Director Consumer, Customer Insights and Category Management - Remote at United Natural Foods Inc in Providence, Rhode Island

Job Description:

Job Overview:
The Director Consumer, Customer Insights, and Category Management role is to design and direct consumer, customer, and category
insights and recommendations to accelerate the growth of the category and UNFI Brands+. They will use deep customer, consumer,
and category management insights to meet the project Revenue and profit goals of UNFI Brands+. They will be a leader within Brands+
and identify category growth opportunities through analysis, evaluation of placement, distribution, assortment, merchandising, and
pricing strategies. This role reports to the VP Brand Management and will work closely with the Sales and Merchandising teams in
addition to UNFI's Category Management team to help maximize growth. They will also lead the Brands+ relationships with NielsenIQ
and SPINS.

Job Responsibilities:
Category Strategy Development (40%)
• Establish and lead implementation of category learnings, insight, and business strategies, and
thought leadership to accelerate Private Brands growth in sales, units, penetration, and space.
• Identify, share, and align on specific category opportunities (including, but not limited to
penetration, distribution, assortment, execution, and price). Deliver action steps for retail-specific
implementation that will drive unit and dollar share growth, incremental return on inventory
invested, and better performance.
• Conduct a comprehensive analysis of market trends, competitive landscape, and channel data to
identify growth opportunities and formulate category strategies.
• Provide insight on promotion timing, pricing, and tactics to improve category performance vs
National Brands and Private Brands. Identify what is working in a category and what is not and
provide recommendations on how to improve performance. Able to do assortment analysis to
recommend optimal assortment.
• Identify new approaches for growing the category, driving initiatives to increase category
awareness and space, and creating processes to better manage the performance of the category
over the long term.
• Maintain knowledge of promotional and pricing fundamentals and competitive brands to provide
high-level insight into promotional effectiveness to Brands+ and customer teams.

Lead Expert for Consumer & Customer Tends for Sales, Support Strategic Sales Presentation
Development and Joint Business Planning (20%)
• Be the lead expert for syndicated data and consumer trends for the Sales team. Actively support
line reviews Customer Category reviews, and "Top to Top" meetings.
• Partner with sales in crafting analysis, and messaging for key strategic topics. Develop customer
insights based on Brand health & Household panel (Consumer Facts).
• Direct analysis of category trends for channel and customer development strategies. Support
sales with category trends for new product sell-in.
• Oversee development of integrated strategic selling presentation utilizing syndicated data,
category insights, and supporting consumer trends with recommendations to grow categories and
UNFI Brands.
• Synthesize category strategies to equip the sales team with a robust selling story supporting JBP,
category growth, and new item meetings.
• Develop persuasive content that will address customer challenges and articulate
recommendations to grow the category. Incorporate visually appealing elements such as
graphics, charts, and multimedia to enhance the presentation and make complex information
more digestible.

Develop Strategic Consumer and New Product Insights (15%)
• Deliver actionable insights from syndicated data to inform new product development, Brand
marketing planning, and Brands+ business decision-making. This might include the collection,
organization, and analysis of consumer data from sources including consumer panels, surveys,
market research reports, and social media.
• Analyze & share new product launch data and performance metrics from syndicated data
including units sold, market share, and repeat rates to assess the commercial success of the new
products. Compare the performance of Brands+ new products against established benchmarks or
similar new products in the market.
• Help provide new product forecast insights based on consumer demand trends and market
dynamics.
• Monitor industry trends, competitor activities, and cultural shifts to identify opportunities and
threats in the market landscape and share with the Brands+ team.
• Present research findings, insights, and recommendations to the Brands+ team and key
stakeholders in a clear, concise, and compelling manner

Support Brand Marketing Planning and Brand Health Tracking (15%)
• Support the development of the overall UNFI Brands+ Brand Plans and portfolio strategy by
identifying brand growth opportunities and helping influence brand strategies and innovation
plans.
• Support the development of insights into consumer behavior, attitudes, and preferences for
annual Brand Planning. This includes selecting appropriate methodologies such as surveys, focus
groups, and data analytics.
• Identify KPIs for tracking Brand Health and report on Brand vitality relative to competitive Private
Brands and National Brands.
• Provide insights based on household panel (NielsenIQ Consumer Facts) data for Brand marketing

Lead Relationships and Fully Engage with teams from NielsenIQ and SPINS (5%)
• Lead Brands+ relationship with both NielsenIQ and SPINS teams. This will include, but is not
limited to, prioritizing their projects, and collaborating with their resources to improve our pricing
and category management tools.
• Ensure data integrity and structure for how UNFI utilizes NielsenIQ's and SPINS syndicated
databases. This will include creating and maintaining extensive custom totals for categories,
segments, brands, sizes, etc.
• Support training for Brands+ team members to use NielsenIQ Discover to measure sales, pricing,
merchandising, and assortment analysis without support. conduct ad hoc analyses on their own.
• Distribute thought leadership and industry trends to the Brands+ Team to build industry
knowledge.

Miscellaneous (5%)
• Serve as category and consumer expert for Brand Marketing, PBM, Merchandising + Category
Management, and Sales teams. Provide strategies to maximize category growth and Brands+
market share.
• Where appropriate, partner with the internal market research team to uncover consumer insights
and help answer customer department/category questions.
• Staying abreast of the latest category management tools and industry best practices to
continuously improve the quality and relevance of consumer insights and category management
tools.
• Performs other relevant job duties as required.

Job Requirements:
Education/ Certifications/or Equivalent combination of education training and experience:
• Bachelor's degree in marketing or business preferred or equivalent related experience and training.
Experience:
• Minimum of 7+ years of experience in consumer insights and category management required, significant experience in the CPG
industry preferred.
• Must possess an in-depth knowledge of syndicated data tools (Circana (IRI), Nielsen, SPINS), pricing, and promotion tools.
• This position will require a proven ability to collect, organize, analyze, and interpret data to draw meaningful conclusions and
communicate recommendations in line with category and business objectives.
• Curious mindset and passion for growing the category and UNFI Brands+ business.
• Must be comfortable and quick in MS Excel and PowerPoint.
Knowledge/ Skills/ Abilities:
• Excellent oral, and written communication and excellent interpersonal skills.
• Strong quantitative analysis and proficiency with Excel & PowerPoint.
• Category Management Certification is a plus.
• Mastery of Nielsen tools and metrics.
• SPINS, Spectra, Numerator, Rakuten, and Excel tool expertise.
• Experience managing large data sets and utilizing them to drive performance and process improvements.
• Team player.
• Highly motivated/self-starter.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment and manage various projects at the same time.
• Meticulous attention to detail.
• Willingness and ability to travel a few times throughout the year.
• Some travel may be required

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status. UNFI is an Equal Opportunity employer committed to creating an inclusive and respectful environment for all. - M/F/Veteran/Disability. VEVRAA Federal Contractor.