Senior Brand Manager - Four Roses Distillery

Four Roses Distillery is seeking qualified candidates for a Senior Brand Manager role. The SENIOR BRAND MANAGER leads the commercial integration of brand, portfolio and field marketing plans at the national and market level. This role serves as the key conduit between the field marketing and national brand teams and drives alignment, communication and evaluation of brand initiatives and performance within the U.S. The Senior Brand Manager reports directly to the Brand Director. This position conducts job duties in a manner that demonstrates a strong food safety culture which ensures the safety and quality of our products.

Summary/Objective

The Senior Brand Manager serves as the critical link between brand, field marketing and commercial teams for routine communications, commercial solutions, issue resolution, and pursuit of new opportunities including innovation launches. Acts as the conduit between brand, field marketing and sales operations teams, enabling effective local initiatives that grow the brands while focusing on the core national brand strategies and objectives. This role is a key communication link from field marketers on consumer and competitive intelligence, local program effectiveness, and ideas/input to brand strategies and programs. Additionally, this role leads overall innovation and SKU management for both core and special SKUs to ensure product efficiently and effectively gets to market to drive value.

Essential Functions Time Allocations

Major Responsibilities 90%

Brand Strategy and Development

• Works in conjunction with the Brand Director; Senior Sales Manager and Sales Director to develop and execute the company brand strategy by enhancing the brand market position, building competitive advantage and fuel momentum for continued business growth through leveraging market trends and data to identify opportunities.
• Drives initiatives from ideation to launch readiness in collaboration with cross-functional partners.
• Serves as an active member of the brand team, partnering with brand leaders to develop and support strategies and plans that grow share and outperform the competition. Provides ideas that reflect field insights and perspective and ultimately drive brand value.
• Acts as the “voice of the field” on the brand team to ensure brand strategies and plans are appropriate and relevant to the marketplace.
• Acts as the “voice of the brand” to the field teams to ensure plans and initiatives are consistent with brand strategies and brand equity both short and long term.
• Partners with the brand team on brand plan development to ensure consistency with the localization and go-to-market strategy for the brand portfolio.
• Identify and advise on areas of risk and opportunities and assist in developing a project risk mitigation/opportunity plan.
• Drives performance KPIs, analyzes and delivers reports to Brand Director and senior leadership.

Sales Leadership and Collaboration

• Leads brand support team and collaborates with sales leadership through a matrix relationship with Senior Sales Manager, Sales Director & Brand Ambassador positions.
• Leads regional sales teams in the development of plans and initiatives that are strategic, consumer-facing, appropriately resourced, and well-executed. These plans should be aligned with the field marketing guidance to ensure we are meeting both our awareness and distribution goals.
• Manages and guides field sales to ensure high-performance localization and amplification of national strategies and platforms.
• Partners with regional sales teams to localize brand strategies that align with commercial expectations and drive the feedback loop between brand and field.
• Leads and supports annual local planning with regional sales teams, national accounts, and Brand; partners with regional sales teams and national accounts to develop and promote portfolio and category growth initiatives.
• Provide training and guidance to the commercial team, identifying areas for growth and improvement.
• Develop, coach, and mentor a team of skilled internal consultants.

Communication and Planning

• In partnership with the brand team, responsible for developing and consulting on all communications, planning, and selling tools to drive the local strategies and plans. These include playbooks, sell sheets, program activation guides, program calendar, innovation calendar, new product launch plans, etc.
• Work with Senior Sales Manager, Sales Director, Regional Sales teams, Brand, and local stakeholders on the development and implementation of key market growth plans.
• Manage the creation of all marketing collateral and sales promotional tools.
• Contribute to marketing effectiveness by identifying short-term and long-range issues that must be addressed; providing information and commentary pertinent to deliberations; recommending options and courses of action; implementing directives.

SKU and Operations Management

• Lead overall SKU Management with key stakeholders (Brand, Regions, National Accounts, Demand Planning, Production, and Customer Service) to ensure we have the right processes and communication in place to get our products to the shelf effectively and efficiently.
• Lead and consult with Demand Planning, Production, and Operations stakeholders to react to short-term business challenges (glass constraints) and plan for long-term growth opportunities.
• Partner with key stakeholders to ensure we are driving the most impact with our limited special releases and gifts. Consult on the strategies for each SKU and work with the Regions to leverage for the growth of the brand portfolio.

Private Barrel Program Experience

• Work closely with Private Barrel Selection (PBS), Manager to enhance the onsite experience for Private Barrel Customers.
• Ensure proper coordination of meals, transportation and accommodation through GEP for PBS guests.

Events/Sponsorships and Brand Education

• Oversight of comprehensive events and sponsorship strategies to align with the overall company goals and objectives.
• Ensure events and sponsorships budget management, event goals and deliver positive ROI.
• Ensure events are successful and impactful which contribute to the overall success of the organization.

Minor Responsibilities 10%

Creating Shared Value (CSV) Committee

• Collaborate with other committee members to build and implement FRD CSV plan.
• Lead CSV internal and external communication plan and execution.

Kentucky Distillers Association (KDA) Marketing Committee

• Maintain good relationship with KDA and contribute when needed as representative of FRD Marketing.

Qualifications

Competencies Required

• Must be at least 21 years of age
• Proven ability to independently organize work projects.
• Demonstrated strength in collecting and analyzing data and presenting results in a concise actionable format.
• Strong interpersonal, oral, and written communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and develop a team and work collaboratively in a matrix organization.
• Demonstrated ability to conduct comprehensive analysis and develop annual business plans.
• Demonstrated proficiency in Google (Docs, Slides, Sheets) and Microsoft (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) platforms.
• Demonstrated ability to effectively communicate ideas and solutions across all levels of the organization, including business personnel, senior executive management, technical personnel, and IT consultants.
• Solid business acumen across multiple functional areas / processes.
• Ability to work in a high-pressure environment, meet deadlines, and simultaneously develop, deploy, and coordinate multiple projects.
• Highly developed sales, customer, and marketplace acumen with demonstrated ability to leverage understanding of customers/distributors and channels in the marketplace to build innovative solutions.
• Highly developed marketing acumen and capabilities with the commercial route to market to achieve breakthrough business results.

Education and Experience - Required

• Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, Marketing, or a related field
• At least 5 years of experience in the alcohol beverage industry in a commercial integration role. Brand management will be considered as well.
• Proven experience in leading and managing teams.
• Experience managing the development and implementation of large-scale complex projects and initiatives.
• Experience in building and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders.
• Ability and willingness to travel 35%-50% of the time, including some weekends. Must have flexibility in travel schedule in year 1 of position if more travel is required for market acclimation. Travel should decrease to some degree after year 1.

Preferred Education and Experience

• Master’s Degree – MBA or a related advanced degree