EMEA & Digital Marketing Director

Founded in Japan in 1887, Kao is passionate about making a difference in people's lives with our high quality products and services to create a Kirei Life for all - a beautiful life that respects the needs of our consumers and customers as well as the planet. We never compromise on quality and craft our products with care for the consumer and the environment.

As a company driven by purpose and strong corporate values we pride ourselves to be listed among the World's Most Ethical Companies since 19 consecutive years. Our corporate philosophy, the Kao Way, guides us in everything we do - acting with integrity, courageously driving innovation and treating each other with trust and respect.

The Role:

We’re looking for a strategic marketing leader to define and drive the EMEA Marketing and Investment strategy for Molton Brown. This role covers the full consumer marketing funnel—Awareness, Engagement, and Conversion—across both direct (stores, outlets, digital) and indirect (Wholesale, Travel Retail, and Pure Play) channels in our key markets, with a focus on the UK and Germany.

You’ll be accountable for the marketing budget and lead teams across brand, digital, and trade marketing. In addition, you’ll oversee the Global Sales Education team, ensuring impactful consumer engagement through service development and staff training, while also providing marketing support for our UK retail operations.

What you will do:

Go to Market strategy across brand, trade and digital marketing. 

• Direct responsibility for UK and Germany Mkg budgets & US digital Mkg budget.
• Strong collaboration & influencing of the Global Mkg team to optimize the proposed global plans (NPD, assortment, VM, campaign & communication plans), based on consumer, trend and retailers insights.
• Collaboration and alignment with the Senior Manager Global Channels Marketing to ensure that the proposed Go to market strategy is applicable and relevant to global channels (affiliates and distributors).

Media investment strategy across full funnel (awareness, engagement and conversion)

• Optimizes allocation between off line and on line media channels via clearly established KPIs based on business strategy.
• Effectively and efficiently manages the allocation to earned and owned marketing to maximise impact and achieve growth targets.

Lead social media content and advocacy for the brand via earned marketing strategy.

• Defines the right mix of earned and owned content on social platforms to build awareness & engagement.
• Leads the influencer marketing strategy to drive reach and engagement of the right target audience.
• In partnership with AD, Brand & PD, optimises content strategy & briefs based on engagement & relevance by platform via clearly established KPIs.

Monitor & accelerate sell out across Retailer, .Com and UK SAS as well as retention in direct channels. 

• Best in class strategy, partnership & reactive plans with commercial stakeholders.
• Design distinctive & ownable service experiences and global staff training across Retailers, Distributors and SAS.
• Advocacy for wholesale needs with Global mkg team.
• Drive customer lifetime value in the UK and US via effective CRM strategies.

Team leadership: develop talent, optimize allocation resource, drive innovation mindset

• Responsible for 4 direct reports. Manages a team of 21.
• Responsibility covers recruitment, management, upskilling and performance management as required by business needs.

What you will need:

• Marketing degree or equivalent
• 15+ year-experience working in a Global omnichannel business in a brand marketing role.
• Proven experience successfully leading teams across all marketing specialism: Trade Marketing, Digital Marketing and Brand Marketing.
• Demonstrable experience successfully optimizing & allocating a marketing budget across Brand and Conversion, with clear measures of accountability.
• Proven ability to think smartly and out of the box to disproportionately drive earned media, and thereby multiply the impact of owned media within a limited budget.
• Show clear commercial acumen and ability to drive win/win plans with commercial partners across retail or wholesale/Pure play partners.
• Experience of retail, beauty, luxury or premium drinks industry
• Ability to translate brand vision into actionable go-to-market strategies and adapt them to evolving market dynamics.
• Strong understanding of retail dynamics, channel management, and P&L levers with the ability to identify growth opportunities and optimize investment strategies.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills to effectively collaborate with cross-functional teams, influence stakeholders, and drive alignment.
• Proficiency in analysing data and leveraging insights to inform strategic decisions and optimize campaign performance.
• Proven ability to lead, motivate, and develop high-performing teams to achieve ambitious goals.

Molton Brown is part of Kao founded in Japan in 1887, Kao is passionate about making a difference in people's lives with our high-quality products and services to create a Kirei Life for all - a beautiful life that respects the needs of our consumers and customers as well as the planet. Our corporate philosophy, the Kao Way, guides us in everything we do - acting with integrity, courageously driving innovation and treating each other with trust and respect.

How we work: Having been selected among the World's Most Ethical Companies for 19 consecutive years, we are a company with a purpose and strong corporate values. We never compromise on quality and craft our products with care for the consumer and the environment. At Kao, each employee can actively shape their job and their career. We work collaboratively to achieve our common goals, always aiming to deliver the best for our customers.

Hiring Process: Kao embraces the diversity and the individual personalities of its people because we believe it is diversity that makes us strong. This is why we welcome applications from all areas of the global community.

Want to learn more:If you feel you are as unique as our products and want to find out why 33,000 people across the globe opted for a career with us please visit https://www.kao.com/emea/en/

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