VP, Merchandising

Alternate Locations: United States-Massachusetts-South Deerfield

Newell Brands is a leading $8.3B consumer products company with a portfolio of iconic brands such as Graco, Coleman, Oster, Rubbermaid, and Sharpie, and 25,000 talented employees around the world. Our high-performance culture, unparalleled curiosity about the world around us, and talented people fuel our success. Our culture is enabled through our core values which guide all we do and how we win as One Newell. They are Integrity, Teamwork, Passion for Winning, Ownership & Leadership.

Job Summary:

Responsible for merchandising retail stores, driving, building, and executing owned channel (Stores and DTC) and commercializing brand marketing plans with wholesale sales partners to optimize performance and achieve sales goals. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align owned channels, wholesale, and marketing initiatives with business objectives.

Responsibilities:

Owned Channel Merchandising:

• Develop and execute merchandising strategies to maximize product visibility and sales in retail stores and online.
• Analyze market trends and sales data to optimize product assortment, pricing, and promotional strategies.
• Lead product selection and assortment planning, ensuring alignment with consumer demand, market trends, and store-specific needs to drive sales and optimize in-store performance.
• Collaborate with marketing and Retail Store Leader teams to develop traffic-building initiatives, including in-store promotions, product placements, and seasonal assortments, to increase customer footfall and conversion rates.
• Oversee demand planning and manage inventory levels, ensuring optimal stock availability while aligning with sales forecasts and minimizing excess inventory.
• Partner with Retail Store Leader to ensure seamless execution of merchandising strategies, product placement, and promotional initiatives, driving alignment with business objectives at the store level.

Direct to Consumer:

• Develop and execute DTC business strategies to drive customer acquisition, retention, and revenue growth across digital and physical sales channels.
• Collaborate with the CRM team to enhance loyalty program, personalized marketing campaigns, and retention strategies that enhance customer engagement and lifetime value.
• Monitor and assess performance across digital platforms, pivoting strategies as needed to ensure the successful delivery of business goals, while optimizing customer experience and revenue growth.
• Partner with the performance marketing team to align on campaign strategies, optimize/monitor marketing spend, and ensure end-to-end performance, driving traffic, conversion, and overall objectives.
• Collaborate with the technology team to ensure the digital platform roadmap aligns with business needs and objectives, enabling seamless execution of DTC strategies.
• Leads Customer Strategy team that is key liaison to Brand Marketing and Customer Planning, which is the key liaison to Field Sales.
• Represents the voice of the customer internally with Segment team and the voice of the Segment/Brand externally with Field Sales.
• Continuously seeks to drive objective alignment between both internal & external customers to deliver mutually beneficial results.

Category / Channel/ Customer Strategy & Execution:

• Leads Customer Strategy team in partnering with Category Development to:
  • Maintain and refresh the Strategic Customer Segmentation for the business segment.
  • Develop Where to Play and How to Win customer recommendations by Category & Brand.
  • Develop annual commercial strategy and channel/customer DSM expectations that are communicated through the Category Playbooks.
• Drives Segment leadership alignment on identifying Big Bets and significant investment proposals to advance mutually beneficial Newell priorities with customers.
• Leads the Business Unit CSP team in the sizing category growth opportunities, setting DSMP expectations for brand innovation and sales funnel initiatives.
• Drives the monitoring and execution of Category/Brand initiatives in the marketplace.
• Leads the Channel Development team that leads the identification and vetting of new business opportunities and driving them through the sales funnel to customer acceptance and execution.
• Leads the annual CSP deployment of budget targets across customers and channels to ensure category/Brand targets are met or exceeded.
• Ensures CSP team meets annual planning timelines and deliverables specified by the One Newell operating rhythm. Includes development of Category Playbooks, DSMP targets, and selling stories for all key business initiatives expectations for U.S. customers.
• Completes roll-up of annual plans to help inform budgeting process and determine where gaps exist. Drives resolution process to address and close gaps between field sales and Business Unit/Category.
• Drives alignment between Field Sales and Brand Marketing in the development of in-period contingencies when annual plan is at risk or opportunities to overdrive are present.
• Responsible for Business Unit/Category Planning Call as an input to S&OP cycle (DRM). Focuses on driving continuous improvements to forecast accuracy and attainment.
• Leads Product supply prioritization, allocation recommendations, and sales communication when prolonged supply/demand imbalance issues exist.
• Leads the monitoring of Innovation Sell-In and Reporting for Business Unit or Category. Develops contingency actions when/where needed to deliver Innovation execution excellence.

Customer P&L Management:

• Leads and Coaches Customer Planning in identifying opportunities to optimize customer and channel P&Ls.
• Leads sales review of optimization opportunities (Exit or Fix) on negative margin SKUs/ at Customer level.
• Responsible for financial analysis on Price Exceptions and ITN investments outside of existing guardrails to ensure alignment with category/segment strategy and to deliver positive Return on customer Investments.
• Leads Customer Strategy partnership with RGM and Brand Finance to develop annual everyday and promotional retail price points, promotional frequency, desired retail price gaps, key price thresholds by brand.
• Partners with RGM to identify negative ROI promotions and identify areas for trade promotion optimization.
• Annually communicates brand price strategy to Field Sales by customer/channel through release of Category playbooks.
• Monitors and highlights when competitive pricing strategy needs to be reviewed, challenged, or adjusted.
• Leads Segment pricing action strategy when required, providing internal thought leadership and preparing sales for customer communication/negotiation/execution.
• Ensures and coaches Customer Planning in supporting successful milestone customer engagements inclusive of Innovation Summits, Joint Business Plan Presentations, Line Reviews, and Trade Shows.

Managerial Responsibilities:

• Leads the Talent recruitment, selection, performance management, and career planning activities for Category Strategy, Customer Planning, and Channel Management direct reports.

Key Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree; required.
• 15+ years of experience with a CPG or durable company, ideally in channel management, brand management, insights, or sales, preferably with retail/mass channel.
• Experience working in a matrixed organization with demonstrated ability to partner with multiple teams to achieve results.
• Extensive US retail customer knowledge.
• Experience working in a live trade accrual system.
• Strong business acumen with the ability to influence different key players within an organization.
• Ability to calculate, manage risk, and effectively manage change.
• Strong interpersonal and intrapersonal skills with proven success of managing and developing high performing teams.
• Ability to travel up to 50% of the time may be required.

Key Performance Indicators: Newell Budget Attainment (Core Sales Growth, GM Rate Attainment, Market Share), WFA, Sales Forecast Attainment.

Newell Brands (NASDAQ: NWL) is a leading global consumer goods company with a strong portfolio of well-known brands, including Rubbermaid, Sharpie, Graco, Coleman, Rubbermaid Commercial Products, Yankee Candle, Paper Mate, FoodSaver, Dymo, EXPO, Elmer’s, Oster, NUK, Spontex, and Campingaz. We are focused on delighting consumers by lighting up everyday moments. Newell Brands and its subsidiaries are Equal Opportunity Employers and comply with applicable employment laws. EOE/M/F/Vet/Disabled are encouraged to apply.