Creative Strategy Manager

Creative Director at CountryMax Stores

Position Directly Reports to: President, Director of Sales, Marketing Director

Position Type: Full time

Position Summary: The Creative Strategy Manager leads and drives the vision and execution of the creative aspects of marketing CountryMax, ensuring alignment with brand identity and strategic goals. This role involves the development of compelling visual, digital, and experiential content across multiple platforms, collaborating with marketing, buying, and leadership teams to deliver innovative ideas designed to generate energy and passion among customers for trusting and shopping at CountryMax Stores. The current business climate is harder than ever for independent retailers to survive and thrive in- and a bold, pioneering, strategic thinker and creator with a keen eye for design, storytelling, and emerging trends is essential to elevate the brand.

CountryMax Background specific to position:

CountryMax is a family-owned business in Western and Central New York State that is currently in its 40th year. We are growing as a multi-store brick and mortar retailer at a time when brick and mortar is not traditionally seen as a growth area due to the rise of internet retailing. While we have a robust e-commerce business, our roots and future business model are strongly tied to brick-and-mortar retailing. Our in-store growth can be attributed to offering customers an experience they do not get in a traditional retailer -- we work extremely hard to bring a feeling of authenticity and uniqueness to both our store environment and product mix. An aggressive growth trajectory combined with our strong local history presents a future Creative Strategy Manager with an enormous opportunity to define and elevate a well-known and locally significant brand as we move into the future.

Position Outline:

Typical position responsibilities will include (but are not limited to):

Creative Overview:

· Creative Strategy – develop messaging, emotional value propositions, and integrated campaigns

· Collaborate with established marketing department team members to identify and develop a strong voice for CountryMax in marketing, promotions, and advertising efforts

· Develop, create and execute unique and attention-getting campaigns in a variety of areas designed to maximize foot traffic and store sales for CountryMax

Copy and “Voice”:

· Work with marketing team to establish the company “voice” in promotions and marketing materials

· Develop creative copy, along with high-impact visuals, to speak to a variety of audiences across our product categories, strengthening emotional connection with customers and building brand loyalty

· Working alongside the current in-house marketing team, utilize in-house capabilities to be agile and current with fresh promotional language and concepts

Coordination with Stores and Key Members of Organization:

· Develop and maintain a strong relationship with organizational and store leadership to ensure “finger is on the pulse”

· Help to shape and ensure implementation of CountryMax internal marketing messaging to foster increased employee engagement and support of marketing messaging

· Monitor customer feedback and work with store teams to address any messaging confusion or lack of follow through

Operational Efficiency:

· Identify areas for operational improvement within marketing department and process flow

· Implement and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) to track progress and impact

Reporting and Analysis:

· Prepare detailed reports on promotional performance, identifying trends and areas for improvement

· Present findings and recommendations to senior management

· Track the impact of implemented changes and adjust strategies as needed

Position Requirements:

This position will be based out of main offices in Victor, NY. We strongly believe that this position is an in-office role in both short and long term. Interpersonal connections with co-workers, collaborative meetings/discussions, and “unstructured” benefits of a central workspace have been shown repeatedly. As a leader in the organization, the benefits of in-person work are significant and real. An organized, thorough, and high-output work ethic is a must for this position. In addition to all of the above, we value a highly creative “risk taker” in developing ideas, messaging, and direction. CountryMax has a well-established product mix and primary areas of operation in the retail space- including pet, wild bird, lawn and garden, barn and stable, and more- and the breadth of our offering combined with the unique look and feel of our stores opens very wide doors for the right Creative Strategy Manager to work within.

Technical Proficiency:

Experienced with relevant design software and marketing platforms:

· Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop)

· Email marketing (Constant Contact)

· Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube)

· Photography and video production/editing a plus

Candidate Expectation Summary:

We feel this position is an excellent opportunity for the right person to excel. Our organization is growing rapidly, and we’re excited to continue to improve our marketing and messaging in a way that brings our whole organization sustained success for the future. The true freedom to create and follow-through on their own ideas with an active, growing, and expanding business is a unique opportunity to many and we’re extremely happy to be able to provide this. A positive, can-do, go-getter attitude is essential -- and may be the single most important qualifier for this position. Passion, energy and the drive to bring fresh and challenging creative ideas to the organization at all levels will be what sets the right candidate apart from the rest.

Job Types: Full-time, Part-time

Pay: $50,000.00 - $70,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Employee discount
• Health insurance
• Paid time off
• Retirement plan

Experience:

• Creative Marketing: 2 years (Required)

Work Location: In person

Salary : $50,000 - $70,000