BEFORE APPLYING PLEASE NOTE THIS IS BASED IN MANCHESTER WITH OFFICE REQUIREMENTS 2-3 TIMES A WEEK
THIS IS A MARKETING INNOVATION ROLE, NOT TECHNICAL NPD ROLE
Purpose of Role: Innovation Manager
An exciting opportunity has arisen within a leading FMCG business to shape the future innovation and improvement of consumer products that will delight new and existing consumers. This key role focuses on driving growth through innovation by identifying emerging trends, consumer needs, and market opportunities, turning them into commercially viable and innovative products.
The successful candidate will work within the marketing team and be responsible for developing a continuous pipeline of innovation opportunities over a three-year horizon for a portfolio of well-known brands. This includes concept generation and validation, as well as management and ownership of the product pipeline.
We seek an individual experienced in delivering winning innovation in branded consumer goods, who excels in collaboration with cross-functional teams including R&D, marketing, sales, category management, and supply chain to successfully bring these innovations to market.
The ideal candidate must possess strong project leadership and communication skills, along with solid commercial acumen. They should be adept at utilizing various data sources from category and consumer insights to develop fully realized concepts.
Key Tasks / Objectives:
* Portfolio Segmentation: Lead the strategic segmentation of the product portfolio and develop and implement segmentation strategies.
* Innovation Strategy: Develop and lead the innovation strategy aligned with the company’s medium and long-term growth objectives, identifying new product opportunities, packaging improvements, and sustainability initiatives. Establish a continuous pipeline of innovation opportunities over a three-year horizon across the product portfolio.
* Platform and Consumer Insights: Combine desk research with commissioned studies, working closely with consumer insight and category teams to uncover key trends, competitive dynamics, and unmet needs within the category. Utilize data to inform innovation pipelines.
* Concept Development: Create and manage the development of new product concepts from idea generation through to commercialization. This includes writing and developing concepts for validation, feasibility analysis, testing, and refining product concepts.
* Product Development: Collaborate with the brand team in developing propositions for each new launch and effectively brief agencies to deliver product identity and positioning that align with these propositions. Work closely with R&D to create products that fulfill the proposition, ensuring upfront claim requirements are validated with external data sources.
* Commercial: In conjunction with the commercial team, develop robust business cases for new launches based on clear and well-founded assumptions. Partner with the finance team to deliver a three-year P&L that provides the business with targets for all innovation launches. Work with key account and brand teams to bring product propositions to life for key customers and build compelling arguments for retailer listings.
* Project Leadership: Collaborate with the project manager and cross-functional team to bring projects to fruition. This requires excellence in cross-functional leadership and a strong ability to engage and unite teams to meet objectives, ensuring creativity, budgets, and standards are met.
* Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with internal and external teams including R&D, marketing, sales, category management, consumer insight, supply chain, and external agency partners to ensure alignment and successful execution of innovation initiatives.
* Sustainability and Trends: Collaborate with internal and external partners to identify sustainability opportunities in product development and packaging.
Personal Specification:
Required Skills:
* Strong understanding of market trends, consumer insights, and the product development process.
* Excellent commercial and strategic awareness.
* Proven experience in FMCG innovation and ideation, with a track record of creating winning ideas grounded in consumer insight and bringing them to launch.
* Experience and excellence in cross-functional collaboration with R&D, sales, category management, supply chain, marketing, and sales.
* Experience managing multiple and often complex projects in a fast-paced environment.
* Strong leadership, communication, and influencing skills.
* Highly organized, proactive, and results-driven.
Key Competencies:
* A natural curiosity for new and different approaches in personal care, with a creative approach to solving consumer needs.
* Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret data and translate insights into action.
* Positively assertive and able to bring people along, yet capable of addressing challenges directly and finding solutions.
* Extremely positive with a can-do attitude.
* Ability to influence and lead cross-functional teams.
* Attention to detail and ability to manage multiple projects and stakeholders in a fast-paced environment.
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