VP, Kinder Bueno

Job Location: ​Parsippany​

Company description

Ferrero is a family-owned company with a truly progressive and global outlook and iconic brands such as Nutella®, Tic Tac®, Ferrero Rocher®, Raffaello®, Kinder Bueno® and Kinder Surprise®. As the love for our brands continues to grow, so too does our global reach. Represented in more than 50 countries, with products sold in more than 170, the Ferrero Group is loved by generations around the world. The secret to our global success? 40,000  dedicated employees who celebrate care and quality to craft a business, careers and brands we are proud of. Join us, and you could be one of them.

About the Role:

As the Vice President of Kinder, you will play a pivotal role in driving the growth and success of our iconic global Kinder snacks brands. In this role, you will oversee market research to inform growth strategies, develop strategic plans for leadership, and create business cases for new product launches. You'll engage consumers through cultural tentpoles, lead marketing execution, and manage creative, media, and PR agencies. Financial oversight includes managing P&L and optimizing costs. You'll align with Sales for brand management, contribute to sales forecasting, and leverage local capacity for Kinder Bueno projects. Additionally, you'll develop seasonal strategies, report performance to leadership, and lead the Brand team.

Your mission in this role will be to:

• Grow the Kinder Brand: Elevate Kinder to become the consolidated #3 brand in the highly competitive confectionery market.
• Accelerate Kinder Bueno: Propel Kinder Bueno's growth as a premium snacking brand, known for its unique, tasteful, and multi-textural experience.
• Consolidate Kinder Chocolate: Establish Kinder Chocolate as a fundamental key pillar, embedding its creamy taste as a signature of the Kinder masterbrand.
• Lead Marketing Strategy: Develop and execute comprehensive marketing strategies for both brands, leveraging major cultural tentpoles.
• Innovate and Launch: Define and co-lead with Product Group (PG) the development, testing, and execution of future Kinder confectionery sub-brands and products to achieve long-term ambitions

Main Responsibilities:

• Lead the US marketing strategy and plans of Kinder Bueno and Kinder Chocolate, and future snacks portfolio, implementing consistent global brand vision with the relevant and differentiated US positioning, enabling accelerated growth and ensuring profitable business model serving the 1bn Kinder Ambition we have in the US.
• Work with other VP Kinder Joy and Seasonal to manage the Kinder Masterbrand approach, find synergies and drive differentiation inside the House of Kinder brands> Contribute with KB and KC to leverage on the key cultural moments in American life (seasonal occasions and tentpole)
• High interface with Global brand teams to coordinate efforts to follow-up on US needs on portfolio brand strategy, activity grid and innovation development in a balanced Local-Global perspective.
• Supervise business and marketing-mix performance, brand health and consumer/shopper trends to find valuable insights and growth opportunities in strong collaboration with Trade Marketing and Sales team.
• Lead the development of projects that will leverage on unique opportunity of local Bloomington industrial Kinder Bueno line 
• Guide specific projects like planning process and snacks innovation for the Kinder future development in confectionary

People Management: 

• Lead a team of 7 managers for Kinder Bueno, Kinder Chocolate and Kinder Innovation
• Responsibility for cross-functional team with 10+ associates

Who we are looking for:

• Master’s degree preferably in business/economics/marketing 
• 10-15-year experience in Brand Marketing, people management experience, past experience in similar size roles
• Passionate about brands & marketing
• High drive, energy, & creative 
• Good impact and influence skills
• Strong communication skills & team player
• Highly adaptive to dynamic changing environments and flexible to work in complex matrix organization
• Strategic thinking 
• Strong experience in working on Equity building and in communication development (media and creative) and managing creative agencies
• Very good knowledge of US trade context and shopper/category sensitivity
• High sensitivity to marketing to parents, kids and to millennials insights with strong knowledge of cultural moments in American life

How to be successful in the role and at Ferrero:

Consumers, quality and care are at the heart of everything we do. So, to be successful at Ferrero, you’ll need to be just as consumer and product centric as we are - dedicated to crafting brilliant results for consumers around the world. 

Diversity Statement

Ferrero is committed to building a diverse and inclusive culture in which all employees feel welcomed and appreciated and have the same opportunities. We believe all of our people are equally talented in their own way. In nurturing the curiosity and natural abilities of our employees, we provide them, generation after generation, the means to succeed personally and professionally, enabling them to craft their journey at Ferrero. The diversity of our talents is what makes our work environment multicultural, innovative and highly rewarding.

Ferrero N.A. provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics.