (Tokyo, Hong Kong and Taipei) and ODM partners to review latest US market trends, designs and manufacturing techniques.
- Managed branding for over 2,000 RadioShack products carried in 7,000 stores worldwide.
- Lead daily multi-disciplinary team meetings of retail buyers and product managers.
- Handled many ongoing projects at once, up to 250 new products a year.
- Approved all product designs prior to production, with authority for tooling release.