Senior Manager Shopper Insights (Finance)

At Suntory Global Spirits, we craft spirits of the highest quality and deliver brilliant experiences to people around the world. Suntory Global Spirits has evolved into the world's third largest leading premium spirits company ... where each employee is treated like family and trusted with legacy. With our greatest assets - our premium spirits and our people - we're driving growth through impactful marketing, innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit. Suntory Global Spirits is a place where you can come Unleash your Spirit by making an impact each and every day.

What makes this a great opportunity?

The Senior Manager Shopper Insights plays a critical role in driving profitable growth by leading the development and execution of shopper-centric strategies. This position will be responsible for translating consumer and shopper insights into actionable recommendations to strengthen our commercial excellence in North America.

This is a great opportunity because... This individual has a unique opportunity to drive growth and operational excellence within the North America Suntory Global Spirits business. You'll lead strategic initiatives and be the expert in shopper's purchase behavior and path to purchase within the Suntory Global Spirits (SGS) organization. This role demands strong analytical and communication skills, as well as the ability to build impactful relationships with Market Development & Commercialization (MDC), Commercial Sales, Marketing, and Strategy stakeholders. By leveraging existing tools & methodologies and finding new solutions, you'll stay at the forefront of category trends, identifying new growth opportunities while contributing to the success of SGS.

Role Responsibilities

• Lead Shopper-Centric Initiatives: Develop and execute shopper research, including quantitative and qualitative studies (e.g., consumer surveys, path to purchase, shopper intercepts, ethnographies)
• Lead Point of Sale (PoS) Testing: Develop and execute testing process for PoS materials
• Guide category and channel strategy development: Partner with MDC to guide optimized shelving, assortment, and merchandising recommendations
• Influence MDC team: Arm stakeholders with channel, category and brand insights that lead to better recommendations and clear growth opportunities
• Support adoption of shopper data: Analyze and interpret shopper data from various sources, including Point of Sale (PoS) data, panel data, audience data, and competitive intelligence
• Support for Performance Management and PDCA: Partner with Analytics & MDC teams for ad hoc data and insights that can be used to support sales analysis
• Act as cross-functional partner and liaison across teams: Deliver actionable, "go-do" recommendations grounded in shopper behavior to Strategy, Brand, and MDC teams
• Thought Leadership: Monitor and analyze industry trends, competitive activity, and emerging consumer behaviors, and serve as thought leader to MDC and Commercial Sales team

Skills

• Ability to proactively build insights to help drive brand and sales growth
• Intellectual curiosity and creative insight, coupled with a drive for actionable, tangible impact on the organization.
• Ability to work effectively with a cross-functional teams and suppliers
• Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills.
• Draw conclusions and extract meaningful insights from data using analytical skills
• Highly adaptable, works well in an environment of change, and has ability to work well and lead autonomously in a fast paced, unstructured entrepreneurial environment
• Manage multiple projects/brands/direct-reports simultaneously and deliver work with excellence
• Leads qualitative and quantitative custom research projects throughout all stages including design, execution, analysis, and recommendation
• Experience with range of shopper research methodologies: path to purchase, consumer journey, shelf optimization, A&U, shopper decision trees, segmentations, shopalongs/shopper intercepts, ethnographies.
• Proficient with syndicated panel data sources (e.g., Nielsen, Circana/IRI, loyalty card) and audience data (e.g. Spectra, MRI/Simmons, GWI)
• Strong analytical skills and demonstrated ability to draw conclusions and extract meaningful insights from data for internal and external retailer-facing sales stories

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Business, Finance, or a related field.
• 7+ years of experience in market research, consumer or shopper insights, or a related field, including 2+ years of dedicated shopper insights
• Experience in CPG or Beverages; Alc-bev industry preferred, not required
• Good understanding of category development principles and retailer relationships
• Strong experience with syndicated data sources (e.g. Nielsen, Numerator, Circana, Spectra, MRI etc.)
• Experience with designing and executing custom research, both qualitative and quantitative
• Proven ability to translate data into actionable insights and recommendations.

Salary Range - The salary range for this role based in Chicago is $120,000 to $136,000 along with an annual bonus, 401K match, profit sharing, and medical and wellness benefits. The salary range is commensurate with the candidate's location, experience, and skillset.

At Suntory Global Spirits, people are our number one priority, and we believe our people grow together in diverse and inclusive environments where their unique insights, experiences and backgrounds are valued and respected. Suntory Global Spirits is committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, military veteran status and all other characteristics, attributes or choices protected by law. All recruitment and hiring decisions are based on an applicant's skills and experience.

Nearest Major Market: Chicago