Category Insights Manager - Walmart

The Category Insights Manager leads development of detailed category and consumer insights, strategies, and analytics for Walmart and Sam's Club across both Premium Brands and Private Label.  Develops insights-based recommendations designed to maximize category growth, supporting Walmart and Sam's Club customer teams in achieving annual and strategic goals. Serves as a key strategic partner to the cross-functional team, proactively seeking out new information and using broad-base of consumer and market knowledge to create holistic strategies and recommendations that benefit the company, customer, and consumer.

Responsibilities Include:

• Leads the identification, development, and socialization of actionable category, consumer, and marketplace insights using multiple data sources including sales data, customer-specific data, macro and industry trend data and general market research to understand consumer behavior, brand performance, and customer opportunities.
• Understands the company's position in the market and its strengths and weaknesses compared to competitors, using information to make informed decisions about product mix and white space opportunity. Conducts market analysis to understand the competitive landscape, analyzing industry reports to gain a better understanding of market trends, key players, and other factors affecting the industry. Monitors competitor activity, including products, pricing, promotions, and distribution, as well as social media and online reviews, to understand strategies, consumer perception, and identify potential threats, tracking company performance metrics relative to peers and making recommendations to improve performance where appropriate.
• Proactively owns, develops, communicates, and maintains action registry for project management tools, timelines, objectives, role responsibilities, and deliverables, aligning internal resources and socializing needs with cross-functional teams to ensure deliverables are met in advance of deadlines. Delegates tasks and responsibilities successfully when needed, driving cross-functional resources for on-time project delivery. Begins commercialization process and owns for customer sales team when necessary. Manages competing priorities and deadlines effectively, allocating resources and monitoring performance against KPIs.
• Develops and delivers compelling narrative outlining problem and solution, incorporating emotion to create engagement. Employs advanced active listening skills and provides feedback in an effective manner among all levels of internal and customer organization. Comfortable asking extensive questions and digging into the root cause and drivers to uncover solutions and joint value creation opportunities. Persuasive presentation and storytelling skills, capable of translating large data sets into engaging visual aids to reinforce desired message and connect the dots between Wells and customer objectives
• Effectively executes the Wells category process including establishing objectives and developing strong selling stories, anticipating objections, understanding the market and competitive data, and building Nielsen, Retail Link/Luminate, marketplace research and other data into presentations. Leads category review process including developing and customizing innovation sell-in materials, influencing existing product assortment decisions based on mix analysis, shelf placement, store count and space strategies. Owns presentation content and material development, collaborating with cross-functional stakeholders such as sales, marketing, and revenue management to develop a cohesive narrative that aligns with the overall business strategy.
•  Provides insights and direction to internal cross-functional teams and to customers to influence and reinforce position as the thought leader for assigned categories. Understands and incorporates pricing and promotional analysis, competitive analysis, and marketing data in product mix recommendations.
•  Assists in the development and management of strategic partnerships with Walmart and Sam's Club, including the preparation of regular customer-facing communication and material preparation, strategy development, reporting, and timely issue resolution and communication. Identifies potential growth opportunities for the customer and company based on joint goals and current competitive, consumer, and marketplace dynamics. Develops a strategic plan to achieve goals, which includes a detailed timeline, specific actions, and metrics to measure progress. Monitors progress toward strategic plan KPIs and adjust the plan as necessary to ensure success.