Brand Entrepreneur - EIR

About Merito :

Merito is a curated talent platform where we identify, assess, and connect candidates for matching job opportunities. We are working with the mission to change the way hiring is done. The company is founded by a team consisting of alumni from IIM Ahmedabad, McKinsey with more than 2 decades of experience in recruitment, training, and coaching.

About our Client :

Our client is an Indian retail conglomerate which is setting up a tech driven brand co-creation platform that transforms powerful ideas into authentic, profitable and experience-led brands that will define the future of brands in fashion, beauty, food and home decor space.

Role: Brand Entrepreneur (EIR)

This opportunity is for new brands that are in stealth mode & backed by Future Group promoters. It's a house of Personal care D2C brands in the space of haircare, skin care & kids personal care.

In 2020, CoVid 19 affected every business, few positively and many negatively. However, E-commerce adoption has gone through the roof and we have seen consumer's e-commerce spends grow. India's fast growing e-commerce market is seen growing by 30 percent a year to $200 billion (roughly Rs. 14,68,640 core) by 2026.

On the back of strong product-market fit and a change in human behaviour due to CoVid that buoyed ecommerce, we are currently building D2C personal care brands. The overall D2C market in India is expected to reach $100 billion in the next 7-8 years. We will be building a digital first content led approach to target this community of consumers. We aim to win shoppers at the moment of purchase by algorithmically managing demand forecasting, promotions and advertising spend, supply chain, content optimization and other aspects that help shoppers make online purchase decisions, all backed by Data Science.

As the Brand Entrepreneur, you will be part of the founding team conceptualizing the brand proposition, brand identity, and working with formulation experts to build the product pipeline.

Key Responsibilities :

- Creating Brand positioning and differentiation strategies, generating brand anticipation and planning Brand launch keeping in mind the key insights gained from customer and competitor analysis

- Analyzing and researching consumer markets, monitoring market trends and identifying potential areas in which to invest, based upon consumer needs and spending habits

- Looking at the pricing of products and analyzing the potential profitability

- Executing strategies of expansion for existing products and services

- Supervising, managing and executing the manufacturing and supply chain for the brand life cycle

- Monitoring product distribution and consumer reactions through focus groups and market research

- Driving Marketing, Digital Marketing and Performance Marketing

- Coordinating the launch program

- Analyze how our brand is positioned in the market and crystalize targeted consumers insights

- Take brand ownership and provide the direction in executing the vision, mission, goals and strategies

- Translate brand strategies into brand plans, brand positioning and go-to-market execution plans

- Driving creative development and create motivating stimulus to get targeted population to "take action" through on-the ground plans

- Establish performance specifications, cost and price parameters, market applications and sales estimates

- Monitor market trends, research consumer markets and competitors' activities to highlight opportunities and key issues

- Liaison with marketing team to ensure consistency with product line strategy

- Monitor product distribution and consumer reactions

- Anticipate bottlenecks throughout the product life-cycle starting from manufacturing to product launch

- Align the company around the brand's direction, choices and tactics

- Coordinate with New Product Development role for product composition, packaging and quality control.

Competencies :

- Comes with a brand led thinking along with sales orientation

- Execution of strategies/future plan for establishing the brands

- Have good analytical skills

- Good listener, able to respond to results and consumer research

- Ability to work well with multiple teams

- Ability to manage different projects at the same time

- Understanding & appreciation of the new age consumer's needs

Critical Personality :

- Works with an owner's mindset, can embrace entrepreneurial culture

- Extensive PnL knowledge

- Flexible & Adaptable

- Speed in Execution

- Ability to work well under pressure

- Have good presentation skills

- Ability to Influence People

- Excellent Communication Skills

- High Business Acumen and Result Oriented

- Analytical & Data Oriented

- Realtime solution oriented

The ideal candidate will have :

1. An MBA from a top tier B School preferred. (Not Mandatory)

2. At least 3-5 years work experience overall, with a minimum 2 years in brand/category management

3. Experience in running multi-functional teams

4. Early experience in strategy consulting or in top tier FMCG companies is preferred

5. Experience in D2C brands is preferred The ideal candidate is ambitious, looking for an entrepreneurial stint, has tremendous ownership, and combines sharp consumer insight with sound business judgment