Sr. Brand Marketing Strategy Specialist (Open to Remote)

General Summary

This position plays a key role in the development of effective and impactful marketing campaigns for DSW. They are responsible for gathering inputs & data from internal & external sources & partners, synthesizing learnings and insights in a digestible manner, developing integrated marketing strategies, and sharing with marketing partners to ensure seamless execution. In addition to contributing to campaign development, this role partners closely with the Director of Marketing Strategy to bring a thoughtful and well-informed strategic POV to key business initiatives and challenges.

Reports to:  Director Marketing Strategy

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Collect and synthesize inputs at multiple points in the buying process, extracting key insights to use in the upcoming marketing strategy
• Conduct customer research (internal & external), competitive patterning, key business insights like traffic & sales trends, seasonal hindsights, NPD data/insights, trend distortions, and retail/fashion/marketing industry trends
• Align upcoming strategic initiatives, CRM activity, and channel considerations to marketing strategy
• Use qualitative and quantitative insights to influence brand strategy, positioning, activations, and messaging
• Develop integrated seasonal marketing campaigns, messages, and activations which are grounded in key business initiatives and effectively drive revenue growth and brand awareness
• Identify strategic priorities for a given season by collaborating with senior leadership across business functions, integrating priorities into marketing campaigns and messaging
• Monitor, analyze, and measure the effectiveness of internal campaign performance and external brand competition and develop insights
• Develop intra-season campaign strategy briefs for Customer Marketing team to use in execution phase of marketing process; communicate transfer of inputs, insights, & strategies to Customer Marketing team
• Cascade seasonal strategy to remainder of department through the use of effective presentation tools
• Lead the Marketing hind-sight process to ensure we appropriately measure campaigns; responsible for gathering all relevant inputs (strategy work, creative deliverables, execution plans, and all results) and pulling together into a format that facilitates productive conversation and actionable learnings
• Identify insights and marketing ideation to the Strategy team, staying abreast of the latest trends and bringing a curious and innovative mindset to the team
• Assist in the development of Key business initiatives & special projects outside of seasonal marketing strategies

Required Skills:

• Strategic mindset with the ability to step back and see the bigger picture of a business challenge while not getting inundated with day-to-day tactics
• Visual thinker with ability to synthesize learnings into clearly digestible visual formats
• Highly organized and detailed-oriented; must possess ability to work independently and self-start with minimal direction at times
• High level of critical thinking ability and curiosity, particularly in balancing multiple projects and priorities
• Strong collaboration & communication skills as this role works with many cross-functional partners; must have the ability to build and cultivate relationships across all levels of the organization
• Strong oral, written, and visual communication skills with deep experience in presentation development
• Must have customer-first approach with ability to leverage customer insights to make decisions and guide strategy
• Must possess analytical acumen with ability to gather, digest, manipulate, & share complex data sets; proficient in Microsoft Excel

Experience:

• 4+ years of experience working in a Marketing function with a focus on strategy

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience engaging with cross-functional teams and building relationships for influence
• Retail experience preferred

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in marketing or related field