Senior Brand Manager at Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream

Are you looking to catapult your career by driving high-impact transformation with household brands? Do you crave an entrepreneurial, fast paced and engaging growth assignment working with incredible people from across the globe?

At Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, we are excited to start a new chapter of accelerated growth as part of Froneri – a global pure-play ice cream leader. With nearly 100 years of winning experience in the U.S, a robust portfolio of powerhouse brands that consumers know and love such as Häagen-Dazs, Drumstick, Outshine, Dreyer’s & Edy’s, and the backing and coaching of European-based ice cream experts, we know we have the winning recipe.

Headquartered in Walnut Creek, the Bay Area’s hub for up-and-coming food trends, our DGIC team across our offices and factories is raising the bar on all things ice cream. Our growth has been tremendous in the past few years – moving from being #2 manufacturer in market to being #1 in 2024. The brands have strong investments in marketing support, quality improvements and exciting line extensions and innovation. DGIC has also been recognized by retail partners as the top manufacturer partner, winning the #1 position in the prestigious Advantage Award in 2024.

Importantly – what does it mean for our marketing talent? As part of our talented Marketing Team, you will see why we drive such strong business growth – it’s how we do our work. What you can expect as part of our Marketing team:

• Ownership of your projects
• Fast decision making
• Access to the leadership team on a regular basis
• Deep understanding of what it takes to make our incredible ice cream with factory visits, flavor camps (when we develop new flavors), factory trials and more
• Participation and involvement across marketing campaigns, from product shoots to sampling events to commercial production and more
• Oh, and did we say free ice cream?

Unleash your potential at Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream and discover what a sweet career we have in store for you.

Main Purpose of Job:

Be the brand champion for a brand within the organization to drive key activities in support of profitable brand sales and market share growth with a multi-year perspective. Demonstrate proactive leadership and ownership end-to-end with a business owner mindset across every aspect of the job; exhibit a generalist/strategic mindset in every project and interaction.

• Own and lead brand activities across all facets of the business as an advocate for the consumer.
• Partner cross functionally on the development and execution of strong category sales stories and retailer partnerships for Research and Development/New Product Development.
• Oversee execution & optimization of commercial plan. Responsibility for leading quality benchmarking across commercial team.

Measurable Outcomes

1. Deliver brand sales / margin targets
2. Achieve brand share targets
3. Brand Health through relevant scorecard
4. Deep segment understanding
5. NPD Launch performance/ Consumer acceptance
6. Budget spend/management
7. Benchmarking
8. Financial acumen related to the product
9. Product quality – complaint levels, ratings and reviews, repeats, customer feedback
10. Ice cream knowledge

Levels of responsibility

1. Ownership of brand business KPIs
2. New Product Development Launch Acceptance
3. Communication execution
4. Executional oversight of budget

Role and Activity

Brand Stewardship

1. Partner with Brand Director to develop and drive brand strategy to achieve budget sales & market share
2. Partner with sales to optimize the trade & pricing strategy and recommend the launch support program for new items
3. Relentlessly examine performance, optimize and prioritize all demand generation levers to support short term and long-term business success
4. Lead and own deep understanding of weekly brand KPIs with a focus on action/course correction
5. Develop deep understanding of key competitors in our segment & their actions (year-round). Recommend plan optimizations based on learnings
6. Oversee brand with deep understanding, spending savvy, attention to detail and optimization mindset
7. Deep understanding of brand and shopper
8. Lead and sell-in aspects of the brand plan to management, cross-functional partners and external stakeholders

Quality:

1. Regular focus on quality benchmarking against competitors with total commercial team - with a bias for action
2. Advocate and act on quality opportunities across all parts of the consumer experience, collaborating with factory and NPD teams. Factory in-person visits and collaboration as needed.
3. Advocate and drive constant support of CRQS across all consumer product experiences. Have deep understanding of quality complaints and drive required actions

Innovation:

1. Drive new product ideation and development in line with brand strategy & relevant consumer insights
2. Partner cross functionally to create strong category / retailer story to sell in New Products
3. Partner with key cross-functional teams to lead & commercialize key New Product projects on time

Communications:

1. Embrace the consumer and ensure our brands are resonating in the market
2. Work with lead agencies to develop and implement communication plans across all touchpoints. Own day-to-day agency and cross-functional team management, strategy, planning, execution and results measurement. Ensure brand consistency across all communication areas.
3. Relentlessly examine campaign performance and optimize to ensure we achieve sales and share goals
4. Practice benchmarking across all areas of marketing (vendors, packaging agencies, printing, etc.) with buy better mindset
5. Lead packaging design and implementation as needed for renovation, innovation, quality improvements
6. Partner with Omni-channel team to support brand activities in key retailer programs

Leadership:

1. Ensure your team members are appropriately informed to do their jobs. Know your people to optimize work for performance.
2. Develop direct report to ensure strong performance and capabilities for a generalist mindset – with a focus on deeper product understanding, costing and quality standards.
3. Have the mindset of continuous improvement for yourself, your direct reports and broader team
4. Be proactive in driving complexity out of processes / ways of working to drive for quicker/better decision making.

CORE VALUES

ENTREPRENEURIAL

We passionately look beyond accepted practices to find new ways to improve our business and excite the market.

PERFORMANCE

We understand what drives value in our business and strive to be the best we can whilst upholding high ethical standards.

CONSUMER FOCUSSED

We know who our consumers are, what they want and we provide the best experience.

ACCOUNTABILITY

We commit to do what we say we will do. We are encouraged to express our opinions and we are proactive and accountable for our own actions.

TEAMWORK

We recognize the greater value created by people working together to deliver superior results for the whole company. We treat each other with respect

Key Experiences: What experiences are key to success in this job?

• 5+ years of experience as Brand Manager preferred
• Experience leading base business initiatives and long-term innovation
• Traditional CPG experience Preferred including familiarity with IRI / Nielsen data and New Product Development
• People Management experience strongly preferred
• MBA is not required and not preferred
• Undergrad in a relevant field preferred

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

This role is based in Walnut Creek, CA. The pay range for this role is $160,000–$180,000 per year, depending on experience.