Customer Strategy & Planning Manager - Beauty & Wellbeing

Customer Strategy & Planning Manager - Beauty & Wellbeing

ABOUT UNILEVER

With 3.4 billion people in over 190 countries using our products every day, Unilever is a business that makes a real impact on the world. Work on brands that are loved and improve the lives of our consumers and the communities around us. We are driven by our purpose: to make sustainable living commonplace, and it is our belief that doing business the right way drives superior performance. At the heart of what we do is our people – we believe that when our people work with purpose, we will create a better business and a better world. 

At Unilever, your career will be a unique journey, grounded in our inclusive, collaborative, and flexible working environment. We don’t believe in the ‘one size fits all’ approach and instead we will equip you with the tools you need to shape your own future.

CATEGORY

Beauty & Wellbeing ITALY is one of Unilever’s five Business Groups, it is transforming its operations to become a more consumer-led beauty business, focusing on category growth through Purpose, Science, and Desire. Our exciting journey to growth will come with its share of challenges. We plan to focus on premiumization, make strategic choices in demand spaces, excel in execution, build strong digital capabilities, and expand in disruptive channels. 

Achieving these bold ambitions requires a start-up mentality, agility, discipline and an owner’s mindset, fostering a beauty culture from within. 

With the strength of our amazing brands, we look forward to welcoming talented individuals like you to make this journey memorable! 

JOB PURPOSE

Customer Development (CD) is what we call our Sales organization at Unilever. Customer Development works closely with our customers to pioneer new products, build categories, and best deploy best-in-class retail and shopper capabilities.

This role directly supports the commercial leadership of the Beauty & Wellbeing category in Italy.

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Develop and execute channel and category plans for B&W to achieve commercial objectives across a multi-channel customer base (including price list definition, promotional strategy, cost plans, and monitoring).

• Build plans to gain market share in black and white.
• Lead through NRM levers and own the necessary plans to comply with the Commercial Investment Framework with the CDB teams.
• Conduct in-depth market and territory analysis to identify trends, consumption habits, and opportunities, using collected data to provide insights to the internal team and clients, to optimize commercial marketing strategies and maximize return on investment.
• Design and implement creative and effective trade marketing initiatives, in line with commercial objectives and client strategies, including, for example, promotions, visual merchandising activities, incentive programs, joint marketing.
• Coordinate the execution of trade marketing initiatives, ensuring they are correctly and timely implemented in stores. Collaborate with the internal team and external suppliers to ensure full execution of planned activities, constantly monitoring results and making necessary adjustments.
• Represent the Customer and Channel in the S&OP Process.

ALL ABOUT YOU

Experiences & Qualifications

• Prior experience in Trade Marketing and/or Category Management within the FMCG (Fast-Moving Consumer Goods) sector – mandatory.
• Preferential qualification will be considered for experience in sales and management of large-scale retail.

Skills

• Ability to develop and execute commercial and channel strategies.
• Experience in Net Revenue Management.
• Ability to analyze commercial opportunities and propose solutions across the 6Ps.
• Knowledge of performance management and S&OP processes.
• Ability to manage senior stakeholders across CD and Business Unit.
• Proficiency in Office tools, Nielsen, Power BI.
• Strong analytical mindset, problem-solving skills, and goal orientation.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to work in cross-functional teams.
• Fluent in English.

Key UL Behaviours 

1. Care Deeply: For our people development, and with full attention to details to make our Brands Unmissably Superior. 

2.  Focus con What counts: Become and executional Machine on our Innovation Bets in strategic Channels. 

3. Stay 3 steps ahead: In partnership with our customers plan at least one year in advance to brilliantly execute our plans. 

4. Deliver with Excellence: To understand the blockers and find the alternatives.

Unilever is an organisation committed to equity, inclusion and diversity to drive our business results and create a better future, every day, for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business. At Unilever we are interested in every individual bringing their ‘Whole Self’ to work and this includes you! Thus if you require any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of your application so that we can support you through your recruitment journey.