Ice Cream NA New Business Development & Licensing Brand Manager

Job Title: Ice Cream NA New Business Development & Licensing Brand Manager

Location: Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey

Terms & Conditions: Full Time

Background and Purpose of the Job

We are looking for a creative, innovative and entrepreneurial marketer to lead critical Strategic Pillars of the ice cream company  1) Licensing  Portfolio  and 2) New Business Development. The ideal candidate has experience leading cross functional teams, product launches, and cross funnel consumer engagement campaigns.  This role will require significant agility to deliver results in the more “traditional” aspect of the job Innovation funnel value  as well as the more entrepreneurial aspects with New Business Development.

This role will be responsible for innovation funnel and innovation P&L and requires an in-depth understanding of margin statements and profitable product launches. This position will require an in-depth understanding and appreciation of market trends, consumer insight and category dynamics in order to develop best in class campaigns and innovation that address people’s needs.

Who You Are and What You’ll Do:
You are a passionate marketer who always puts the consumer at the center of business decisions. You will be held accountable for leading innovation & engagement within our Co-brand  portfolio (Reese’s, Heath, Jolly Rancher, Hershey, Mars, etc) and driving expansion of Ice Cream brands into new categories and channels via Licensing and other partnerships.

Licensing Innovation &  Engagement

In 2023, Unilever Ice Cream re-launched Hershey’s portfolio to -branded items (i.e. Reese’s Tubs, Reese’s cones, Heath tubs, etc).   Hershey-portfolio has quickly become the fastest growing in our ice cream portfolio, and accounts for $175MM annual NSV.  As such, we created a dedicated Hershey’s Ice Cream brand team to lead product development and in-market delivery for these exciting, buzzworthy products. Key responsibilities for this scope include:

• Strong partnership and Strategic influencing skills to drive relationship with Hershey, this includes managing contract deliverables, ingredient forecast, quarterly business updates, collaboration on marketing initiatives and alignment of future funnel innovation.
  • Lead category trend work and consumer research by partnering with consumer insights team to conduct research on innovation and product concepts
  • Develop innovation pipeline by working with cross functional teams to ensure product mix is launched on time and in full, drive alignment with Hershey and other Licensing partners
  • Manage relationship with Hershey and other licensing partners  (give and receive business updates, partner with them to create Joint Business Plans)
  • Partner closely with Procurement and Supply Chain to manage capacity, identify contract manufacturers and pursue import opportunities where relevant.
  • Partner with R&D to manage product and packaging transitions, improvements and updates
  • Work hand in hand with the operations marketing team to ensure flawless execution in market
  • Identify new opportunities to develop engagement assets. Understand licensing partners marketing agenda and identify means of scaling  
  • Day-to-day management includes:
    • Lead IPT
    • Feedback from quality and consumer engagement teams
    • CIP budget optimization
    • Monitor consumer complaints and actions
    • Staying close to in market performance and competitive dynamics
    • Brief, feedback, and produce Hershey’s engagement assets (primarily lower funnel)

New Business Development Incubator

This aspect of the role will have influence across brands and impact broader ice cream portfolio.        

• “Outbound Licensing” – continue to develop capabilities and  be responsible to grow and scale this revenue stream This aspect of the role is entrepreneurial, and will have the ability to shape the future of Ice Cream Company  licensing practice. (Previous examples include: Popsicle C4 Energy Drinks, Breyers and Magnum Iced Coffee (by Victor Allen’s), Popsicle scented Goose Creek Candles, and more!
• “Inbound licensing” –develop licensing criteria for partner selection, long term strategy, and partner with the other brands in  portfolio to execute on the strategy.
• Identify new white space ideas via an incubation / acceleration model.
• Analyze new category dynamics to identify category expansion opportunities with largest size of prize, lowest barriers to entry, and permission for our brands to win
• Partner with R&D and CMI to develop new product propositions and packaging
• Lead cross functional team to take product ideas from concept all the way thr