Director of Marketing Innovation

 

 

 

 

 

Bel, makers of iconic brands including Babybel, The Laughing Cow, Boursin, and GoGo Squeez, and more, is a growing global company that values your contributions, strives to create a sense of belonging for everyone and offers career growth and development opportunities, as well as competitive total compensation and meaningful well-being benefits from day one. For All, For Good, our company signature, reflects Bel’s commitment to sustainability and healthier and responsible food for all. Bel Brands USA has been named Chicago's "101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For" for 10 years in a row. The company has headquartes in Chicago for our Bel Cheese business and in New York City for GoGo Squeez. Bel operates five manufacturing plants in Little Chute, WI, Leitchfield, KY, and Brookings, SD, Nampa, ID, and Traverse City, MI.

Job Description Summary

Director of Marketing Innovation will play a pivotal role in shaping the innovation landscape for Bel Brands USA. Working closely with cross-functional teams and global counterparts, you will identify, evaluate, and drive product and packaging innovation opportunities that align with our brand strategies and customer demands. Leveraging market and consumer insights, you will contribute to the development of a robust cross-brand US innovation pipeline that fosters sustained, profitable growth for our portfolio. This role requires collaboration with internal and external partners to champion innovation initiatives and cultivate an innovative culture within the organization. This is a hybrid role based in our Chicago Loop office.

 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Job Responsibilities & Tasks:

• Develop and update the Innovation Strategy of US market across all channels. Ensure the innovation strategy responds to the demands of the shoppers in Clubs, Grocery, Natural, Ecom and Out-Of-Home channels. Ensure the strategy is aligned with the overall US Business and ladders back to both local and global brand strategies, including engaging key stakeholders
• Innovation Pipeline Development: Lead team to create a multi-year local US innovation pipeline that aligns with both short- and long-term brand strategies. This pipeline should encompass various forms of innovation, including new technologies, new products, renovations, packaging enhancements, and commercial innovation including activations. This includes innovation in both retail and out of home / food service.
• Global Innovation Rollout: Lead the localization of globally led innovations, adapting products to meet the unique needs of US consumers and retailers. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to assess innovation potential, informing global capacity planning.
• Consumer-Centric Innovation: Demonstrate a deep curiosity for trends and insights that lead to innovative product ideas addressing unmet consumer needs, while assessing their business potential. Ensure the insights are turned into well thought through and quality brief to the development teams
• Collaborate closely with the Brand and SI teams – local and global – to develop the right strategic mix and launch strategies for innovations (including but not limited to positioning, pricing, channel, visibility, profitability, etc Utilize competitive, category, consumer, shopper, and retailer insights to further validate and optimize innovation concepts to meet strategic objectives. Ensure proper validation of mix assumptions with proper methodologies.

 

• Business Case Development: Work in partnership with Sales, Marketing, and Finance to deliver P&L analysis, including three-to-five-year volume forecasts, pricing strategies, and trade recommendations for profitable market success. Innovation Culture: Foster an environment that motivates team members to generate new ideas and champion innovation plans to the brand marketing team.
• Project Initiation: Develop technical briefs to initiate projects, collaborating with cross-functional teams and external partners.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Develop and maintain key internal and external relationships with stakeholders, including brand directors, marketing teams, consumer insights, research & development, industrial teams, purchasing, finance, sales, external agencies, and open innovation providers. Collaborate effectively with all stakeholders, bringing them together to successfully manage innovation projects through Bel’s Stage Gate process.
• Closely follow and monitor the performance of products post launch for at least one year and lead the improvement phase. Ensure a seamless transition to the brand team post-launch
• Brainstorming and Process Improvement: Lead and participate in brainstorming sessions for identifying white space opportunities and developing innovative concepts. Con