Associate Principal Consultant - CPG

The Mintel Consulting team is looking for an Associate Principal Consultant to join the team. You must have a restless curiosity about the world, the ability to pivot on a dime, and a commercial mind that is always thinking end-game. 

The Associate Principal Consultant will partner with a small number of key clients and serve as an extension of their clients’ internal consumer insights and innovation teams, overseeing up to $1MM in revenue annually. They will bring strategic thought leadership and custom research to drive their business forward in the market. They will also be a key player in driving consumer-centric research projects and providing strategic guidance to our clients. Their expertise will contribute to the development of actionable insights that shape the future of our clients' businesses.

The ideal candidate is a problem solver and strategic thinker who is able to direct assets toward helping our clients grow. You should be experienced as a team builder, mentor, and functional expert while transferring knowledge and expertise more broadly into the Consulting and Commercial organizations.

This is a Hybrid position based in Chicago. 

What You Will Be Doing:

• Solution Architecture
  • Designing and planning comprehensive solutions to address the specific needs, challenges, and objectives of clients.
• Strategic Leadership
  • Assisting the Regional Consulting Leader in ensuring successful delivery of our most complex projects.
  • Assisting the Regional Consulting Leader in department-wide coaching that ladders to our global model.
  • Identifying growth strategies to turn one-off projects into ongoing, retained relationships.
  • Writing research briefs and lead the internal and external kickoff of Consulting project work.
• Presentation
  • Presenting findings to clients in a clear and compelling manner, facilitating discussions and addressing client queries.
  • Crafting a tight strategic narrative and providing solid recommendations.
  • Welcoming public speaking opportunities beyond client work, such as industry events, special Mintel initiatives, and writing articles/blogs.
• Collaborating
  • Collaborating with a highly motivated team of client-facing account managers and consultants to develop commercial opportunities for premium marketing intelligence services.
  • Collaborating with other personnel to ensure projects are set up for growth and retention.
• Proactively Engaging with Clients
  • Running as a go-to contact for ideation, QC, and enhancement with the client.
  • Working with the commercial team or engaging with clients 1:1 to further relationships and work, solicit feedback, or gain VOC for new ideas.
  • Serving as the main point of contact for clients, communicating effectively with a wide range of industries (eg, manufacturers, retailers, and advertisers) and positions (Directors, VPs, and C-suite).
  • Building and maintaining strong client relationships, ensuring client satisfaction and loyalty.
• Research Project Leadership
  • Leading the full lifecycle of consulting projects from pitching to proposing to managing execution.
  • Managing the design and execution of custom research projects, overseeing research methodologies and ensuring high-quality deliverables tailed to meet client needs.
  • Conducting secondary research, analyzing data to extract meaningful insights.
  • Staying updated on industry trends, market dynamics, and competitor landscapes.
  • Displaying the ability to innovate (eg, developing new products/services with clients, new ways of working in Mintel, developing new research tools).

Who We Are Looking For:

• Commercially-Minded: You have a demonstrated talent for abstract thinking, spotting trends and patterns, an instinct for commercial opportunities, and a nuanced understanding of consumer insights are critical
• A Storyteller: You are a lateral thinker, an intuitive dot-connector, and have experience weaving compelling narratives out of disparate facts across a wide range of categories
• Data-Driven: You have solid familiarity with most forms of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies and working knowledge of when and how to apply them to a given client challenge. You should have expertise working with complex data sets, including econometrics, statistics, consumer surveys, and syndicated sales data, such as IRI or Nielsen. Experience with Business Intelligence and collaboration tools such as Tableau, Looker, Jira, Miro, etc. would be a plus
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