Senior Shopper Strategy Manager

A little bit about Lindt

We are a premium chocolate manufacturer established in 1845 operating in over 86 countries around the World. Guided by our Global purpose to Enchant the World with Chocolate and UK vision of Creating Moments to Make Everyone Feel Special, we have around 400 team members in the UK across our Head Office, Retail, and Field Sales divisions. We are a Top 20 Great Place to Work and are proud of our incredible people, our unique values-led culture and our iconic market leading brands such as LINDOR & GOLD BUNNY.

We’re also proud of being one of the few bean-to-bar chocolate makers in the world, where we control every step of our chocolate production.

How you could help us to Enchant the World with Chocolate

As Senior Shopper Strategy Manager, you will be joining the Customer Marketing team which sits in the Category & Commercial Strategy function. Our team purpose is to focus our understanding on how consumers behave as shoppers and creating conversion strategies to influence their purchasing decisions at the final moment of choice. We do this by being unmissable in all buying occasions and deploying conversion tactics that activates purchase triggers and overcomes purchase barriers. In your role, you will specifically design & create the shopper campaigns which the customer activation teams deploy

About this role:

• Planning and developing Lindt branded shopper activation in Grocery, Digital and Impulse customers to drive incremental, unmissable, equity building visibility & conversion to sales. Plans must be aligned to our Commercial Strategy, Perfect Store objectives and the Category Vision
• In-Store and Online Strategies: optimise shopper key visuals, distinctive assets and hierarchy of messaging across point of sale materials, product placements and digital marketing efforts to enhance the shopping experience and drive sales in store and online
• Channel specific promotions and Campaigns: lead on developing and central management of shopper overlays including prize promotions and other incentives to encourage purchases and drive conversion at the point of sale
• Understanding Shopper Behavior: ensure plans are based on insights into what influences purchasing decisions
• Collaboration with Customers & Agencies: lead and work closely with Customer Marketing Managers and key retail media & shopper agencies agencies to develop joint marketing initiatives that benefit both brands & retailers
• Measuring and Analysing Results: responsible for measuring the effectiveness of campaigns and initiatives through metrics such visual attention effectiveness, consideration and purchase intent, and shopper conversion

Where you’ll be based

This role is based in Richmond, London (Hybrid Working: in the office 60% and WFH 40%)

Level 2

Key Responsibilities

Lead the ongoing development of brand led shopper campaigns in year:

• As part of the cross functional brand team, you will work with brand marketing, category strategy, commercial & revenue growth team, and shopper & creative agencies to lead the development, design and deployment of brand activities to agreed budget, timings and targets
• Responsible for the development and approval of temporary and/or permanent Point of Sale (POS) key visuals and playbook deployment to enhance brand equity along the shopper path to purchase whilst meeting omnichannel customer & LHF requirements
• Global Shopper Marketing Engagement – lead the cascade of UK best practice and sourcing of new ideas, through developing relationships with other markets and Global Shopper Marketing team
• Presentation of shopper campaigns and activation plans to key internal and external stakeholders, including creative and research agencies, charity & other brand partnerships and Global Shopper Marketing
• Responsible for management of the creative and campaign management budget, including negotiation with agencies & suppliers to achieve best costs and return on investment
• Agency Management – lead the relationship with key shopper, creative and promotional compliance agencies. Responsible for booking and PO agreement of committed spend, and briefing and management of creative agency to ensure projects are delivered on time and to quality standards
• Responsible for review and analysis of all in store activity to deliver shopper marketing insights and solutions which shape and impact business strategy and growth i.e. ROI Sampling analysis, Retail Media analysis, Display research etc.
• Monitoring competitor activity and best-practice for activation and display and making recommendations for incorporation into future plans.

Lead year +3 plan development:

Leadership agenda – input into strategic direction of Lindt brands at appropriate forums. Working in collaboration with Brand Marketing, Category Strategy and Sales to deliver a compelling presentation of plans at:

• Strategic Brand Planning Meetings
• Brand and Seasonal Launch Days

• Supporting Customer Marketing Controller to focus on longer term planning with brand activation and evolution
• Deploy shopper insight in the most effective and efficient way of driving conversion in an omni-channel shopping environment for Grocery, Digital and Convenience customers

Working Relationships

This role will require strong interpersonal and influencing skills to build and maintain relationships with key stakeholders:

Internal: Customer Marketing, Category, Sales, Brand Marketing, Procurement, Global Shopper Marketing

External: Shopper marketing agencies, design agencies, display suppliers, promotional compliance agencies, charity & brand partners

Qualifications, Knowledge and Experience Preferred

Ideally you will be:

• Experienced in shopper roles in the UK Grocery Channel
• Experienced in local brand / product or shopper marketing
• Experienced in line management & people development
• Driven, high tenacity, resourceful with a focus on delivering results
• Demonstrate interpersonal and leadership skills, show strong potential to upwards influence
• A collaborator with the ability to network and establish strong relationships cross functionally and externally
• Compelling communicator and presenter who’s able to tailor dependent on audience
• Experienced in managing external media & design agency workloads and day to day relationships
• Capable in managing complex end to end projects
• Proficient in data analytics, insights as well as Excel and Powerpoint