Senior Associate Brand Manager

Morton Salt is an iconic, 175-year-old company with a strong heritage and a bright future. We help unlock the flavors in food, make roads and sidewalks safer, improve the water in baths, pools, and homes, and keep businesses and industries running. We are a dedicated team who constantly strives to do better together, and we are passionate about building a sustainable future for our company, the communities in which we operate, and the world around us. By joining our team, you will contribute to producing and delivering every form of salt that enhances everyday life.
Job Summary
The Senior Associate Brand Manager combines the needs for both traditional marketing and general management. In this role the person will support the brand needs for one of our base portfolios and the related P&L.
Activities will include the following:

• Supports the strategic marketing planning processes for the Morton Brand, identifying and driving key initiatives to advance the business
• Lead the research, development, positioning and commercialization of new products, line extensions, visual graphics, and enhanced product offerings across all channels for innovation projects
• The Senior Associate Brand Manager will develop, execute, and measure the advertising and promotion strategy to drive sales and brand equity for the assigned product portfolio.
• Establish and report against key performance metrics, addressing any gaps to budget and future commitments.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Business Strategy & Execution
  
  • Responsible for establishing and gaining alignment from the Consumer and Industrial Leadership Team on strategies and plans to improve profitability and achieve desired business and market objectives
  • Align resources and lead cross-functional team to execute against strategies and tactics
  • Act as a steward for your products' P&L in cross-functional decision making to ensure that optimal solutions are pursued that balance the variety of considerations needed
  • Manage performance and work closely with senior functional leaders to overcome barriers to achieve desired business goals
  • Utilize syndicated data, and competitive intelligence to assess market opportunities. Use quantitative and qualitative research to vet new product ideas, packaging, pricing, and positioning strategies
• Business Development
  
  • Closely monitor and identify changes in market, customer and competitor trends with the potential for impacting current and future business performance
  • Identify market opportunities and risks, quantify/estimate P&L impact, and justify investments required to support future business growth
  • Implement all assigned commercialization efforts to ensure the organization delivers against its growth commitments and portfolio expansion initiatives
  • Establish and report against key performance metrics, addressing any gaps to budget and future commitments
  • Provides input with Supply Chain & Operations to incorporate market requirements into short and long-term capacity planning
• Build and Protect Long-Term Brand Equity
  
  • Use customer and consumer/end-user insights to drive business and brand activity, new products, strategies, and thought leadership
  • Contribute to the development of clear brand vision, positioning, promise, goals and strategy
  • Work with Sales Strategy & Planning teams to create sales tools that convey brand value
  • Lead the development of advertising and communication vehicles with agency partners that justify selling price premium
  • Measure performance and implement improvement measures to achieve desired customer and consumer experience
• Innovation and Product Portfolio Management
  
  • Supports in the development and execution of product and packaging innovation plans to support portfolio growth for managed products.
  • Responsible for go-to-market planning and execution for all types of innovation
  • Oversee all stages of sustaining innovation projects - from idea generation through commercialization
  • Manage the assigned product portfolio, investment levels and associated consumer communications in accordance with the portfolio strategy, stage in the product life cycle, and segment objectives
• Pricing Strategy Development, Planning & Performance
  
  • Provide strategic direction and collaborate with the pricing team to develop and optimize pricing architectures, strategies and plans by product line
  • Integrate pricing strategies and plans into product strategies and plans
  • Partner with Brand Finance and the Sales Strategy & Planning teams to forecast and track the impact of pricing actions with regards to overall business and financial performance
  • Collaborate with Sales Strategy & Planning and Sales teams to identify optimal trade promotions to delivery business results.
• Budgeting & Forecasting
  
  • Participant in monthly integrated business planning meetings, providing key market drivers that will impact the forecast and ensuring new business opportunities and risks are incorporated into the demand plan
  • Review baseline budget and financial forecast development and recommend adjustments to estimated sales volume and revenue attainment based on key growth initiatives, market growth rates, trends, opportunities and risks

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Bachelor's degree required, MBA preferred
• Minimum of 5 years of experience, with 2+ years in consumer marketing preferably in CPG
• Well-rounded business acumen with proven skills in marketing, business strategy, and general management
• Passion for inspiring customers, consumers, as well as internal/external partners
• Experience successfully launching new products within traditional, e-commerce, and/or direct to consumer is strongly preferred
• Proven track record of success and demonstrated ability in leading cross functional teams
• Must be enthusiastic, self-motivated and demonstrate excellent problem solving and decision-making skills.
• Proven ability to think and move between strategic and analytical thinking as well as actual execution
• Experience with Nielsen and/or IRI strongly preferred
• Must be well organized, able to work under time constraints and multi-task in a fast-paced environment, meeting deadlines as set by manager
• Experience supporting close-in categories, establishing premium positioning, and or e-commerce is a plus
• Ability to travel approximately 10%.

At Morton Salt, we work best when we work as a team, when we treat one another with dignity and respect, and value the unique contributions of others. We are committed to equal employment opportunity and prohibit discrimination and harassment based on race, national origin, sex, religion, color, disability, marital status, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, citizenship, or any other characteristic protected by law.