Innovation Brand Manager - Shower Portfolio

We are PZ Cussons. Our purpose is For everyone, for life, for good.

Sustainability and the wellbeing of people, families and communities everywhere are at the heart of everything that we do.

Since our founding in 1884, we have been creating products to delight, care for and nourish consumers. Across our core categories of Hygiene, Baby and Beauty, our trusted and well-loved brands include Carex, Cussons Baby, Sanctuary Spa and St. Tropez.

POSITION SNAPSHOT

Job title: Innovation Brand Lead - Shower Portfolio

Location: Manchester

Contract type: Permanent

A fantastic opportunity has arisen within the PZ Cussons UKI Shower portfolio, to shape the future innovation and improvement of shower products that will delight new and existing consumers. This is a key role in the business ambition to grow through innovation by identifying emerging trends, consumer needs and market opportunities and then turning them into commercially viable and innovative products.

The successful candidate will work within the Shower marketing team, and be responsible for developing a continuous pipeline of innovation opportunities over a 3 year horizon for our fantastic family favourite brands including Original Source, Imperial Leather, Sanctuary Spa, Carex and Cussons Creations. The role will include concept generation and validation as well as management and ownership of product pipeline.

We're looking for an individual who is well versed in delivering winning innovation in branded consumer goods as well as an excellent collaborator, working closely with cross functional teams including R&D, marketing, sales, category and supply chain to bring these innovations to market successfully.

The successful candidate must have strong project leadership and communication skills as well as good commercial acumen and be able to work with numerous data sources from category and consumer insight, and work them into fully developed concepts.

Responsibilities

• Portfolio segmentation: lead the strategic segmentation of the shower portfolio and develop and implement segmentation strategies
• Innovation strategy: Develop and lead the Shower innovation strategy aligned with the company’s medium and long term growth objectives, identifying new product opportunities, packaging improvements and sustainability initiatives. Develop a continuous pipeline of innovation opportunities over a 3 year horizon across the PZ Cussons shower portfolio.
• Platform and Consumer Insights: Combining desk research with commissioning research and working closely with our Consumer insight and category teams to unearth key trends, competitive dynamics and unmet needs within the shower category. Utilise data to inform innovation pipelines.
• Concept Development: Create and manage the development of new product concepts from idea generation through to commercialisation. This includes writing and developing concepts for validation, feasibility analysis, testing and refining product concepts.
• Product Development: Collaborating with brand team in development of the proposition for each new launch and excellence in briefing agencies to deliver product identity and positioning that delivers against these propositions. Working closely with R&D to create products that deliver against the proposition, and ensuring upfront claim requirements are validated with external data sources.
• Commercial: In conjunction with the commercial team, develop robust business cases for new launches, based on clear and well-founded assumptions, to work with the finance team to deliver a 3 year P&L that will provide the business with the targets for all innovation launches. To work with the key account team and brand team to bring the product propositions to life for our key customers, and build compelling arguments for listings with the retailers.
• Project Leadership: Working alongside project manager and cross-functional team to bring the project to life. This requires excellence in cross functional leadership and strong ability to engage and bring teams together to meet objectives, ensuring creativity, budgets and standards are met.
• Cross functional collaboration: Work closely with internal and external teams including R&D, marketing, sales, category, consumer insight, supply chain and external agency partners to ensure alignment and successful execution of innovation initiatives.
• Sustainability and trends: Collaborating with internal and external partners to identify sustainability opportunities in product development and packaging.
  
  

Required Skills

• Strong understanding of market trends, consumer insights, and the product development process
• Excellent commercial and strategic awareness
• Proven FMCG innovation and ideation experience. A background of having worked in front end innovation roles, with a proven track record of creating winning ideas grounded in consumer insight, and taking them to launch.
• Experience and excellence in cross functional collaboration with R&D, sales, category, supply chain, marketing and sales
• Experience of managing multiple and often complex projects in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong leadership, communication & influencing skills.
• Highly organised, proactive and results driven
  
  

Key Competencies

• A natural curiosity for new and different in personal care, with a creative approach to solving consumer needs
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret data and translate insights into action
• Positively assertive and able to bring people with you, yet able to deal head on with challenges and find a way through
• Extremely positive with a can-do attitude
• Ability to influence and lead cross functional teams
• Attention to detail and ability to manage multiple projects and stakeholders in a fast-paced environment
  
  

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, Product Development or related field
• Extensive experience in product innovation, brand management or category management within FMCG,
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Packages – Word, Excel, PowerPoint essential.
  
  

If you want to join a business in transformation with exciting growth plans and the opportunity to work flexibly with a 2-3 days hybrid policy and finish at 1pm every Friday, apply to work for us today!

Please note that we are not able to offer visa sponsorship or assist with relocation support for this role. Applicants must have the right to work in the country where this role is located before applying.

Equal Opportunities

At PZ Cussons, we value diversity and make sure everyone feels included. We want our team to reflect society and our global customers. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and your unique perspective helps us develop brands and create new products for our consumers.

If you need extra support during this process, please inform us so that we can accommodate your needs appropriately. It is important to us that all candidates feel recognised and have a good experience with PZ Cussons as part of our commitment to inclusivity.

PZ Cussons is big enough to make your mark, small enough to make it yours. Apply to join us!