Senior Category Insights Manager

About Us: Empire Marketing Strategies has been a leader in delivering exceptional in-store execution for over 40 years, enhancing the customer experience in grocery retail. Operating in all 18 Kroger divisions across the U.S., we partner with some of the world's top brands to optimize their presence in over 2,500 store locations. Our team thrives on tackling diverse challenges in the fast-paced retail industry. We value dedication, talent, and a passion for excellence.

Why Join Us?

Flexible, M-F Work Schedule, 9 Holidays off

Earn a competitive salary plus 80% employer-covered benefits

Full-Time Associates: Eligible for medical, dental, vision, life and AD&D insurance, disability coverage, a retirement program, mental health support, paid time off, and 9 paid holidays annually.

A dynamic work environment where you’ll make a real impact.

Job Summary:

Empire Marketing Strategies is seeking an authentic and passionate Senior Category Insights Manager to join our team in the Greater Cincinnati area, focusing on our partnership with Kroger. This role involves leveraging data and insights to create compelling selling stories that drive portfolio expansion and increase retail share for clients. As a leader, you will coach team members and foster cross-functional collaboration to establish best practices in insights and category leadership. Reporting to the Director of Category Insights, you will oversee strategy development, assortment recommendations, new item presentations, and category business reviews, while organizing products both online and offline. By utilizing consumer and shopper insights, you will develop innovative solutions for mutually beneficial business growth while mentoring your colleagues.

Essential Functions:

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these essential functions:

• Strategic Category Management
• Client Partnership Development
• Team Leadership and Collaboration
• Data Analysis and Reporting

Core Functions:

• Strategic Category Management
• Establish category management defining strategies to provide the framework for customer/account specific plans focused against merchandising, product assortment, placement, pricing, and promotion online and offline.
• Serve as the category expert internally, creating compelling, actionable & measurable category plans and working collaboratively with cross-functional teams including sales, strategy, shopper marketing, and insights.
• Build comprehensive knowledge of the products, attributes, strategies, tactics, and competitive trends in the marketplace for assigned categories online and offline.

• Client Partnership Development
• Develop long-term, strategic partnerships with clients, particularly with Kroger, fostering relationships at senior levels.
• Present insights and provide strategic point of view in clients meetings as well as ad hoc discussions as applicable
• Monitor company and customer assortments, identifying opportunities for incremental business growth.

• Team Leadership and Collaboration
• Coach and train Insights Team colleagues to support their growth through best practice sharing, mentoring, and ad hoc training.
• Work effectively with Sales, Marketing, Shopper Marketing, Shopper & Consumer Insights, Brand, eCommerce, and other Category Leadership resources to establish, lead and maintain performance management including the streamlining of reporting cadences, macro assessments, and opportunity gap analysis.

• Data Analysis and Reporting
• Develop and present comprehensive, concise, and objective category reviews incorporating shopper, consumer, retailer, syndicated, and loyalty data.
• Maintain tracking and reporting of company and customer assortments to monitor progress against goals, identify incremental opportunities to drive the business.
• Provide ad-hoc category management reporting, trend analysis, customized reports, and special project work directly to internal/external leaders as necessary.
• Bring intellectual curiosity and a forward-thinking mentality to maintain awareness of market trends and retailer strategies and adjust client’s strategy accordingly.
• Keep abreast of developments and best practices in Category Management, pursue the knowledge needed to improve departmental capabilities and professional agility.

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in business, Marketing, Management, Accounting, Data Analytics, or a related field; MBA preferred.
• A minimum of 3-5 years of progressive experience in sales, category management, trade marketing, analytics, consumer, or shopper insights.
• Proven experience in leading customer engagements related to space and assortment, pricing strategy, trade promotion strategy, and omnichannel solutions.
• Experience in sales and/or analytical sales support, with a focus on face-to-face engagement with Kroger preferred.

Required Skills/Abilities:

• Ability to develop and deliver a strategic plan, measuring and monitoring results, and make recommendations to achieve growth targets through category leadership.
• Expertise in the Category Management process and proficient in syndicated and panel data as well as familiarity with pricing, promotion and assortment optimization software knowledge and experience working with customer POS data systems (experience with data sources such as Nielsen, IRI, NPD, Numerator, 84.51, dunnhumby, SPINS, Spectra/demographics).
• Experience with OnDemand, Kroger, Forecasting, and Project Management
• Ability to distill complex data into clear, compelling, actionable stories.
• Advanced Microsoft Office Suite skills (Excel, Word, and PowerPoint).
• Exceptional communication skills – verbal, written, and presentation.
• Strong planning/organizing skills; the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously and create structure and process where it does not currently exist.
• Strong understanding of industry and global/national category management and shopper insight trends, frameworks, and best practices.
• Extensive knowledge of retail merchandising and in-store execution tactics.
• Demonstrated ability to build indispensable, collaborative partnerships with retail customers and internal business partners, across functional teams.

Physical Requirements:

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.

Tools and Equipment:

• Proficiency in analytical tools and data sources (e.g., Nielsen, IRI, NPD, Numerator, 84.51, dunnhumby, SPINS, Spectra).
• Familiarity with Space Planning software and additional analytical platforms (e.g., IRI Panel, Stratum, Symphony Retail AI/EYC, Tableau, Microsoft Access).

Work Environment:

• Based in the Greater Cincinnati area, with a requirement of 4 days in the office.
• Collaborative and dynamic team environment with cross-functional engagement.

Nice to have:

• CPCM (Certified Professional Category Manager) or CPSA (Certified Professional Strategic Advisor) certification.
• Willingness to travel 10-15% of the time.
• Experience in Sales and/or analytical sales support and driving face-to-face dialogue and initiatives with Kroger a plus.
• Experience in multiple departments highly desirable.