Global Brand Strategy Director

The Opportunity

This is a new role in a newly forming team, reporting to the LL2 Director of Global Branding. The Global Brand Strategy Director will run a global Center of Excellence covering brand strategy, brand management, and nomenclature. The importance of establishing and delivering a consistent and clear brand across all aspects of our work is paramount. These groups include but are not limited to our business units (Ford Blue, Model e, Ford Pro, Ford Credit, Ford Next), vehicle and product design, experiences, internal communications, external media communications, human resources, and our dealers. As such, this role will have close connection with virtually every group within the company.
 

• Co-author and orchestrate the delivery of our brand strategy, and its application to the key enterprise
strategies to enable and inform:
− Regional strategies from the Global brand strategy
− Brand architecture strategy
− Brand nomenclature strategy
− Merchandising
− Marketing Communications
− Integrated Services
− Community strategy
− Employer brand strategy
− And more…
• Set the strategy and coordinate how brand shows up on a global level, across regions
• Create and update playbooks and brand guidelines
• Ensure consistent and thoughtful contribution of all sub-brand activity and messaging to the primary brand
architecture
• Develop naming architecture/logic across Ford’s services and products
• Partner closely with global customer experience, product management, integrated services and advanced
technology to ensure consistent and cohesive interpretation of brand and product strategies
• Deep dive into market research, consumer behavior, and competitive landscapes to craft and refine brand
identity, messaging, and experience
• Foster relationships with key stakeholders, including external partners and influencers, to enhance brand
visibility and reputation
• Evaluate the effectiveness of brand strategies and campaigns through metrics and KPIs, adjusting tactics
as necessary to optimize performance
• Craft insights, write briefs, run workshops, write decks, and oversee agency output alongside the Director
of Global Branding
• Hone team strategy for Merchandising & Licensing and author associated briefs

The minimum requirements we seek 
•    10+ years working in global brand strategy roles (ideally with a mixture of agency and in-house. In-house is essential, agency is not).
•    Experience working with executives and preparing presentations for boards.
•    A strong point of view on working with regions on a Global brand promise.
•    Experience in a portfolio organization where the parent brand has relational strength to a portfolio of product and services brands
•    Experience working on brand architectures that have answered major enterprise strategy questions and shifted the corporate strategy of a business
•    Nomenclature experience in a complex environment.

Our preferred requirements 
•    Part purist, part pragmatist - someone who is willing to pick this work up and drive it to success with the team, however that needs to happen but who brings their subject matter to the opportunity. 
•    Someone who can find the right balance of educating the team and stakeholders and driving the opportunity forward.
•    ‘Strong opinions lightly held’ and a great listener
•    An influence based, culturally engaged leader