Sr Project Manager, Product & Promotional Marketing EUR

Job Description

The position is responsible for managing product portfolio and launch planning for the Europe region by identifying gaps, opportunities, and negotiating product needs with corporate brand partners. This includes developing quarterly new product launch and promotional plans and post-launch evaluation, providing input into needs for future launches, and ensuring alignment with markets and corporate partners to optimize product sales. You will act as an advocate for the regional and market needs across the region with corporate partners and as a liaison for communication and updates. Responsibilities also include managing new product / NPD forecasting process, addressing early runouts or excess inventory, including managing planned phase-out / phase ins and Region SKU optimization effort as well as actions to minimize obsolescence. A core responsibility is managing overall assigned category healthy and performance of SKUs within your category to optimize sales, reach, repurchase, competitive relevancy and margin optimization.

• Develops quarterly product & promotional plans for Europe based on SKU analysis, profitability, competitive market, price points etc. Manages product launch calendars to ensure that product, sales date, and promotional-related activities established by the Region Team and local marketing teams are executed as planned. Analyzes cost of goods and margin analysis to verify promotional margins and mechanics as well as the identified sales objectives and financial goals. Advises each market in the development of their promotional plans, negotiating and coordinating across diverse markets to achieve economies of scale.
• Lead 360 promo quarter launch activation ideas and markets sharing session facilitation before promotion quarter start and conducting of post-promotion evaluation of new product launches including sales vs forecast reports, product feedback from markets, examples of promotion communication and execution. Share the results, observations with corporate partners identifying opportunities for future projects and marketing communication strategies.
• Manages the overall product health and lifecycle management of assigned product categories. This ensures relevant competitive price positioning for brand positioning, opportunities for repromotions/promotions/seasonality, oversees periodic SKU audits and then analyzes and manages SKU optimization.Analyzes sales performance and recommends phase-out of consistently poor-performing products. Ensures product assortments are in accordance with established regional objectives & strategies and alignment to global and regional product strategy.
• Acts as liaison for the Promotional Forecasting and Analysis process, supporting activities of NPD process (commitments, final orders). Consult markets on product details including price, positioning, claims etc., and ideas for re-promotion ideas / bundles for sales activation, margin management during promotional forecasting process. Requests forecasting related training across the region as needed. Proactively seeks feedback from markets and Dallas-based partners to strengthen and improve processes especially related to forecasting and inventory management.
• Product communication strategy input through feedback to product launch related assets developed (e.g. toolkits) for specific category, working together with Region team partners and corporate partners to ensure Europe markets needs are represented and met. It may include but not limited to product communication concept, creative execution, list of deliverables, IBC and consumer focused assets, ideas and thought starters for product launch activation.
• Spearheads efficient inventory management through up-front product line-up recommendations. Oversees periodic SKU audits and then analyzes and manages phase-out plans to minimize obsolescence prior to ordering new products. Consults with EU markets on inventory reduction and disposition strategies which may include Pink sales, pricing discounts, ordering bonus offers, charitable donations, and write-offs. Analyzes sales performance and recommends phase-out of consistently poor-performing products. Ensures product assortments are in accordance with established regional objectives & strategies.
• Responds to inquiries from regional markets related to forecasting, product inquiries and promotional planning. Supports Market Authorization process for new products fist production samples evaluation. Presents and discusses issues as necessary with Dallas teams and responds to markets in a timely manner. Prioritizes requests from the markets, determines areas of greatest need, and focuses attention as necessary. Anticipates problems and makes adjustments or corrections where possible. Maintains awareness of business metrics trends within the region.
• Provide / organize availability for business tools needed to support the selling situation (i.e. Skin Care Class) and recruiting. Most of the efforts are focused on evaluation and creation of sampler’s strategy and sampler’s availability on the markets. This is mostly focused on New Products but should support existing regular line products activation as well.
• This job requires on-site work at a Mary Kay facility.
  
  

Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities

Experience: 7 years

Field of Experience: brand management, trade marketing

Education: Bachelor/University Degree

Education Focus: Marketing or Business

• Excellent interpersonal, organization and analytical skills
• Passion for beauty industry and following evolving trends and tools
• Ability to multi-task and be flexible. Ability to prioritize workload and support a team with different functional responsibilities.
• Excellent communication skills required to interact verbally and in writing with corporate, regional and subsidiary staff and outside parties. Must possess sensitivity and awareness to cultural differences and the ability to create partnerships with subsidiary staff.
• Must be proficient in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint.