Are You a Brand Manager Looking to Work on an Iconic Canadian Plant Based Brand?
Location: Downtown Toronto, Ontario
Hybrid 2x/week
15 - 18 month contract (maternity leave coverage) – opportunity for this to become a full time position with strong performance
Mid-senior level, 1 direct report
Company Overview:
At Upfield our purpose is clear: we make people healthier and happier with nutritious and delicious, plant-based products that are good for you, and our planet. We have iconic brands like Becel, Violife, Country Crock, and I Can't Believe It's Not Butter that Canadians know and love and we've been a trusted category leader since 1871. Yet, we feel like we're only just getting started!
Performance, Passion and Care define who we are as a company, how we work every day, and the responsibility we feel toward our associates, our consumers, our business partners, and our world.
We have big ambitions to grow this business as the largest plant-based foods company in the world, and we want to attract the right people – those that love what they do, thrive on responsibility and are looking for career defining opportunities.
About the position
We are seeking a highly driven, experienced marketing professional to join Upfield's marketing team as a Brand Manager. You will be accountable for the planning and implementation of multi-channel brand strategies to drive profitable growth on our portfolio of plant-based spreads, including our iconic Becel brand as well as the newest member of our Upfield Canada family, Country Crock. You will have the opportunity to demonstrate your expertise in strategic thinking, creative development, leadership skills, project management, and executional excellence in a fast-paced environment.
As the successful candidate, you are a seasoned mid to senior level Brand Manager looking for your next growth challenge where you'll have the autonomy to independently shape our brand strategies and initiatives and make an impact on our brands' success! You'll be working closely with the integrated agency team on the brands' Creative, Shopper Marketing, and Media strategies and activities. In addition, you will collaborate with the broader Canadian marketing team as well as an internal cross-functional team, including Sales Planning, Customer Development, Finance, and Insights to develop and drive integrated go-to-market plans.
You are a self-starter who is proactive, operates with a sense of urgency, initiates innovative or 'out of the box' ideas, and has a creative and entrepreneurial spirit. You're intrinsically motivated to work under pressure to set and meet deadlines, while motivating our overall team to achieve mutual goals, both local and global.
This position will report to the Head of Marketing and have one direct report.
Main Responsibilities
- Develop and oversee the overall communications strategy and marketing plans for our Core Spreads business, including Campaign development, Media strategy, Activity planning, and ownership and planning of A&P budget.
- Collaborate with innovation and trade marketing teams to bring the product innovation plan to market by creating compelling sell stories for customers and ensuring the seamless integration of innovative product benefits, and brand positioning into marketing campaigns.
- Manage the day-to-day execution of brand and innovation launch campaigns and activities, with particular emphasis on the continuous generation of digital content, media planning, channel strategy, influencer strategy, and in-store shopper marketing.
- Own our branded channel strategy including website and social media handles (FB, IG, TikTok, etc.)
- Provide marketing intelligence insights in conjunction with media agency to synthesize and optimize activities in the areas of paid and owned media (tv, digital, social, website).
- Allocate brand budget and drive efficiencies on an ongoing basis, working closely with external partners to optimize across and within channels.
- Develop a deep understanding of the market, consumers, competition, and digital trends to identify key insights and opportunities for our brands.
- Consistently monitor and track brand, sales, and campaign performance to measure effectiveness of marketing initiatives, proactively identifying opportunities and recommendations for future campaigns.
- Recommend test and learn ideas to gauge impact on awareness, trial, and conversion.
- Deliver annual brand review and develop 2025 marketing plan that translate into customer and channel plans with support from cross functional team.
- Work closely with compliance teams to ensure that all marketing materials and communications adhere to legal and regulatory requirements.
- Coach and guide a direct report, developing the associate brand manager's skill set to become increasingly independent in their role.
- Drive internal stakeholders toward alignment and action.
So what does it take to be successful in this role?
- Experience: mid to senior level experience leading end-to-end brand plans, from development to implementation to post-evaluation. Minimum 6-8 years of marketing experience in a relevant role. CPG, agency, food-related start-up, corporate, or brand management experience is an asset.
- Knowledge: expertise in core marketing deliverables, such as creation of brand plans, new product launches, providing creative direction, building and execution consumer promotions. Strong understanding of media targeting insights, optimizations, and strategies.
- Digital Marketing: expert knowledge of digital marketing tools, including the ability to understand and leverage analytics to identify trends, set goals and report on digital performance. Experience developing and executing strong digital marketing campaigns and creative across various channels, including in-store, social media, programmatic, CRM, search & paid media advertising.
- Project Management: organized and resourceful, with excellent multi-tasking and prioritizing skills, and the ability to work within tight deadlines while still maintaining a high level of accuracy and attention to detail.
- Resourcefulness: effectively navigate complex situations and develop creative solutions. Ability to make efficient use of available resources and demonstrate self-reliance in problem solving. Takes initiative to own and resolve issues.
- Open minded and adaptable: embraces ambiguous expectations and priorities, and the need to operate in the grey. Comfortable with reprioritizing and refocusing when needed, and pushing internal stakeholders toward alignment and action.
- Entrepreneurial Drive: demonstrates initiative and leadership with a strong drive for results. An entrepreneurial spirit with an insatiable desire to look beyond the obvious, approaching situations with curious and creativity to see what's possible. Leadership: ability to influence Management, lead external and internal cross functional teams, work through others. People management experience with a passion to develop direct reports to achieve peak performance.
- Teamwork: actively contribute to a shared vision, participate in team discussions, build on others ideas to achieve common goals.
- Communications: outstanding verbal, written and interpersonal communication skills, with a thorough understanding of how to effectively present to various stakeholder audiences. Bilingual French and English an asset.
- Analytical: Strong analytics background and critical thinking skills with the proven ability to interpret data, derive relevant insights, craft compelling stories, and develop strategies specific to delivering against business objectives.
- Agility: proven ability to adapt quickly to a fast-paced environment and lead/support multiple high-priority projects across all levels, both internally and externally. Operates with a sense of urgency.
What's next?
If this position sounds interesting, please hit the apply button now! The deadline to apply is October 12th. Video screens with our Talent Acquisition Manager will take place the week of the 2nd through the 12th, with first interviews 3 days following, and remaining interviews 3 days after that.
We understand your resume might not be up to date, we recommend that you apply with what you have or your LinkedIn Profile. Upfield is dedicated to building an inclusive and diverse workplace, we understand that you might not hit all the requirements stated in the description, but we encourage you to apply anyway. You might be the right candidate for this role or other roles.
Upfield is an employer committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace and equal opportunities for all. We recruit based only on values, qualifications, performance, skills, behaviours, experience, and knowledge. We ensure job advertisements are free from unintentional bias.
No personal characteristics should be a barrier to joining Upfield. We prohibit discrimination and harassment based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or other personal characteristics.
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