Category Analyst, Grocery South

Job Description:

This role's primary purpose is to serve as a trusted, category growth-driving partner to Grocery retailers by delivering fact-based insights and category solutions that drive mutually beneficial category growth. The position works closely with customer management to drive alignment and execution against category and brand strategies through the leadership of category management initiatives. This role delivers strategic shopper, category, and market insights relevant to each retailer's unique environment and evolving business conditions, helping customers grow the total category while advancing Mars Snacking’s Category Leadership objectives.

Building and maintaining strong internal and external relationships is critical to success in this role.

• Build and maintain strong relationships both internally and externally; internally co-creating and collaborating with Sales to drive growth strategies, externally driving alignment and execution against category growth solutions within the assigned retailers.
• Provide analysis and make decisions on a variety of projects within the Category Leadership team:
• Develop Category Insights Reviews that deliver mutual value and growth
• Shelving excellence strategies that drive total category performance
• Development of JDA POGs, across multiple business segments depending on project scope
• Assortment optimization and incrementality
• Price/Promotion efficiencies
• Merchandising effectiveness
• Develop category recommendations through analysis of syndicated data, shopper insights, retailer POS data, and marketplace trends.
• Nielsen/IRI/Syndicated Data sources for analyses
• Space management initiatives such as JDA for merchandising visualization and space layout recommendations
• Forecasting tools, both seasonal and everyday based on price/promotion/distribution
• Create and maintain scalable tools, reports, scorecards, and templates that improve decision-making and organizational efficiency.
• Analyze category, shopper, and competitive trends to identify opportunities that accelerate category growth.
• Support annual customer planning and strategic initiatives by translating insights into actionable recommendations.
• Manage multiple projects and priorities while serving as a trusted category expert for assigned customers.
• Functional and technical expertise and primarily deliver results through themselves. Achieve goals by applying expert knowledge to make decisions and to influence others.

• Work collaboratively with external and internal partners to develop and activate growth tactics and strategies for the Confectionery, Salty Snacks, and overall Treats & Snacks categories; develop, communicate, and implement customer penetration plans for all assigned retailers and/or distributors, plus collaborate and support peer development and account coverage.
• Utilize category tools and resources to bring solid category insights to the buyer. Tools include, but are not limited to the following: IRI, Nielsen Scan and Panel databases, space management software (JDA), market research findings from CMI, Kantar etc.
• Identify creative and improved approaches to category management which will lead to sustainable category growth. Solutions should apply to assortment (everyday/promotional), placement and everyday shelving and merchandising, pricing (everyday/promotional), promotions and seasonal merchandising; macro level store space allocation and designs, channel trends, solutions should rely upon resources such as shopper and category insights, and Category Vision, etc.
• Provide shelf layout and assortment planning insights inclusive of evaluating assortment opportunities within the customer and the general market, perform space to sales analyses, recommend…