At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead category strategy and drive brand growth with major retailers.
- Company: Join NestlΓ©, a global leader in nutrition with over 155 years of experience.
- Benefits: Enjoy hybrid working, an attractive salary, bonuses, and fantastic perks.
- Why this job: Be at the forefront of commercial strategy, making a real impact on consumer lives.
- Qualifications: Previous category or commercial experience is essential; FMCG experience is a plus.
- Other info: We champion diversity and inclusion; all backgrounds are encouraged to apply.
The predicted salary is between 43200 - 72000 Β£ per year.
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Business Area: Nestlé Nutrition
Customer Category Manager
Location: Gatwick (Hybrid working – approx. 2 flexible days a week in the office)
Attractive Salary + potential bonus + other fantastic benefits
Championing diversity and inclusion is so important to us; when we embrace different perspectives and give everyone the chance to be the best they can be, we can think in new, creative ways that grow and enhance our business.
At Nestlé, we are proud to support and provide equality of opportunity that supports employees to effectively blend their work life and commitments through hybrid and flexible working arrangements, so speak to us to understand what this could look like for you.
Position Summary
We have a fantastic opportunity for a Customer Category Manager to join our Nutrition Commercial Development team. This is an exciting and pivotal role in the team that will see you develop, manage and execute our customer category plans working in partnership with our major multiple customers. We are looking for an experienced commercial or category professional who has the ability to always ‘put the category first’ ensuring we operate as a real impartial strategic partner to our customers. What’s key is that we deliver value added insight that drives category growth for the long term with our customers.
A little bit about us
For more than 155 years, our Nutrition products have been welcomed into homes around the world, and our long history has established us as the nutritional partner of choice for families and individuals.
We provide a wide range of products and services across every life stage – from newborn to adult – to support lifelong health and well-being for all. Grounded in our deep understanding of today\’s nutritional challenges and the link between food and health, we leverage our R&D expertise to offer tasty and balanced diets which cater to the different needs of mothers, babies, young children, teens and adults.
Together with like-minded partners, we will continue to be there for everyone, every day, at every stage of life.
Our ecosystem has continued to evolve, with new partnerships to help consumers connect with our brands, and our social platforms provide invaluable support, information, fun and connection for our consumers.
A day in the life of a Customer Category Manager…
As Customer Category Manager, you\’ll be at the intersection of commercial strategy and brand growth, driving category initiatives and brand innovation that helps the lives of millions of consumers.
Every day brings fresh challenges and opportunities as you orchestrate our category vision across major retailers. You\’ll partner with marketing teams to transform category & consumer insights into compelling category strategies for our brands that unlock incremental category growth for retailers. Building credibility and trust with retail partners will be key to enabling a collaborative partnership so that you can bring these plans to life at point of purchase.
You will be responsible for developing and deploying tailored channel and category plans at a customer level, including point of purchase solutions to deliver overall category growth resulting in market share growth for Nestlé, whilst ensuring impartiality with the customer.
You will also:
- Lead category strategy development for some of the UK\’s largest retailers
- Build and nurture key stakeholder relationships across the business & externally with customers
- Drive the category rationale and sell in story for Nestlé innovation and be a driving force to determine how our brands show up in store
- Build great external relationship by being the first port of call and a trusted source for Buying/Merchandising Teams relating to any category questions, insight and recommendations
- Execute Nestlé Category Strategy, personalisation of the Category Strategy to meet the retailer’s needs and generate engagement and commitment.
- Successfully execute the category drivers for the channel within your customer via the delivery of the point of purchase (POP) Vision, through adjacency and flow recommendations to retailers at range reviews and throughout the year.
- Deliver best in class insight, engaging retailers with promotional insight to influence the effective use of promotions, developing and implementing best in class examples of latest online and in store executions.
- Have a deep understanding of the role of the shopper within your customer.
- Lead the Category agenda within the integrated commercial planning (ICP) process, ensuring our internal plans are fit for purpose for our Customers.
- Closely monitor industry and competitor activity, to ensure our strategic commercial vision is in line with market demands in a constantly changing, competitive environment that we work in.
What will make you successful
While previous category or commercial experience is essential (FMCG experience is a plus), what truly matters is your ability to influence, engage, and deliver results. You will be passionate, tenacious, results focused and enjoy working in a highly energetic and exciting environment. Acting as an ambassador for our Nestlé brands, you will have commercial capability and have experience of influencing across all levels internally and externally, ideally within a matrix structure.
The ideal candidate will bring:
- Sharp commercial instincts backed by strong analytical capabilities
- Proven ability to spot opportunities in data and turn them into compelling business opportunities
- Track record of building strong relationships and influencing at all levels
- Talent for navigating ambiguity and spotting the opportunity in difficult situations
- Experience in creating and selling category plans that retailers want to execute
We\’re looking for someone who gets energized by understanding the \’why\’ behind shopper behaviour and isn\’t afraid to challenge the status quo. You\’ll need to be equally comfortable diving into data, presenting to senior stakeholders, and collaborating across teams to drive change.
Most importantly, you\’ll bring fresh thinking and the courage to disrupt – always with the end goal of driving category growth through our brands.
What you need to know
We will be considering and interviewing candidates as they apply and we will occasionally close job advertisements early in the event we receive sufficient applicants, so please don’t delay in submitting your application.
At Nestlé, our values are rooted in respect. When we embrace diversity and give everyone the chance to be the best they can be, we can think in new, creative ways that grow and enhance our business. People of all gender identities, ethnically diverse individuals, people with disabilities, and members of the LGBT+ community are strongly encouraged to apply. If there is anything we can do to accommodate you to participate fully in the application process, please let us know. We take pride in championing inclusion and diversity, our people make up a number of Colleague Networks who represent different experiences and communities who hold us accountable in creating a sense of belonging for all, and our values create the conditions for us to respect the unique contribution you bring. Find out more about our Colleague Networks here: Diversity, equity and inclusion | Nestlé (nestle.co.uk)
We are committed to equal opportunity for all and we may collect relevant data for monitoring purposes during our candidate registration process. Be yourself, everyone else is taken!
Position Snapshot
Business Area: Nestlé Nutrition
Customer Category Manager
Location: Gatwick (Hybrid working – approx. 2 flexible days a week in the office)
Attractive Salary + potential bonus + other fantastic benefits
Championing diversity and inclusion is so important to us; when we embrace different perspectives and give everyone the chance to be the best they can be, we can think in new, creative ways that grow and enhance our business.
At Nestlé, we are proud to support and provide equality of opportunity that supports employees to effectively blend their work life and commitments through hybrid and flexible working arrangements, so speak to us to understand what this could look like for you.
Position Summary
We have a fantastic opportunity for a Customer Category Manager to join our Nutrition Commercial Development team. This is an exciting and pivotal role in the team that will see you develop, manage and execute our customer category plans working in partnership with our major multiple customers. We are looking for an experienced commercial or category professional who has the ability to always ‘put the category first’ ensuring we operate as a real impartial strategic partner to our customers. What’s key is that we deliver value added insight that drives category growth for the long term with our customers.
A little bit about us
For more than 155 years, our Nutrition products have been welcomed into homes around the world, and our long history has established us as the nutritional partner of choice for families and individuals.
We provide a wide range of products and services across every life stage – from newborn to adult – to support lifelong health and well-being for all. Grounded in our deep understanding of today\’s nutritional challenges and the link between food and health, we leverage our R&D expertise to offer tasty and balanced diets which cater to the different needs of mothers, babies, young children, teens and adults.
Together with like-minded partners, we will continue to be there for everyone, every day, at every stage of life.
Our ecosystem has continued to evolve, with new partnerships to help consumers connect with our brands, and our social platforms provide invaluable support, information, fun and connection for our consumers.
A day in the life of a Customer Category Manager…
As Customer Category Manager, you\’ll be at the intersection of commercial strategy and brand growth, driving category initiatives and brand innovation that helps the lives of millions of consumers.
Every day brings fresh challenges and opportunities as you orchestrate our category vision across major retailers. You\’ll partner with marketing teams to transform category & consumer insights into compelling category strategies for our brands that unlock incremental category growth for retailers. Building credibility and trust with retail partners will be key to enabling a collaborative partnership so that you can bring these plans to life at point of purchase.
You will be responsible for developing and deploying tailored channel and category plans at a customer level, including point of purchase solutions to deliver overall category growth resulting in market share growth for Nestlé, whilst ensuring impartiality with the customer.
You will also:
- Lead category strategy development for some of the UK\’s largest retailers
- Build and nurture key stakeholder relationships across the business & externally with customers
- Drive the category rationale and sell in story for Nestlé innovation and be a driving force to determine how our brands show up in store
- Build great external relationship by being the first port of call and a trusted source for Buying/Merchandising Teams relating to any category questions, insight and recommendations
- Execute Nestlé Category Strategy, personalisation of the Category Strategy to meet the retailer’s needs and generate engagement and commitment.
- Successfully execute the category drivers for the channel within your customer via the delivery of the point of purchase (POP) Vision, through adjacency and flow recommendations to retailers at range reviews and throughout the year.
- Deliver best in class insight, engaging retailers with promotional insight to influence the effective use of promotions, developing and implementing best in class examples of latest online and in store executions.
- Have a deep understanding of the role of the shopper within your customer.
- Lead the Category agenda within the integrated commercial planning (ICP) process, ensuring our internal plans are fit for purpose for our Customers.
- Closely monitor industry and competitor activity, to ensure our strategic commercial vision is in line with market demands in a constantly changing, competitive environment that we work in.
What will make you successful
While previous category or commercial experience is essential (FMCG experience is a plus), what truly matters is your ability to influence, engage, and deliver results. You will be passionate, tenacious, results focused and enjoy working in a highly energetic and exciting environment. Acting as an ambassador for our Nestlé brands, you will have commercial capability and have experience of influencing across all levels internally and externally, ideally within a matrix structure.
The ideal candidate will bring:
- Sharp commercial instincts backed by strong analytical capabilities
- Proven ability to spot opportunities in data and turn them into compelling business opportunities
- Track record of building strong relationships and influencing at all levels
- Talent for navigating ambiguity and spotting the opportunity in difficult situations
- Experience in creating and selling category plans that retailers want to execute
We\’re looking for someone who gets energized by understanding the \’why\’ behind shopper behaviour and isn\’t afraid to challenge the status quo. You\’ll need to be equally comfortable diving into data, presenting to senior stakeholders, and collaborating across teams to drive change.
Most importantly, you\’ll bring fresh thinking and the courage to disrupt – always with the end goal of driving category growth through our brands.
What you need to know
We will be considering and interviewing candidates as they apply and we will occasionally close job advertisements early in the event we receive sufficient applicants, so please don’t delay in submitting your application.
At Nestlé, our values are rooted in respect. When we embrace diversity and give everyone the chance to be the best they can be, we can think in new, creative ways that grow and enhance our business. People of all gender identities, ethnically diverse individuals, people with disabilities, and members of the LGBT+ community are strongly encouraged to apply. If there is anything we can do to accommodate you to participate fully in the application process, please let us know. We take pride in championing inclusion and diversity, our people make up a number of Colleague Networks who represent different experiences and communities who hold us accountable in creating a sense of belonging for all, and our values create the conditions for us to respect the unique contribution you bring. Find out more about our Colleague Networks here: Diversity, equity and inclusion | Nestlé (nestle.co.uk)
We are committed to equal opportunity for all and we may collect relevant data for monitoring purposes during our candidate registration process. Be yourself, everyone else is taken!
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Customer Category Manager employer: Nestlé SA
Contact Detail:
Nestlé SA Recruiting Team
StudySmarter Expert Advice π€«
We think this is how you could land Customer Category Manager
β¨Tip Number 1
Familiarise yourself with the latest trends in the FMCG sector, especially within nutrition. Understanding current market dynamics and consumer behaviour will help you engage effectively during interviews and demonstrate your knowledge of the industry.
β¨Tip Number 2
Network with professionals in the category management field. Attend industry events or join relevant online forums to connect with others who can provide insights or even referrals that could enhance your application.
β¨Tip Number 3
Prepare to discuss specific examples of how you've successfully influenced stakeholders in previous roles. Highlighting your ability to build relationships and drive results will resonate well with the hiring team at NestlΓ©.
β¨Tip Number 4
Research NestlΓ©'s values and recent initiatives, particularly around diversity and inclusion. Being able to articulate how your personal values align with theirs can set you apart as a candidate who truly fits their culture.
We think you need these skills to ace Customer Category Manager
Some tips for your application π«‘
Tailor Your CV: Make sure your CV highlights relevant experience in category management and commercial strategy. Use keywords from the job description to demonstrate that you understand the role and its requirements.
Craft a Compelling Cover Letter: In your cover letter, express your passion for the role and the company. Share specific examples of how your previous experience aligns with the responsibilities of a Customer Category Manager, particularly in driving category growth and building relationships.
Showcase Analytical Skills: Since the role requires strong analytical capabilities, include examples of how you've used data to drive business decisions or identify opportunities in past roles. This will show that you can bring valuable insights to the team.
Highlight Relationship Building: Emphasise your ability to build and nurture relationships with stakeholders. Provide examples of successful collaborations with retailers or internal teams that led to positive outcomes, showcasing your interpersonal skills.
How to prepare for a job interview at Nestlé SA
β¨Understand the Role
Make sure you have a solid grasp of what a Customer Category Manager does. Familiarise yourself with the key responsibilities outlined in the job description, such as developing category plans and building relationships with retail partners.
β¨Showcase Your Analytical Skills
Prepare to discuss your analytical capabilities and how you've used data to drive business decisions in the past. Be ready to provide examples of how you've spotted opportunities in data and turned them into successful strategies.
β¨Demonstrate Relationship-Building Skills
Highlight your experience in building strong relationships with stakeholders. Be prepared to share specific examples of how you've influenced others and collaborated effectively, especially in a matrix structure.
β¨Embrace Diversity and Inclusion
Since the company values diversity and inclusion, be ready to discuss how you can contribute to this culture. Share any experiences you have that demonstrate your commitment to these values and how they can enhance team dynamics.