Job Abstract

ID

2024-1518

Category

Marketing

Type

Regular Full-Time

At Eagle Foods we are builders. We are builders of brands, categories, and people. Eagle Foods enjoys a rich heritage with brands that have proven category leadership for more than 150 years. Eagle is a diversified food company producing and marketing sweetened condensed and evaporated milk, snacks and convenient meal solutions products. As a company, Eagle Foods is passionate about fostering an entrepreneurial spirit that boldly builds better people and better brands while focusing on the positive impact our company, our products and our people have on the world. Eagle Foods has a bold family of brands that consumers have come to rely on for decades, including Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk and Evaporated Milk, Magnolia® Sweetened Condensed Milk, PET® Milk, Popcorn Indiana, Cretors Popcorn, Helper and Suddenly Salad. Eagle Foods products are marketed and distributed across all U.S. retail channels, including grocery stores, club stores and mass-merchandisers, as well as foodservice and export, U.S. military, and private label business.

Job Description Summary

The Associate Director will lead the Meals & Sides portfolio, the growth engine of Eagle Family Foods, consisting of beloved brands Hamburger Helper and Suddenly Salads. As the most senior position on the Brand team reporting to the VP of Marketing, this individual will have the responsibility of driving portfolio growth and bringing thought leadership & inspiration to the marketing team. This person will be a well-rounded marketer with a growth mindset that pushes our thinking around brand strategy, innovation, go-to-market efforts, and operational excellence.

Essential Functions

• Strategic Business Planning – Lead the development of strategic and annual brand plans that sync with corporate objectives and brand goals. Coordinate with shopper marketing, trade marketing, sales, and finance to deliver comprehensive growth strategy, EBITDA build, and tactical plans that deliver positive ROI.
• Identify/Understand market and consumer trends, category and competitive dynamics, brand challenges and opportunities, retailer priorities, where to play and how to win.
• Evaluate all elements of the brand mix, including marketing spend, pricing and promotions, pack size offerings, innovation and distribution opportunities, packaging, and claims.
• Develop budget needs and split across brands and marketing efforts.
• Identify and propose solutions for gaps to plan and hurdles to success.
• New Product Innovation – Lead team in identifying brand expansion opportunities grounded in consumer insights that will grow our retail presence and profitability. Develop 3-year innovation pipeline that delivers financial goals.
• Ensure team delivers executional excellence through stage gate process, including financial builds and on-time delivery.
• Oversee creative development of packaging and in-market support materials.
• Understand launch performance and key learnings to optimize future efforts.
• Brand Communications and Activation – Provide strategic guidance to build and execute impactful, consumer-relevant marketing plans across TV, Audio, Digital, Social, Experiential, PR, and in-store tactics.
• Manage agency relationships to develop mutually beneficial partnerships that deliver outstanding and productive work.
• Set strategic and communication priorities and evaluate programs and creative against those priorities. Bring experience in media landscape to deliver a strong plan, while testing new platforms and tactics that keep our brands culturally relevant.
• Continuously evaluate consumer behavior to target most viable shopper for brand growth. Understand consumer interaction with other brands and how to best pivot our brand activities and targeting as needed.
• Assist team in building tactical budgets and expected ROI.
• Monitor plan performance and recommend optimization opportunities.
• Financial and Data Management – understand financial profile of brands and how best to drive profitable growth through topline and bottom line initiatives, operational efficiencies, price-pack architecture, and cost-savings initiatives. Manage budgets and activities to deliver on P&L goals. Assist in demand forecasting and on-going brand, shopper, and customer analytics. Leverage syndicated data and primary research for on-going business analytics and winning recommendations.
• Customer Support – Leverage understanding of channel landscape and retailer dynamics to champion ideas and initiatives that grow our brands. Guide team in developing best in class brand stories and selling materials.
• Develop channel-specific solutions to gain profitable distribution.
• Champion ecommerce strategy, solutions and activation.
• Assist team in identifying right mix by customer.
• Team Leadership
• Develop, coach, and energize team to bring out their best and grow professionally while achieving corporate and brand goals.
• Set team objectives and conduct on-going evaluation and analytics.
• Act as the portfolio leader that cross-functional teams rely on to bring vision, ideas, structure, and real-time action. Work collaboratively to maintain our positive and entrepreneurial culture.
• Maintain continuous awareness of cultural trends, consumer & marketplace trends, and media channels to bring forth new ideas to test/implement.
• Challenge the status quo to make us better, brining new ideas, optimized processes, and positive vibes to the team.

• Other duties as assigned

Desired Traits

• Business Owner – Thorough understand of business dynamics and ability to strategically define the destination, motivate others to help deliver against goals, and drive accountability to execute with excellence in an entrepreneurial environment.
• Growth Mindset – A “yes, and” person that stays curious while seeking out opportunities and generating ideas to improve the company, brand, team, and self.
• Team Leader – Collaborative cross-functional partner and inspiring coach with strong communication and influencing skills. A “We” vs. “Me” mentality that develops others to win as a team.
• Self-Starter – Ability to identify needs and hold self accountable to address. Brings ideas and solutions to the team.
• Agility – A multi-tasker and problem solver that can lead nimbly through ambiguity and complexity while prioritizing efforts that will deliver the greatest impact.

Eagle Foods will provide reasonable accommodations to allow an employee to perform the essential functions of the job.

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor’s or advanced degree in Marketing, Business Administration, or related field (MBA strongly preferred).
• 7+ years of classic CPG Brand Management experience; Food or Beverage experience preferred.
• Marketing skills that stretch across brand strategy, general management, new product innovation, communications, and marketing activation.
• Strong financial and strategic acumen, analytical abilities, communication skills and influencing abilities.
• Experience leading cross-functional and direct report teams.
• Proficiency working with syndicated data systems (Nielsen, Consumer Household Panel, etc.), leveraging primary consumer research, and manipulating multiple data sources to generate business insights and actions
• Computer proficiency in Excel, PowerPoint and Word

Additional Information

Work Environment:

This role requires periodic domestic travel Approximately 20%.

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing tasks and responsibilities of the job.

Additional equipment may be required to follow all safety rules and procedures by working safely and ensuring the safety of others.