Category Specialist at McCain Foods

Purpose of the Role

• The Category Specialist is responsible for developing and managing the channel strategy and 5P tactics for each of the retail channels based on shopper and trade expertise.
• They work closely with both Consumer Marketing, Customer Management and Sales Operations to develop and execute strategies and tactics against the category, brand, channel and account strategies.
• The Category Specialist plays an integral role in enhancing demand through McCain’s customern a specific channel and in a cost effective way

Key Responsibilities:
Trade Marketing Executions

• Implement the trade marketing plans by working with internal and external stakeholders to deliver them in a timely manner and within budget.
• Work closely with the agency & distribution partners to ensure alignment and excellent in-store execution.
• Lead the briefing process of the Sales every cycle
• Provide selling tools for Sales Operations and Distributor teams to enable them to drive sales
• Manage spend on executions to be within budget

Develop a shopper marketing mix to support category vision, drive consumption and leverage point of purchase drivers

• Applying category and trade insights to develop recommendations for product, pricing, promotion, placement and POP Media by environment.
• PRODUCT: Determine the most efficient assortment by environment. Identify ‘white spaces’ and opportunities for innovation (new category segments).
• PRICE: publish and track compliance on pricing mandates
• PROMOTION: Develop a promotional strategy with clear promotional objectives, mechanics and ROI targets
• COMMUNICATION: Develop plans and POS to ensure shopper communication is effective and focused on a ‘call to action’. Placement in store is also key

Category and Trade strategies for environments

• Lead the development of a channel strategy which seeks to exploit incremental sales growth opportunities in existing and new retail environments.
• Consolidate the customer needs / grid by environment for inputs in commercial plans and provide operator perspective in commercial process.
• Analyse opportunities in portfolio and channel performances at area and regional levels, and develop intervention programs to capitalise on the insights.
• Set commercial targets and measure outcomes vs targets (ROI)

Manage data, analytics and insights

• Brief in and manage all research and analytics projects (as required)
• Formal research studies
• Ad hoc case studies (test cases)
• Liaise with Data Manager on in-house analytics requirements and the development of reports / scorecards
• Able to create standardized reporting from standard ‘off the shelf’ data sources (e.g. IRI,Nielsen) and interpret to draw robust conclusions
• Ensure data integrity and accuracy at all times. Apply basic data cleansing, manipulation, and analytical techniques

Compile and submit monthly reports and assist customer managers with the compilation of retailer reviews

• Conducting pre and post analyses of customer and channel promotions, developing a library   of performance history, and adjusting business plans based on results to drive improved   return on investment in all types of trade spending.
• Monthly reports on McCain performance within the retailers
• Sales, shares, transactional KPIs etc.
• Compile scorecards to measure performance against preset targets e.g. pricing vs mandate, distribution and ‘fair share’ targets etc.
• Compile scorecards to measure performance linked to specific initiatives (e.g. retailer compliance targets and ROI)
• Compile customer reviews as required

Manage NPD Projects

• Become part of the NPD process representing the Customer and Sales Operations team
• Be the voice of the customer during the formulation of NPD strategies
• Manage the development of Shopper, Trade and Commercial propositions during the process
• Provide launch material, i.e. listing sheets, trade presenters and samples for all NPD projects
• Develop, execute and track compliance of the support plans for all NPD projects

Job requirements:

Technical Competencies

• Data & analytics to develop insights
• Pricing & promotion strategy development
• Category strategy development
• Customer development
• Structured selling and negotiation
• Stakeholder engagement
• Project management skills
• Financial acumen
• Salesforce software knowledge
• Microsoft Office (Power Point, Excel and Word)

Qualification

• Degree: Marketing or Business Management

Experience

• 5 years strong Trade Activation in a B2B environment
• Strong understanding of the Food Service industry
• Understanding of sales and customer management