Vice President, Marketing

Russell Stover Chocolates, LLC; Kansas City (MO); On-site; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Russell Stover Chocolates seeks a Vice President of Marketing to drive brand equity and product innovation. This leadership role involves guiding a team, developing marketing strategies, and collaborating with various stakeholders to enhance market presence and profitability.

Qualifications

• Minimum 15 years marketing experience in consumer packaged goods.
• Minimum 5 years leading a Marketing Team.

Responsibilities

• Lead marketing strategies and initiatives for brand growth.
• Develop and manage the marketing operating budget.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic Thinking

Brand Building

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree

MBA

Job description

At Russell Stover Chocolates, not only do we love eating chocolate, but we love our jobs making others happy with our delicious chocolate products! Every day we go to work exhibiting our values of excellence, innovation, entrepreneurship, responsibility, and collaboration. Working at Russell Stover you’ll be an important part of the leading manufacturer of seasonal and sugar-free chocolates. For over 100 years, Russell Stover Chocolates, Whitman’s, and Pangburn’s have been crafted with the finest ingredients to bring happiness to generations. Join our team and let’s continue making chocolate lovers happy!

A day in the life…

Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer, Russell Stover Chocolates is looking for a Vice President to lead the Marketing function to drive top-of-mind awareness, trial and repeat across all channels. In this role, you will be responsible for defining and executing brand equity and product innovation activities in a highly dynamic, and exciting Category.

As part of the senior leadership team, you will develop a robust pipeline of growth initiatives – ranging from new products to commercial positioning, messaging, and go-to-market plans that drive demand. You will engage with leadership at the highest levels of the Lindt & Sprungli company and will collaborate closely with various stakeholders like Sales, R&D, Operations, Finance, Legal, Procurement, Retail and Agencies. You will also be directly responsible for an organization of over 20 people that work within the Marketing, Design, Insights, and Product Lifecycle functions.

What you will be doing…

• Influence the company’s vision and lead activities to enable the organization to deliver it
• Keep informed of consumer and competitive trends to capitalize on market opportunities
• Establish objectives, goals, strategies and actions to achieve profitable sales and share growth
• Develop Innovation Master Plan and lead new products from design through delivery
• Lead marketing strategies based on consumer insight and in depth understanding of market dynamics
• Define, lead and execute equity building activities for total brand & sublines
• Create and execute effective and efficient marketing plans that fuel the growth of key franchises
• Acquire, develop, and motivate talent within Marketing, Design, Insights, and Product Lifecycle teams
• Develop and manage the marketing operating budget
• Lead collaboration with marketing and promotional agencies
• Partner with Sales in S&OP process, identifying risks and opportunities to delivering financial commitments

Do you have what it takes?

(Basic Qualifications)

You will be an exceptional leader, strategic thinker and successful brand builder. You will be a seasoned marketing executive with a strong brand-building pedigree, and a track record of success driving profitable growth, ideally in both large and small companies. It is critical that you have demonstrated success leading efforts to develop innovative solutions to challenges, from product innovation to marketing communications. You will be able to connect with chocolate consumers’ passion for the category and the Brand to drive trial and loyalty, so ideally will have experience working for an emotional and/or food & beverage brand. To be successful, you will have relevant Wholesale and eCommerce Channel experience within the US Market.

You must be a strong leader, strategic, passionate, creative, results oriented, and an excellent communicator. You will be someone colleagues will intuitively follow and want to partner.

• Bachelors degree required, MBA strongly preferred
• Minimum 15 years marketing experience, preferably in fast-moving consumer packaged goods company
• Minimum 5 years of experience leading a Marketing Team
• Director or higher level role experience
• Experience developing brand equity and activating it across all consumer and shopper touchpoints
• Experience working with Creative and Media Agency partners
• Experience developing product innovation from Concept thru Commercialization in Stage Gate Process
• Experience across Channels within the US Wholesale market
• Strong knowledge of Consumption (e.g., Circana), Research methodologies, P&L’s, and financial planning

Do you stand above the rest?

(Preferred Qualifications)

• Experience in Food and/or Beveridge company
• Experience with both Everyday and Seasonal portfolio of products
• Vice President level experience

At Russell Stover Chocolates, we don’t just accept difference — we celebrate it, we support it, and we thrive on it for the benefit of our employees, our products, and our community. Russell Stover Chocolates is proud to be an equal-opportunity workplace.

We provide equal employment opportunities to all people without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, religion, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, pregnancy, physical or mental disability, protected medical condition, genetic information, military service, veteran status, or any other status or characteristic protected by law.

Employment by Russell Stover Chocolates is contingent upon I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification, passing the urinalysis drug screen, education verification, and satisfactory reference and background checks.

Make Happy. Work Happy.