Manager, Brand & Product

CBU | Naperville | Full Time | Permanent

Wilton is a US heritage brand with a 95-year history in baking and decorating. Now fully integrated into the Dr. Oetker family, Wilton aspires to be the most influential and successful cake decorating brand. Learn more about Wilton at www.wilton.com.

Job Summary

Do you have a passion for all aspects of owning & building brands with a consumer-centric growth mindset? We are searching for a Brand & Product Manager to lead and represent your product line/category, advancing both short- and long-term initiatives that deliver growth, profitability, and drive alignment while embracing Wilton values and vision. Reporting to the Director of Marketing, this critical role is accountable for managing annual and long-range business planning, brand strategy, business performance reporting, innovation, renovation, and marketing support communication.

Essential Responsibilities

• Develop and execute annual and long-range brand and product business plans with a total P&L approach encompassing both commercial and operational opportunities to manage objectives, growth and profitability for categories and products.
• Oversee monthly, quarterly, and annual business performance analysis utilizing syndicated and panel data to synthesize category, competition, customer, consumer and product performance to support short- and long-term brand and product category plans to make recommendations and lead team to implement opportunistic and/or corrective actions.
• Engage with Sales partners to review strategic account plans as a part of the annual planning process to ensure alignment with brand and product plans.
• Lead the preparation and presentation of internal and external brand presentations.
• Develop deep understanding of owned assortments and products to make consumer-insight backed business decisions.
• Collaborate with Sourcing partners to navigate supplier changes and/or transitions to maintain product performance and consumer relevancy.
• Manage the review process of product line performance, trends, insights and feedback to identify opportunities to promote and grow the business and/or needs to consolidate and rationalize the product line.
• Participate in cross-CBU team strategic projects and analysis as needed to deliver output that is consistent and holistic across the portfolio.
• Support ways of working to improve inter-team and cross-functional collaboration on projects and processes.
• Define the product price, promotion and margin guidelines and manage pricing reviews.
• Own product portfolio budget and oversee Associate’s management and reporting.
• Partner with Insights & Analytics (I&A) to obtain consumer analytics to support and inspire short- and long-term brand plans and projects
• Provide brand and product line guidance to the Brand & Community team and agency partners to assist in the development of effective and efficient targeted marketing activation plans.
• Partner with Sales, Brand & Community team, and agency partners to develop shopper marketing programs for key accounts.
• Other duties as assigned.

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree required from a four-year college or university with an emphasis in Marketing, Business or related field.
• Minimum of 3-5 years prior marketing experience, CPG experience preferred.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Team player with good interpersonal skills to lead/coach cross-functional teams.
• Previous responsibility for managing 1 or more direct reports preferred.
• Experience being hands-on with a can-do attitude and approach toward navigating opportunities and challenges in a transformative company environment.
• Strong track record in managing brands with experience exercising both general management and marketing fundamentals.
• Experience managing brands and products utilizing brand foundation/brand key and brand architecture/design system to build strategies that delivered business results.
• Possess excellent verbal, written, and presentation skills.
• Robust analytical skills essential for market and competitive evaluation, pricing, and product category management.
• Self-starter with effective project management and multi-tasking skills, with ability to prioritize and meet deadlines with acute attention to detail in a cross functional team environment.
• Advanced proficiency in Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.
• Knowledge of IRI (or Nielsen) for syndicated and panel data.
• Experience planning and managing brand budgets.
• Experience briefing marketing agencies for planning, executing, and measuring marketing campaigns.

Physical Demands

• Professional office environment, sedentary in nature.
• Routinely use standard office equipment such as (laptop computers, monitors/keyboards, printers, and telephones).
• Processes information and communicates effectively with others.
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally as needed.
   

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