Director, Store Marketing Strategy / Visual Operations (Hybrid)

General Summary

You will lead a team responsible for creating an in-store shopper journey for our customers, grounded in our strategic pillars of Inspire / Excite / Serve. You will play a key role developing the in-store experience strategies that support the retail marketing calendar, inclusive of seasonal and ongoing business initiatives. This role is critical in representing the consumer and helping him/her make confident choices at the product level, through signage, digital tools, and more.

 

You will be responsible for designing and executing programs that drive the store shopping behavior we seek, ultimately moving the customer towards purchase and driving long-term brand affinity.

 

Reports to: Sr. Director, Brand & Integrated Marketing

 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

 

• Develop store retail experiences that ladder back to DSW brand objectives and seasonal/business initiatives, ultimately recommending & leading execution of all in-store marketing elements (signage, visual, and experiential)
• Create store retail experiences that are rooted in consumer insights with a “test and learn” mentality to constantly evolve and meet the needs our customers and improve their journey in our stores; integration of digital/phygital experiences a priority
• Responsible for evergreen store ambiance & experience, ensuring our Brand Expression comes to life in stores via execution of programs & tactics
• Bird’s-Eye-View: Strategizing, planning, and mapping the store visual experience across all elements for every point in time (across all store formats / tests)
• Establish and maintain strong collaborative relationships with key internal stakeholders, primarily with marketing strategy/channel leads along with a tight connection to Store Operations & Communication
• Lead the creative development process for the retail channel, including writing strong creative briefs and providing feedback that results in impactful creative that delivers upon our experience objectives
• Coordinate the printing and shipping of signage, partnering with production & traffic teams to lead the process; inclusive of 3D renderings & walk-throughs; also includes quote reviews, documentation, submission for POs, checklist development, & inventory management
• Track and manage all budget details for projects; collaborate closely with Finance to manage in-season work and forecast future season expense
• Develop measurement plans and regularly evaluate and optimize our work based on key program and customer insights to ensure we are constantly evolving to meet the needs of our customers and the business
• Develop comprehensive project plans that give visibility to projects-in-flight, enabling work to stay on track and on budget
• Team is responsible for facilitating all store marketing/signage/visual communication to the Store Comm team, collaborating closely to ensure clear cascade to the field

 

 

Required Skills:

• Strategic mindset with the ability to step back and see the bigger picture of a business challenge while not getting inundated with day-to-day tactics

 

• Highly organized and detailed-oriented; must possess ability to work independently and self-start with minimal direction at times

• High level of critical thinking ability and curiosity, particularly in balancing multiple projects and priorities

• Strong collaboration & communication skills as this role works with many cross-functional partners; must have the ability to build and cultivate relationships and influence across all levels of the organization

• Visual thinker with ability to synthesize learnings into clearly digestible visual formats

• Must have customer-first approach with ability to leverage customer insights to make decisions and guide strategy

• Must possess analytical acumen with ability to gather, digest, manipulate, & share complex data sets; proficient in Microsoft Excel

 

Experience:

• Prior Retail/Stores experience
• 10+ years of experience working in a Marketing function
• Experience as a manager, leading people & teams

 

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience leading & influencing cross-functional teams to develop campaigns and drive results
• Experience building presentations and storytelling to large audiences, including at the leadership level

 

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in marketing or related field