Senior Brand Manager at Bel Brands USA in Chicago, IL

Bel, makers of iconic cheese brands including Babybel, The Laughing Cow, and Boursin, is a growing global company that values your contributions, strives to create a sense of belonging for everyone and offers career growth and development opportunities, as well as competitive total compensation and meaningful well-being benefits from day one. For All, For Good, our company signature, reflects Bel’s commitment to sustainability and healthier and responsible food for all. Bel Brands USA has been named Chicago's "101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For" for 10 years in a row. The company is headquartered in Chicago and operates three manufacturing plants in Little Chute, WI, Leitchfield, KY, and Brookings, SD.

Job Description Summary

The Marketing organization is responsible for creating the long-term strategy for the brand, building differentiated market positioning, and developing and executing integrated marketing plans. Specifically, brand management defines the brand’s pricing, packaging, advertising and promotion strategies and is responsible for P&L management in delivering profit, volume, and market share objectives.

The Senior Brand Manager leads the strategic development and execution to drive sustainable growth on key lines of business. To do so, the Senior Brand Manager defines core strategies and translates those strategies into initiatives that will result in accelerated share and profit growth through focused and holistic marketing plans. This leader is responsible for enrolling and aligning leaders at all levels in the plans and is expected to work closely with Global Marketing, Innovation, Consumer Insights, RID, Finance, Sales, teams, and Industrial to optimize product lines and deliver sustainable profit growth.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Brand Strategy Leadership: develops US Brand Strategy inclusive of overall growth strategy, local positioning, tactical plans, price/value proposition, strategic target activation, and new product strategies.
Communications Leadership: partners with Global Marketing team to build compelling creative campaigns and leads US agency partner relationship to ensure maximum efficiency and breakthrough media & marketing activations.

Business Management and Tracking: actively manages P&L variances to attain annual and long-range financial objectives. Consistently evaluates business progress against plan and recommends corrective action as needed. Anticipates and incorporates internal and external factors that could impact the P&L for the business. Leads brand team in business performance analysis.
Go-To-Market Strategist: deep understanding of Customer channels and product route to market; ability to partner with Sales and Supply Chain through planning, innovation and sell-in processes.
Program Evaluation: analyses program results and marketplace dynamics to provide on-going marketing mix recommendations.
People Management & Leadership: supports development and evolution of internal brand management organization through effective recruitment, management, and coaching of team. Partners with local and global cross-functional leaders to drive decision making in matrixed organization.
New Product Management: identifies opportunities with Innovation team and works with Innovation team to implement plans for line extensions and new product introductions, ensuring effective and on-time route to market.

Qualifications and Competencies

Minimum Bachelor’s degree required, MBA strongly preferred

Required 7+ years of progressive CPG Brand Marketing experience
Experience with leading & managing people is strongly preferred
Experience with project management and leading projects
Experience with brand management on the corporate & client side
High level of agency interaction experience
Prior shopper marketing experience strongly preferred

Specific Competencies Required

Must have experience managing multiple projects at once in a fast paced, growth focused, matrixed management environment.
Must have prior agency management experience including media, creative, and public relations.
Must have expertise in Shopper Marketing strategy including an understanding of omni-channel marketing tactics.
Ability to enroll and align leaders at all levels through effective storytelling and clearly articulated (verbal and visual PowerPoint) strategic thinking.
Must be an independent and proactive contributor that can excel in changing and ambiguous situations.
Must have expertise in POS and panel data analysis (Nielsen/IRI); translating data into insights, demonstrate strong leadership, teamwork, and strategic thinking skills.
Ability to communicate (both verbally and in writing) concisely and effectively within function and with direct reports, cross-functional team, and agency partners.

Performance Expectations

Takes full ownership mindset towards applicable business lines, strategy, and associated performance.
Self-starter who is able to quickly learn the business and infuses new ways of thinking and working.
Can prioritize his/her key areas of focus and projects in challenging contexts. Can do the same for his/her team.
Gains trust and respect of management, direct reports, cross-functional teams, vendors, and agency partners. Maintains the integrity of confidential business and product information.
Makes decisions in a complex environment without having all the information at hand.
Demonstrates initiative to proactively raise a concern, offer a proposed course of action, or seek additional support to advance the Brand agenda. Demonstrates that same initiative from less intuitive opportunities that could be uncovered.
Gives and can receive ongoing, straightforward, and constructive feedback.
Develops trustful relationships and engages teams towards common objectives.
Can be trusted to contribute key deliverables on-time with the utmost quality and accuracy.

Working Conditions: Work is performed largely in an office environment. Hours of work will generally be during regular business hours with at least 40 hours a week. At times there will be some variation in work hours due to special projects, deadlines and other concerns. Occasional travel may be required.

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Acknowledgement: This job description describes the general nature and level of work performed by employee assigned to this position. It does not state or imply that these are the only duties and responsibilities assigned to the job. The employee may be required to perform other job-related duties as requested by management. All requirements are subject to change over time and to possible modifications to reasonably accommodate individuals with a disability.

Total Rewards:

Base Salary: $160,00 - $170,000

Bonus Potential: 23%

401k, Medical, Dental, Vision from Day One, PTO days and more

Hybrid work schedule in Chicago

Bel Brands is an equal employment opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran status, disability status or any other basis protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws. Bel Brands also prohibits harassment of applicants or employees based on any of these protected categories. It is also Bel Brand's policy to comply with all applicable federal, state and local laws respecting consideration of unemployment status in making hiring decisions.

Bel Brands is committed to recruiting, hiring and promoting people with disabilities and veterans. If you need an accommodation or assistance in using the website, please call 312-462-1500.

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