About us

Young Spirits is a customer-centric modern spirits bottling and brands business that challenges the status quo with a fresh approach that positively impacts the planet and our communities whilst honouring standards of quality and reliability.

Alongside the core Young Spirits bottling service, we are building a flourishing portfolio of our own spirits brands. This includes Ferg & Harris, a luxury single malt brand pairing exquisite whiskies with different wood finishes for a truly distinctive dram; and Uhuru, a spirits brand with a mission at its heart, with 10 per cent of net sales donated to African-driven conservation efforts through a partnership with the charity Tusk.

Purpose of Role

This role will involve working closely with, and under the guidance of, the Head of Marketing to create innovative brand strategies for our Ferg & Harris and Uhuru brands, to position the brands for growth and manage all aspects of brand development including NPD, packaging development, communication planning and execution, promotional activity and PR within the allocated brand budgets. To drive value from the volume, through NPD initiatives and by delivery of compelling and effective annual brand plans and toolkits for implementation in key markets. Ability to develop brand and marketing strategies to build brand, raise awareness and communicate recommendations to Management team.

Main Responsibilities

• Develop and implement global annual brand plans that will deliver to commercial business targets by working closely with internal and external stakeholders.
• Achieve profit targets, timelines, and budgets.
• Align the key stakeholders in the company around the brand’s direction, choices, and tactics.
• Obtain and analyse information relating to markets and consumer trends including competitor brands to identify target audience, develop key brand objectives and provide strategic marketing direction.
• Create key brand marketing campaigns, measuring and reporting on results and learnings.
• Provide the sales team with the guidelines and tools they require to actively lead our customers and deliver sales and brand objectives.
• Manage the creative development process in line with brand strategy and positioning to develop engaging brand content for use across all channels including press releases, artwork, print and digital media.
• Work in partnership with internal social media resource to translate brand strategy into an effective social media plan, giving guidance on suitable content for each platform and which social media trends and influencers will resonate with the brand’s audience. Ensure clear guidance is given to the internal resource regarding budget for any paid social media advertising activity, analysis and reporting.
• Develop and maintain all marketing materials and brand communications such as product information sheets, sales presentations, and brand training materials. Create effective brand toolkit assets which can be used in global markets across all channels including HORECA, retail and e-commerce.
• Monitor and analyse monthly brand performancethrough KPIs.
• Lead new product development and packaging changes working closely with the NPD team from initiation through to launch, execution and post launch review. 
• Identify innovation opportunities for both brands.
• Work closely with the whisky supply team to optimise stock management and profitability, minimising obsolescence.
• Manage brand awards strategy; from planning, supplying stock and on time competition entry to sharing results and marketing material updates to communicate medal wins.
• Lead and execute all event planning, launch events and brand activations.
• Attend consumer and trade events acting as a brand ambassador in support of the Sales team.
• Maintain and grow the brand’s affiliations and partnerships.
• Manage budget tracker for all spend including raising and tracking purchase orders, creating monthly summary reports for the Head of Marketing to report upwards.
• Track sample request spend against brand budget and prepare and despatch sampling kits in support of new product launches.
• Manage and own your professional development in order to achieve your work objectives and your career and personal goals.

Key Characteristics:

Personal Profile

• Innovative, motivated, dynamic.
• Strong interpersonal, influencing and communication skills.
• Entrepreneurial mindset, constantly curious
• Brilliant collaborator and team player.
• Strong analytical skills partnered with a creative mind.
• Ability to manage budgets and timelines.
• Understanding of P&L and strong commercial acumen.
• Good attention to detail.
• Excellent project management skills.
• Understand full marketing mix.
• Up-to-date with latest marketing trends and best practices.
• Flexible and adaptable to changing customer & internal demands.
• Full clean driving license.

Previous Experience Required

• Minimum 3 years of experience in brand management/marketing ideally in an FMCG environment, preferably in the Wine and Spirits Industry.
• Educated to Bachelor’s degree level or equivalent, preferably in Marketing or Business-related topic.
• Proven experience in developing and implementing effective and integrated brand and marketing plans.
• Digitally fluent across all social media platforms, in order to give educated guidance to internal resource who will execute.
• Experience leading cross functional teams.
• Experienced influencing senior stakeholders and peers.

Working Conditions

• This role may require the Brand Manager to travel and to be away from home on occasion. 
• The job holder will be required to attend trade shows and other promotional activities on behalf of the Company, as required, and on occasion there may be some weekend working.