Brand Manager, Foodservice

The Brand Manager for Foodservice plays a leadership role in helping us become the world’s most beloved bakery by managing the business and brand-building activities for our Chef Pierre, Sara Lee and Bistro Collection dessert brands. This role has responsibility for managing business performance and budget to ensure we meet our annual plan and long-range objectives for responsible categories in our foodservice product portfolios. This role develops short- and long-term strategies, marketing plans, new product platforms, packaging, advertising, and sales programs that will achieve corporate profit, volume, and share objectives. This role also engages with the cross functional team in the execution of strategic initiatives and directs the activities of third party agencies.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Develop and implement annual marketing plans while supporting the construction of long-range plans 
• Monitor performance to ensure sales volume, share and profit objectives are accomplished while recommending and implementing corrective actions, as necessary 
• Recommend and implement marketing programs and pricing strategies to ensure growth objectives are met 
• Atively participate in monthly sales/supply forecast planning sessions 
• Work hand-in-hand with the Sales, Revenue Management and Customer Marketing teams to deliver the annual operating plan and that our strategies and programs are effectively implemented 
• Manage the launch of new products and continuous improvement activities for existing products in cooperation with the Innovation, R&D and Project Management teams 
• Act as liaison with cross functional team members to ensure projects are completed on time and business initiatives receive necessary focus 
• Creatively identify opportunity areas for growth by effectively using market research and competitive intelligence 
• Develop meaningful portfolio positioning plans that creates added value versus competition and effectively communicates product advantages to customers 
• Direct agencies/suppliers to create marketing programs while managing a respective budget for marketing, advertising and promotional spending

The position responsibilities outlined above are not to be construed as all encompassing. Other duties and responsibilities may be required and/or assigned as necessary.

• Bachelor’s degree required, MBA/advanced degree strongly preferred 
• Minimum of 5 years CPG brand management or relevant marketing experience is required 
• Relevant experience in food and beverage with strong preference for having past foodservice channel experience 
• Knowledge of and experience working collaboratively across several departments, such as Marketing, R&D, Sales and Finance functions, to achieve company and brand goals 
• Demonstrated business analytic skills, including in-depth understanding of P&L and ability to understand and apply insights/research to make decisions 
• Proven track record for delivering volume and profit targets from a combination of new innovation and creative marketing of existing product lines 
• An exceptional listener also skilled in persuasive and professional communication 
• Experience effectively managing cross functional projects/teams, being deadline-driven, commercializing innovation/renovation projects and creating related marketing plans 
• Comfort working in a start-up organizational environment and being part of an entrepreneurial culture that is still forming 
• Ability to think strategically and act decisively 
• Proficiency in Excel, PowerPoint, Word