Brand Manager at Circle K Salary $61,000-$90,000

Job description

• Overall responsibility of company's brand image and identity.
• Development and coordination of advertising campaigns with external marketing and branding consultants, as well as art designers, copywriters, media buyers and printers while meeting brand standards.
• Coordination of launch programs internally and externally.
• Plan, negotiate and develop effective mass advertising campaigns both traditional and digital to achieve sales objectives.
• Oversee digital and social media platforms including content creation, publishing, and monitoring as well as the production of in-store POP.
• Initiate quantitative and qualitative market research studies and analyzed findings.
• Generate and manage the advertising budget.
• Market trend monitoring and research.
• Maintain professional and technical knowledge by attending educational workshops; reviewing professional publications; establishing personal networks.
• Contribute to team effort by accomplishing related results as needed.
• Collaborate with the different internal teams to promote our internal products and programs.

Professional skills

• Creative
• Innovative
• Enthusiastic
• Outgoing/Confidence - Comfortable talk in front of others
• Organized
• Multitasking
• Curious
• Adaptable – works well in changing environments
• Thoroughness
• Resourceful
• Sense of urgency
• Good organizational and planning skills
• Written and verbal communication

Job requirements

• Bachelor of commerce with a major in Marketing and/or Advertisement.
• A minimum of Five years’ experience in branding and advertising.
• Experience in retail and/or c-store channel experience preferred.
• Experience in traditional media production (radio, ooh, print), media buys and reporting.
• Experience in digital advertising and social media including targeting, ad placement and media buys, content development, establishing and tracking KPIs, reporting, etc.
• Be proficient in various computer software including Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and demonstrated interpersonal skills required.
• Must be able to adapt to rapidly changing environment, manage multiple priorities, and meet deadlines.
• Previous background in a media or creative agency an asset.
• Good creative thinking.
• Knowledge of and experience in managing an advertising budget.
• Be a self-starter and comfortable being thrown into new situations and workgroups.

Tools available to our Brand Managers in order to develop these five aptitudes

The strong voice with abilities to communicate effectively

• Global Brand launch material (presentation and films)*
• Brand Book – Brand foundation*
• Brand Manual*
• Public Relations training*
• Newsletter campaigns*

The gatekeeper

• Brand Book*
• Brand Manual*
• Different Famous For toolkit*
• Vendor POP signage guide*
• National sign guide*

The ears of the company

• Customer Service Response Plan for Social Media*
• Measurement – response rate time (Facebook)
• Brand Tracker
• Advertising campaign (traditional and digital) reports

The know

• Google analytics (website)
• WCAG compliance regulations*
• Facebook, Instagram and Twitter Insights
• Brand Tracker
• BI Data

The event planner

• Grand opening guidelines*
• Public Relations training*

The trend-spotter

• Plan an annual meeting with your agencies to know what is being done out there and what are the latest trends and best practices.
• Digital marketing conference – attend at least one a year
• Publications and websites – review daily or weekly marketing or retail journals
• Bi-Annual Brand Manager Best Practices meeting & share with other BU’s throughout the week

• All documents are available on the Easy Portal (easyportal.circlek.com)

What is Brand management?

Brand management includes developing a brand promise, delivering that promise to the customer and maintaining it. Brand management is nothing but an art of creating and sustaining the brand. A strong brand differentiates its offering from the competitors. Branding is crucial as it makes customers committed to our business.

Brand management includes managing the tangible and intangible characteristics of a brand. Tangibles include customer service, product, price, etc. The intangibles include the emotional connections customers have with our service and products.

Branding is the assembly of various marketing mix medium into a whole so as to give our brand an identity. It is nothing but capturing our customers mind with our brand name to give them an image of an experienced, reliable and friendly business.

It is all about creating confidence in the current and prospective customers’ minds that we are the unique solution to their problem and we are there to make it easy for them.

Being a Brand Manager at Circle K

A Circle K Brand Manager is the gatekeeper of our brand’s reputation, of our tone of voice to our customers and the media, of our image. It takes a blend of creativity, tech savvy, dedication and leadership to successfully manage our brand and give it this new personality that will resonate with our target audience - the hard-working people of the world.

A great Brand Manager takes ownership of the brand, he/she is the steward of the brand. He/she is the voice of the customer internally. The Brand Manager makes sure that what is being developed and introduced to the market is relevant to our customers (signage, vendor program/promotion, media campaign, events, communications, etc.). He/she thinks likes a customer and reminds others in the organization to think like a customer. Everything comes down to making it easy for them and the Brand Manager is the one who makes sure to reinforce this promise.

This position requires not only coordinating projects but a Circle K Brand Manager has to come up with the strategies from which the projects will fall out of. A great Brand Manager provides the vision & strategies to match up to. The brand and marketing strategies that will be put in place have to match the overall essence and identity of the brand. This becomes the road map to ensure that our brand becomes stronger, better and be able to go even further.

These are the six important skills a Circle K Brand Manager must have:

Strong voice with abilities to communicate effectively

Being a good leader is among the most important qualities of a great Brand Manager. A genuine enthusiasm and passion in our brand is infectious and can help get everyone in the organization amped up and actively involved in representing the brand, through their work and outside-the-office personalities. Enthusiasm spreads organically and will foster a positive association with our brand for those outside the office walls, as such as vendors and of course our customers.

The Brand Manager is also an educator, teaching everyone the values and principles on which our business is built. He/she is the brand ambassadors of the Make it easy so folks can take it easy! An effective brand manager communicates these lessons in easy-to-understand language and a friendly tone.

This is also true when working with vendors. The Brand Manager should teach and train our different vendors on how to use and work with our brand. Whenever it has do to with customer communications (in-store or on traditional and digital media), the Brand Manager should always be involved in making sure that our tone of voice and brand standards are respected.

Customer messaging - Keeps it simple

In this media-rich world of constant commercials, customers are losing the ability to know where to look. The likelihood that they will take it all in is very low. We need to speak with one loud voice to be heard through the clutter of today’s world.

A successful Circle K Brand Manager keeps it simple with precise and impactful brand messages. He/she knows how to adapt each message to each target audience and channel in order to be relevant and makes sure the message will be heard. In-store messages are totally different then online messages and the Brand Manager knows how to best utilize each channel.

All our customers have one thing common – the appreciation of time. Time is the only thing they cannot buy, collect, or turn back. We know that time is precious to customers, so we have to borrow as little of it as we can, and make every visit worth their while. That is our promise, and we will never break it. We care for your time. This promise is translated by ‘Take it Easy’ as well as our three pillars (Fast and Friendly service, Easy visits, and Products for people on the go) and are at the center of every communication. The Brand Manager knows how to integrate these concepts into one clear and impactful message.

The Gatekeeper

One question the Brand Manager must always ask is “How does this affect our brand?” Whether it has to do with a Facebook post, an in-store sign, a new campaign or the introduction of a new product, the Brand Manager should be like an over protective parent who wants to see its brand flourish, but not get damaged in the process. Creating and monitoring the communications will bolster the brand’s reputation. He/she should always be seeking new ways to get the message out in order to have the best reach and impact possible.

A Circle K Brand Manager should master the brand guidelines like no one else in the Business Unit and must be the reference in terms of communication (in-store, on media, in events, and for public relations). He/she also knows how to intervene when our brand standards are not respected and doesn’t fear to ask and revise content wherever it comes from.

Has an eye for aesthetics

Good design costs as much as bad design. Marketing materials that have a consistent, attractive, and unique look can make the difference between success and failure.

The Brand Manager has good creative eyes. Good creative inspires trust and is often associated with superior quality and functionality. It also reduces the complexity of an ad and makes it easier for the audience to understand the message quickly. By providing good feedback to the creative teams the Brand Manager can elevate creativity and consistency in applying it at all brand touchpoints, POS, advertising, and events.

If not sure about a certain project, sign, post content, etc. the Brand Manager should always validate with other Brand Manager colleagues or with the Global Marketing Team. He/she should never compromised our brand image if not sure.

The ears of our company

The Brand Manager should always keep a close eye on who is talking or writing about Circle K by constantly monitoring social media. The Brand Manager has the responsibility to make sure that customers who are contacting us on social media or via our website get a response within the same day and that the answer uses the proper tone of voice. Social media will be in a near future where 90% of customer service management will be happening. Staying aware of what others are saying, while noticing trends and developing solutions, is key to a squeaky clean online reputation as well as to improve our in-store customer experience and offering.

In-store communication is also key. The Brand Manager should go in-store and do a visit like a real customer. Is signage appropriate and easy to understand? Customers will spend a total of three seconds reading a sign. The promotion should be easy to understand.

The know

A Circle K Brand Manager doesn’t work in a vacuum. Knowing what’s happening within the industry is extremely important. The world is adopting more and more technology by the second, and spotting new trends to implement into brand strategies can help grow our company’s reach and reputation. Following blogs covering our industry, the tech sector and marketing trends is invaluable.

We expect from the Brand Manager to know what the best media practices are. By media we include: store level signage, radio, out-of-home, web (banners, email blasts, search engine optimization), and social media. Knowledge of traditional media is important and digital media is even more important as this is where our new global brand was born and where advertising spends are shifting towards. The Brand Manager must have a good understanding of both in order to perform well in its position. He/she knows how to best utilize our digital and social media channels to deliver content. Geo-targeting, retargeting, dark posts, A/B testing, reach, impressions, viral and organic impressions, engagement rate, CPM, average view rate, click-to-map, click-to-website, open rate, mobile banners, search engine optimization are all terms that the Brand Managers is familiar with and knows how to leverage them in order to maximize the visibility of our brand.

Our advertising dollars spend towards digital should increase year over year and traditional media should be reduced. The Brand Manager knows the latest media spend trends and knows how to best split its media budget across the different channel in order to maximize reach and return on investment.

Creatively analytical

More than just right-brained or left-brained, numbers-oriented or artistically inclined, the Brand Manager must bridge the gap between two worlds and become creatively analytical. Brands are elevated by those who make sense of research and translate numbers and findings into creative messages. A great Brand Manager is someone who can create and maintain brand strategies and reputation informed by facts.

How did the summer campaign performed? What are the learnings? How can we apply these learnings and insights onto the next campaign?

How is the social media content performing? How’s our audience? Which type of post seems to work better in terms of reach, impressions, and/or engagement? How the performance can be improved?

He/she uses careful analytical qualities to garner support from the upper management team. On the opposite end of the spectrum, he should also able to incite enthusiasm and innovation among marketing teams, including content managers, graphic designers, copywriters, artistic directors, interior designers, and web builders.

Benchmarks goals

The Brand Manager must constantly set goals and benchmarks.

What are we hoping to achieve?

What changes need to be made to grow our brand?

How can we make our brand voice speak to more people in meaningful ways?

What will our brand look like in six months? Three years?

People may throw around the idea of objectives and goals all the time but a successful Brand Manager can hone in and truly utilize these terms. He/she focused its efforts on goals and objectives to avoid wasting time on items that won’t lead to tangible success.

The event planner

The Brand Manager is a project manager thus knows how to tackle a project from the beginning to the end and deliver it within the expected time frame. He/she is involved in signage production and creation, publicity and media plan creation (conception, production, and delivery), and special events planning (e.g. grand openings).

He/she knows all the required components included in planning a shoot (video or still images) and an advertising campaign. This involves developing the brief, approving concepts, casting, coordinating the shoot with the operation teams if in-store or the vendor, providing feedback on set, doing the offline/online approval, creating the media plan to publicize the content, and publishing. He/she also has the ability to plan internal events such as the annual congress and external ones such as a grand openings. Doing special events in the community is a great way to build and reinforce our customer’s emotional ties to our brand. Planning such an event includes defining the objectives, developing the concept, coordinating with the different teams involves, scheduling, advertising, executing, be at the event, review and provide insights on how to improve it in the future.

The Brand Manager knows how to work in teams and collaboration with other departments, teams, and vendors is easy for him/her. Prioritization is key in order to be successful and making sure that each project is delivered on time.

The trend-spotter

An effective Brand Manager is a trend-spotter and early adopter of new technology, always implementing new strategies to extend brand reputation and audience reach. He/she can’t fulfill his/her job if he/she is isolated in ivory towers. He/she must remain aware of industry trends and developments; this is especially crucial as it pertains to technology.

Being proactive helps ensure that our brand is at the top of the game or helps us to get there. Proactive thinking requires creativity and innovation. A great Circle K Brand Manager not only watches what other brands are doing, but also asks, “What else can we be doing?” Which channels should we be using that could benefit our strategies? He/she also is conscious of his/her environment and limitation thus is able to choose if adopting a new platform is feasible or not in terms of capacity.

An effective Brand Manager is up-to-date in the realm of technology and is early adopters of new software and tech services to understand what is out there. He/she volleys their tech savviness into tracking down the best ways to deliver services and information to our customers through technology, in ways that are most meaningful to them, on platforms they’re already engaging with.

Reads, reads, reads

One easy way to stay on top of what’s hot and what’s not in our segment is through industry-specific publications, like newsletters, magazines, webinars, blogs, and email subscriptions .The same is true for trend-spotting new tech and marketing resources.

Understands our market.

Another way the Brand Manager identifies trends is by immersing himself/herself in our customer’s environment. He/she keeps up with everything relevant to our market, he/she goes where our customers go, watches what our customers watch, and clicks on what our customers are saying, follows the pages they are following, reads research studies (e.g. Brand Tracker). Social media is a great environment to learn the struggles and challenges our customers are facing.

Shares with other Business Units

Nothing is better than sharing best practices with other Brand Managers across the network. A great Circle K Brand Manager will ask for advice, see what others are doing, and how they do it. He/she will not fear to reach out to others and ask questions. At the same time, he/she will share his/her best practices with others without waiting for someone to ask for it.

Circle K is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
The Company complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act (the ADA) and all state and local disability laws. Applicants with disabilities may be entitled to a reasonable accommodation under the terms of the ADA and certain state or local laws as long as it does not impose an undue hardship on the Company. Please inform the Company’s Human Resources Representative if you need assistance completing any forms or to otherwise participate in the application process.

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