Brand Strategist

The Brand Strategist will have responsibility for leading, planning and inspiring the organization around our brands. You will work alongside a cross-departmental group of thinkers and doers working hard to grow our Brands into iconic brands that win at market and at heart.

We are looking for an experienced and results-driven product brand expert to join our awesome team!The ultimate goal? To deliver a wildly successful, market-leading product portfolio that creates value for customers, meets business objectives, and drives overall organizational growth and profitability. How do you ensure we'll get there? You'll develop and manage everything from product definition and planning, product strategy and lifecycle to production, launch and post-launch activities. You won't be afraid to be obsessed with product performance, reporting and analytics. You'll bring an always-curious mind to all stages of new product development and innovations in our product portfolios. Your decisive and flexible approach will drive enthusiasm within the organization.

The right candidate will have the heart of an investigative reporter, with a love of cutting through the noise, and an ability to see what is most valuable to the customer. Your work will be measured on the continual improvement of product performance and viability and your ability to drive results through collaboration, influence, and impact. Your mission is to get the data to talk to you in order to distill into a product roadmap that is both innovative and viable, and articulates what success looks like for our products, brands, and organization.

Do you consume all consumer product information like it's the next episode of Succession? Live to uncover the details that makes a winning product, love to chat with users about what works and doesn't? You get results through other people like it's your job because it could be...Sound familiar? Read on.

Key areas of Accountability:

• Business and Commercial Leadership 
• Brand Building 
• Innovation and Renovation Planning 
• Stakeholder Management 
• Process Development

Business and Commercial Leadership

• Manage financial performance and P&L of Company Brands 
• Collaborate closely with Finance to finalize annual wholesale pricing using market research and cost analysis data to meet company margin objectives. 
• Spearhead Brand SKU level strategic plans to prioritize initiatives and drive growth within the overall business strategy. 
• Establish Brand Level KPI's and implement plans to achieve them. 
• Implement a communication plan that drives action of the Brand Strategies throughout the organization. 
• Work alongside Marketing & Creative to drive E-Business activation and growth.

Brand Building

• Lead the creation of core strategic deliverables, including brand positioning, messaging, voice and target audience identification. 
• Collaborate with marketing team to gather competitive analysis and consumer insights that identify market opportunities, understand consumer preferences, and stay ahead of industry trends. 
• Develop robust brand activation plan that connects with consumers in unique and memorable ways that drive brand awareness and growth.

Innovation and Renovation Planning

• Create multi-year product roadmap that prioritizes based on business goals, customer feedback and market dynamics and leverages ILLUME's development and manufacturing strengths. 
• Manage product lifecycle and SKU rationalization, balancing and optimizing inventory with commercial needs. 
• Execute innovation and renovation plans, including ownership of Stage Gate process.

Stakeholder Management

• Communicate product plans, progress status and results to internal and external stakeholders and executive leadership. 
• Act as brand ambassador, ensuring alignment across all channels and departments to uphold brand integrity and personality. 
• Build strong relationships with sales team, sister companies and brokers to educate and inspire brand loyalty, ensuring a cohesive and impactful brand presence across all affiliated entities.

Process Development

• Collaborate with leadership and teams to codify Illume process and procedures. 
• Drive the process of new product development project kickoffs using analytics to determine feasibility. 
• Develop processes and procedures to help automate and systemize critical activities to help the company move quicker and has a multiplier effect for each team member.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Bachelor's degree in business, marketing or related field or equivalent experience. 
• Possess a proven track record in CPG brand building. 
• Strong understanding of consumer behavior, market trends and competitive landscape. 
• Demonstrated success in managing the end-to-end product lifecycle from ideation, launch and sunset. 
• Strong Project Management skills and experience with agile methodologies and product development processes. 
• Exceptional analytical and problem-solving skills, with ability to combine creative and data-driven approaches to decision making. 
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to create relationships that lead to effective collaboration across teams and influence stakeholders. 
• Ability to think Big Picture but also roll up the sleeves to help the team get things done. 
• Effective operating in a resource lean organization. 
• Passion for fragrance and a drive to make a meaningful impact.

Preferred Experience:

• Background in personal fragrance or similar product segments. 
• Experience in a manufacturing company