CUSTOMER MARKETING MANAGER (Wine Jobs: Sales & Marketing)

  Enotria&Coe

  Park Royal,London, England

Enotria&Coe is the UK’s leading premium wine and spirits distributor, with sales of 40m bottles per annum to a huge range of customers across the country and internationally. The company in its current state was formed in Feb 2016 when Enotria (a premium wine distributor) purchased and merged with Coe Vintners (a premium spirits wholesaler). Under its current Private Equity ownership the business has undergone a significant transformation over the last three years and has been investing heavily in new systems and people.

E&C sells 2,500 SKUs of wines and spirits to about 4,000 independent on-trade customers (restaurants, gastro pubs, bars, etc) as well as many major pub and restaurant chains and all the major supermarkets and wine shops.

We are looking for an engaging and experienced trade marketer with a deep understanding of the premium and mainstream on-trade to lead our customer-focused marketing activity. The successful candidate will be confident building our strategic approach to customer marketing, will have the drive and passion to make it happen, and will be comfortable working hands-on with our sales team and customers to bring it to life.

The Customer Marketing Manager is responsible for working with customers to bring their drinks category to life. You will build and drive a tailored value-adding service across every channel where there is potential to grow sustainable profitability – with the aim to make Enotria&Coe the ‘go to’ wine and spirits supplier in each sector.

You will understand the key triggers to success in each channel ensuring that every aspect of our service is aligned to these, that best practice is translated across channels in a relevant way and that a market leading package of initiatives is devised for each channel and customer.

You will also manage our customer training department, a team of two trainers who deliver WSET plus our award-winning in-house training course.

Duties:

• Identify and understand the dynamics of the UK routes / channels to market and define the opportunity in each
• Use insight to meet the needs of these customers and the market trends to then shape the channel, category and marketing plans to deliver to these channels and to existing and new customers
• Devise and manage the annual Channel Plans – together with the Sales Directors – that will deliver E&C’s strategic plans
• Know who our key customers are in order to drive their business. Go in with the Account Manager to propose an Account plan for the year showing how we will grow their business based on their list shaped by us, building and executing an account plan based on promotional drives including staff incentives, trips, producer activity, consumer days, tailored product offerings etc.
• Proactively drive all our value-added services where relevant.
• Have a strong understanding of our overall Marketing Strategy & our key brands & help to drive these in market. Work closely with Brand Managers on driving certain brands utilising available marketing budgets.
• Initiate & create great partnerships between key accounts & focus brands as “Lighthouse accounts” where there is a synergy between both
• Contribute to New Business Tenders & present the Marketing activity to the prospect at the pitch.
• Have a direct relationship with our key customers so they have a strong understanding of their business and how we can continue to help them grow this.
• Spend a significant amount of time in the field acting as the conduit between customers and the Marketing team.
• Feedback on any up & coming trends or the needs of the customer and champion these within the team.
• Proactively drive key parts of the portfolio – powerhouse brands, icons but also exclusive parcels etc. (dependent on the outlet type & channel)
• Work closely with the Communications Manager to ensure all customer-marketing communication is relevant & engaging.
• Identify the key door openers in each channel and focus activity accordingly working with the Portfolio Marketing Manager, Brand Managers and the Buying team to drive the right ranging and promotions in each
• Detail and produce the tool kit required for each channel; be it supporting literature / PoS / promotions / tasting stock / tailored presentations etc.
• Brief key initiatives to the sales teams and communicate effectively with them to ensure that everything is tracked, reported on and assessed.
• Have overall responsibility for the Training department and develop the plans that keep this area market-leading for the business.
• Manage a team of 2 – the Wine & Spirits Trainers – and be responsible for their development plus setting and helping them obtain their KPIs.
• Oversee the budget for the Channel team division within the Marketing budget.
• Be a role model for the Company values.

The ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate:

• Minimum 5 years experience in a marketing role
• Experience working in the drinks/wine industry
• First-hand experience of premium and mainstream on-trade customer marketing
• Understnading of category maangement principles
• A multi-discipline approach to marketing
• Managed significant initiatives in creating and managing marketing programmes into trade channels
• People management experience
• Excellent communication skills
• Collaborative
• Strong organisational skills
• Ability to multi-task
• Commercial awareness
• Highly customer focused
• Innovative
• A WSET qualification is highly desirable