Manager, Category Advisory Services

POSITION OVERVIEW Responsible for leading work with Regional CR accounts (Wawa, QuikTrip, Sheetz, Get Go, Murphy, Mapco, Loves) on beverage strategies and tactics to maximize the opportunity for both the category and Coca-Cola. Key deliverables include opportunity assessment, beverage strategy development as part of a category blueprint, shopper insights, assortment and space recommendations, main shelf placement, display best practices, etc. Position Responsibilities

• Ensures alignment between Retailers and Coca-Colas strategic priorities.
• Makes beverage strategic and tactical recommendations by leveraging unique insights from POS, shopper card, panel data as well as other industry sources.
• Plays a pivotal role in influencing customer decision making by building relationships with senior executives to collaboratively build strategies and tactics designed for future category growth
• Stewards’ development & implementation of process for sharing best practices, as well as sharing specific retailer shopper and category insights within Coca-Cola to drive/shape future corporate strategy.
• Leads the interaction with cross-functional leads to address key business questions and develop volume and revenue growth strategies that allow both companies to meet and exceed plan expectations.
• Ensures that category management tools, data, and shopper insights are effectively leveraged to grow distribution, space, and optimized assortment for all beverage categories.

KEY FOCUS AREAS Strategic Thinking and Strategy Development:

• Develop and drive Coca-Cola strategic processes and plans
• Partner in the development of annual business plan; drive category strategy and opportunities; ensure plan has a relevant category strategy which will win in the marketplace
• Focus on retailer category development
• Provide leadership & continued stewardship for retailer’s beverage categories (Sparkling, Still and Warehouse)
• Recommends space opportunities and risks for the beverage category
• Partner with Sales Teams in development of retailer account plans and programs to drive Coca-Cola market share
• Lead the annual customer category situation assessment process

Project Management:

• Collaborate with cross functional departments (Sales, Channel Strategy and Development, RGM etc) on projects focused on becoming our customers most valued supplier

Relationship Management:

• Develop solid working relationships with key retailer divisional/category managers to drive NARTD beverages into all aspects of their shopper engagement strategy in-store
• Act as brand champion for Coca-Cola by defining and driving overall brand objectives through the practice of category management techniques, delivering comprehensive category programs internally and across retail partners to drive product and brand initiatives
• Build strong team-oriented relationships with other key internal business units and/or global partners that result in new business and/or cross-category opportunities

Education: Minimum Required Bachelor’s Degree Preferred: MBA or other graduate degree EXPERIENCE Minimum Required:

• 5+ Years in CPG Industry
• Senior level experience within the consumer goods/beverages industry
• Strong knowledge of category management principles and analytic techniques

Preferred Level:

• 7+ Years in CPG Industry
• Experience across multiple disciplines beyond category management (Shopper Insights, Revenue Growth Management, etc)

Required SKILLS

• Advanced analytical capability
• Specific capabilities with customer specific data sources (84.51, EYC, etc.)
• High level of experience in data providers (Nielsen, IRI)
• High technical skill and aptitude with computer software (MS Office, JDA, Power BI, etc.)
• Demonstrated reputation for customer engagement with ability to positively drive business results
• Ability to link category leadership strategies to customer strategies
• Analytics experience – ability to draw insights and actions from data
• Planning experience – strategic thinking, forward looking, time cognizant
• Drives organizational performance, efficiency, & effectiveness by translating analytics into actions and results

Additional SKILLS

• PowerBI
• Space planning – exposure to JDA
• Fountain experience
• Customer facing experience.
• Bottler experience

Travel: 20-30% Location: Virtual/Remote with preference for location Eastern USA– Atlanta/ and or Atlanta AOC Skills: Leadership; Customer Experience (CX); Relationship Building; Category Insights; Innovation; Category Management; Facilitation; Marketing; Sales; Customer Insights; Storytelling; Communication; Strategic Selling; Teamwork; Cross-Functional Teamwork Apply Job!