Director of Brand Marketing

As the Director of Brand Marketing, you will play a pivotal role in the development of brand strategy and calendar planning, and leads execution of the integrated brand marketing, menu innovation & promotional windows to achieve sales and profit goals in a manner that continually enhances brand relevance, consumer engagement, and market share. The Director of Brand Marketing will lead, guide, and effectively communicate the annual marketing calendar with emphasis on overall campaign messaging, product marketing, and coordination of all supporting layers to include owned, earned, and paid channels, brand engagement and guest experience. The position will apply their project management experience to coordinate the execution of all brand marketing initiatives to ensure adequate lead-times, efficient project pace and achieved deadlines.

Additionally, the timing of this opportunity is an exciting time to join the Walk-Ons Team with an imminent new brand visual identity (BVI) that will see the Director of Brand Marketing lead and execute the new BVI across all customer touch points.

Furthermore, the Director of Brand Marketing will oversee all brand creative produced internally or externally to ensure brand guidelines are adhered. This position will manage the internal creative team and creative elements produced by external agencies.

Key Responsibilities:

·        Lead Walk-On’s strategic brand marketing calendar in partnership with the marketing leadership team (MLT) to plan, create and implement our annual marketing calendar that drives sales, transaction growth, franchisee profitability and marketing goals.

·        Lead brand strategy, positioning, and value proposition, informed by analytics & consumer insights.

·        Champion and expedite innovative strategies to achieve sales/transactions and marketing goals by maintaining awareness of changing market and competitive conditions, reviewing, and analyzing customer experience data, and assessing results of programs and solutions.

·        Manage marketing calendar brief process to identify insights-led and data-driven promotional campaigns that include brand relevant product themes and that are supported by cross-functional layers of guest experience and brand engagement tactics.

·        Thoughtfully sequence initiatives to deliver cohesive brand messaging, to deliver sales performance and to manage operational complexity.

·        Develop and implement a rolling 6–12-month calendar or key marketing initiatives.

·        Manage the product marketing process, partnering with culinary on the creation of product concepts that pass our consumer, operational and financial assessments.

·        Create an internal menu optimization process that will identify menu gaps, relevant trends, and competitive insights to lead recommendations to our culinary, beverage and LTO menu.   

·        Oversee creative development of compelling presentations that build excitement and gain alignment with internal leadership, cross-functional teams, and external partners (including franchise leadership).

·        Manage, contribute, and support development of content and timelines for presentations and meetings with appropriate franchise committees, Franchise Advisory Committee (FAC) and other leadership / system initiatives.

·        Manage and effectively allocate Brand Marketing budget, across all channels, partners, and resources.

·        Partner and provide input on the menu development process, including platform innovation, LTO’s, core menu, and product partnerships, leading with research and insights to create sustainable competitive differentiation that drives guest frequency and check size growth.

·        Partner with operations, brand insights and finance team to identify KPI’s, track performance and post analysis of calendar campaign results to understand changes to trends, menu mix and promotional impact.

·        Manage internal and external creative teams including direct report(s) to uphold Walk-On’s brand standards and to deliver a consistent brand image and voice.

·        Build effective working relationships with cross-functional teams, vendors, and franchisees to translate national marketing strategic plans into collaborative action.

·        Provide functional leadership and direct work of team member(s) to drive performance goals.

·        Other duties and projects assigned.

Education and Experience Requirements:

·        Bachelor's degree in business, marketing, finance, or related field. MBA (Preferred).

·         8 years developing and executing marketing plans/programs.

·        Brand marketing in retail or related field experience working within a franchised restaurant or retail brand. with passion and knowledge of or interest in the Restaurant Industry

·        New product innovation experience – menu or goods & services, (Preferred)

·        Experience leveraging digital media, promotions, and public relations to drive results (Preferred)

·        Experience working on brand refresh and brand transformation projects (Preferred)

Required Knowledge and Skills:

·        Strong verbal and written communication skills.

·        Ability to create and present compelling presentations for internal and external leadership teams.

·        Ability to budget effectively and pivot when necessary to achieve business objectives.

·        Computer skills including Power Point, Excel and Word.

·        Strong strategic and critical thinking skills.

·        Ability to coach, lead and guide internal and external partners.

·        Ability to understand data to formulate recommendations to achieve goals.

·        Experience in building partnerships with internal partners, external agencies and franchise owners.