Senior Brand Manager Alpro

Are you looking for a new opportunity and do you get excited by the world of plantbased? Well, then we have great news for you! We are looking for a Senior Brand Manager Alpro to dive into the wonderful world of marketing plantbased. The job is covering a BeNeLux scope and is ideally located in Rijswijk in Netherland, but can also be in Brussels in Belgium.

• Netherlands
• Rijswijk
• Hybrid
• Permanent Full-Time

About the job

Get a great taste of life in “FMCG” (aka “fast moving consumer goods”, or in human language: brands and products you can find when exploring your local supermarket) in a dynamic, enthusiastic and incredibly talented team (maybe we should add humble too?). Oh well, all joking aside: you may just have found your dream job!

In this role, you will be driving the growth of Plant-Based & Alpro through developing and executing effective marketing strategies. You will be part of the Plant-Based Marketing Benelux team, together with team of (Sr) Brand Managers and will be reporting directly into the Plant-Based Marketing Director. In this role, you will be coaching a team of 2-4 people, composed of Brand Managers, Junior Brand Managers and interns.

Your key responsibilities are:

From a strategic perspective, you will be responsible to create annual growth strategy and brand plans for BeNeLux on your category scope: plantbased yoghurts (PBY). This includes:

• Design of the brand plans for Belgium and Netherlands in close collaboration with cross departments (sales, finance, catman, shopper, RGM, media, Strategic & insights team…). Delivering clear “jobs to be done” and priorities, on all that relates to our Alpro plantbased yoghurt in Alpro.
• With support of your team, You’ll lead the implementation of those brand plans and track the business results along the way, taking action when needed to reach the ambitions.
• You own and deliver significant elements of the annual category and brand planning process: from proactively identifying gaps/opportunities & following closely business results, through to presentation sign-off and sales presentations, together with your team.
• Your business skills, retail knowledge, strategic and growth mindset are essential in that role.

From a Portfolio & Inno/Reno perspective, you will lead portfolio strategy and co-lead the plant-based inno/reno projects with project management team and your team.

• Portfolio management including innovations, renovations falling under the PBY category for the alpro brand.
• You work with your key stakeholders to deliver the annual sales and business objectives, across the company’s main product categories and innovations.
• Together with CatMan you manage the portfolio priorities and define the national assortment cards.
• Working hand in hand with the European portfolio team, you voice the local BeNelux needs and align to build the ideal portfolio pipeline.
• New Product Development launches & post-launches: You lead the category and product planning process for your market. Delivering the right innovation and renovation projects on time, in full, at target.
• You work closely together with the global plant-based acceleration unit and IPRO team to ensure full and timely delivery of inno and reno project.
• You work together with Category Management to build the consumer, sales and business cases to back-up proposed solutions.
• You work with PRGM/Finance to deliver clear P&L’s for each proposed inno/reno – focusing on growing topline and bottom-line.
• You regularly present and advocate plans to other functional teams and commercial contacts. You proactively manage feedback within those conversations.
• You rollout launch(es), with and together with your sales and category colleagues.
• Together with category management, you set clear KPI’s for each innovation and track these and the total performance in market, assess ROI at post-launch review and advise changes where necessary.

From an Equity, Brand & Activation perspective, you will be responsible for your own Growth Events & Equity platforms.

• Brand Campaigns and Activation: You are responsible to set up engaging 360 campaigns promoting the Alpro brand & key growth platforms ATL & BTL.
• You co-create the Growth Event calendar reflecting on local excellence in execution through strategic collaboration with our creative & media agency.
• You collaborate with the media team BE/NL & agencies to design full offline & online marketing campaigns with good campaign & media brief and co-own community / influencer management.
• You feed into the objective of each campaign & KPI’s to measure post campaign performance (from both media & brand perspective).
• You monitor the campaign analysis: closely monitor our campaigns, collect market & consumer insights, followed by implementing our learnings and continuously optimizing our campaigns.
• You provide thought leadership to the team by connecting marketing mix elements and materials, ensuring best-in-class execution.
• You feed into the shopper team: giving input on hero products for the growth events, building strong inter-connection to ensure in-store excellence.

From a stakeholder and leadership perspective, as owner of the local Alpro PBY portfolio, you liaise with the right stakeholders to ensure timely and on target delivery of the business objectives.

• You work closely together with key global & EU stakeholder.
• You work together with key local stakeholders to fully leverage the power of our brand and category: KAMs, Cat Man, R&I, S&I, IPRO, Field D2D-team, Finance.
• You report into the Plant-based Marketing Director. Making sure they have the right information available to validate business, portfolio & equity decisions and push the local agenda within the local business team.
• You leverage your leadership & team engagement to further develop the capabilities within the team and your N-1(s).

About you

To be successful in this role, you:

• Have significant marketing experience (8+ years), ideally within FMCG, with ownership of brands, categories, or portfolios.
• Excel in developing brand and category strategies, translating annual operating plans (AOP) into impactful tactics that strengthen brand equity and drive demand.
• Build strong relationships and collaborate effectively across functions, partnering with Sales, R&I, S&I, Category Management, Finance and other key stakeholders to deliver business objectives.
• Demonstrate strong leadership in innovation, renovation and communication projects, managing initiatives both locally and across European markets.
• Successfully manage integrated marketing campaigns, leading projects from insight and ideation through execution and performance evaluation across multiple channels.
• Combine strategic thinking with creativity, feeling comfortable building business cases with limited data and finding solutions to complex business challenges.
• Have strong analytical skills, including experience working with Nielsen, GfK and other market, consumer and performance data sources.
• Manage budgets effectively, including annual planning, investment allocation, performance tracking and ROI analysis.
• Show a proactive, entrepreneurial mindset, working independently, adapting to change and continuously seeking opportunities to learn and improve.
• Are passionate about the plant-based category and inspired by brands that contribute positively to health, people and the planet.
• Are fluent in Dutch and English; French is considered an advantage.
• Hold a Master's degree in Marketing, Communications, Economics, Digital Marketing or a related field (or an equivalent Bachelor's degree with relevant experience).

About Danone

All Danoners receive a complete package of benefits. This includes a competitive salary and yearly bonus, a premium free pension, 30 days of annual leave (with the opportunity to purchase more) and you will receive a monthly health care allowance. In addition, you can get discount on your gym membership, and we offer initiatives focused on nutrition, physical, and mental health. We provide continuous learning opportunities through workshops, online courses and training sessions.

In the Netherlands we also offer a hybrid working environment which enables each team to meet our people's desire for flexibility. You can work from one of our People Hubs in Hoofddorp, Utrecht and Rijswijk or you can work from home.