What are the responsibilities and job description for the Brand Manager position at Downeast Cider House?
Brand Manager
Reports To: VP, Commercial
Location: Remote (NYC/Greater NYC area or Boston/Greater Boston) with occasional on-site visits to East Boston, MA.
The Mission:
A Brand Manager is accountable for managing a variety of marketing initiatives that drive brand awareness, trial and distribution. They will assist in the development of annual, long- and short-term marketing strategy and plans and they will be the brand lead across all other marketing functions — both in brand strategy, promotion and creative.
Portfolio & Packaging
- Build and execute against an innovation pipeline, generating ideas through trend, competitive and category analyses.
- Analyze and actively manage portfolio mix, ensuring profitable growth while also covering all key consumer needs.
- Manage projects through the development process, ensuring on time and on budget launches.
- Analyze and assess channel & customer mix to inform distribution strategy and objectives for new launches.
Pricing
- Monitor competitive market pricing to ensure price competitiveness of owned portfolio.
- Set strategy for pricing across all new items (eg line price, price premium, value offered, etc.)
- Assess portfolio ongoingly, ensuring key price points are achieved across the portfolio to satisfy various consumer needs.
Communication, Advertising and Consumer Promotions
- Analyze brand positioning and work with marketing leadership to develop and evolve brand strategy to win in the marketplace.
- Develop and execute advertising and consumer promotions plans to build equity, awareness and trial.
- Lead the development of communication materials and brand creative to build equity.
Analytics & Research
- Monitor market trends, consumer trends and competitive activities. Synthesize findings and develop action plans as needed.
- Lead all aspects of consumer research related to owned brand including but not limited to concept testing, insights work and message testing.
- Provide standard reporting for owned brand, market/segment and competitive performance as needed.
Business Management & Planning
- Develop the annual brand plan for owned brands, including a multi-year innovation pipeline.
- Develop and execute against the annual budget – setting growth goals for sales and profit as well as setting plan for annual expenses.
Qualifications:
Must have:
- 2-4 years of experience in either brand strategy, brand management or CPG sales
- Comfortable working in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment
- Exceptional interpersonal skills and ability to interact effectively across functions and organizations
- Ability to effectively manage projects from start to finish
Nice to have:
- Proficient with consumer research and syndicated data (Circana, Nielsen, Kantar, IPSOS, Numerator)
- Product development experience (including creative design)
- Alcoholic beverage experience
What we offer:
- Unlimited paid time off
- Paid holidays
- 401k with 4% company match
- Health and dental insurance
- Company provided short term disability insurance
- Computer Stipend
- Company-wide celebrations, including a summer offsite and holiday party
- Cider allowance (how big is your fridge)
All offers of employment are contingent upon the successful completion of a background check, conducted after a conditional job offer has been made. Candidates will have the opportunity to review and respond to any findings.
About Downeast Cider
We aspire to build an enduring company with a world-class brand, known as an extraordinary place to work. It’s been 13 years since our first batches of unfiltered cider were fermented in the dorms of Bates College, Maine, and while we’ve gained 231 new teammates and 1.6 million cases of tasty drinks - with a growing assortment beyond cider - we remain 100% founder-owned. We’re a scrappy team that enjoys the hard work of creating a company because we get to work on fun things with people we like. We like to hire the way we like our cider, unfiltered. With the understanding that we can learn and grow from each other’s differences, we are proud to hire regardless of gender, race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, disability, age, or anything else that makes us who we are.
