Customer Strategy & Planning Manager, Deos

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JOB PURPOSE

Canada Deodorants is a category leader with 42% market share providing superior whole-person wellbeing through irresistible products, joyful experiences, and purposeful brands. We are seeking a Customer Strategy & Planning Manager to lead our Deodorants portfolio through end-to-end category and shelf strategy, delivering all necessary physical & digital assets to deliver flawless execution while driving a double-digit growth plan. This leader will partner with the Deodorants cross-functional leadership to deliver the Canada 2025-2026 growth strategy.

The Customer Strategy & Planning Manager is the voice of the customer and the shopper in the Personal Care Business Group. They will be responsible for all commercial levers including performance management, P&L ownership, category and brand operations and planning, shopper marketing, NRM as well as category strategy.

The CS&P Manager will set and deploy channel strategy for their category and deploy holistic customer investment across customers to deliver profitable growth. This role represents the customer in core organizational processes including Sales & Operating Plan (S&OP), Integrated Business Planning (IBP), & Net Revenue Management (NRM).

The CS&P leads will be responsible for ensuring channel and customer insights are incorporated in the development of brand and category plans and building execution against those plans in the context of retailer strategy inclusive of instore execution elements of Instore Visibility and Integrated OMNI shopper initiatives.

WHAT WILL YOUR MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES BE

• Responsible for in-year delivery, P&L management, customer planning and category strategies including deployment of TTS.
• Bring the retailer shopper voice into the Deodorants business; Pioneer ‘consumer love’ for the Business Unit and Business Group.
• Sales and Operating Plan – lead consolidated Customer Development (CBD) input and own ‘output’, drive CD business performance.
• Ensure excellence in brand and customer operations across APDEO business through ownership of S&OP and forecasting processes.
• Development and implementation of channel specific strategies including innovation to address the changing needs of the diverse shoppers across all channels in the Canadian marketplace as a part of Perfect Plan/IBP process.
• Developing price, promotion, distribution, and retail strategies for assigned brands with a relentless focus on flawless execution and the shopper.
• Integrate Category Management functions to deliver brand/marketing strategies – ensuring brand DNA comes to life on the shelf. Champion of relevant category expertise into channels.
• Make strategic brand trade-offs at shelf, guiding brand teams on most effective shelving strategy.
• Input into innovation/renovation business cases e.g. pack size by channel, pricing, distribution targets & trade margins.
• Leverage Net Revenue Management (NRM) strategies to maximize ROI on trade strategy.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO SUCCEED

Experiences & Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required.
• 5+ years of experience in consumer goods and sales/customer development.
• Strong understanding of customer operations and channel drivers.
• Strong business and financial acumen.
• Strong understanding and experience of Trade Fund Management.
• Understands Net Revenue Management concepts.
• Leverages Category Management generated insights to develop/execute fully integrated brand/category strategies and activities for customers.
• Proven ability to demonstrate analytical thinking, data-driven decision making, and ability to influence through strategy story-telling through data and insights.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office suite, Power BI, Sales Planning Tools (Salesforce), Nielsen, Numerator tools, is an asset.