Senior Marketing Manager, Processed Food

WestRock (NYSE:WRK) partners with our customers to provide differentiated paper and packaging solutions that help them win in the marketplace.

WestRock’s team members support customers around the world from locations spanning North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

WestRock is seeking a Senior Marketing Manager, Processed Food responsible for developing and executing integrated marketing plans to support organic growth across the packaged food industry, with a particular focus on the processed food (ie cookies, crackers and snacks, pet food, candy & confectionery, etc.) segments.

This role will report to the Director of Marketing, Packaged Food.

As the marketing leader for the processed food segments, this individual will develop knowledge of key industry challenges, industry needs, market dynamics, differentiated solutions and WestRock Play to Win (PTW) strategies.

S/he will support customers (from strategic to transactional) and create differentiated marketing plans based on buying behaviors and best margin/revenue opportunity.

This individual will activate industry campaigns with support from the entire Marketing team, including Demand Generation, Growth Marketing, Market Intelligence & Insights, Customer Experience, and Product Marketing. 

This individual must be collaborative, working across businesses, functions, and the industry marketing team to build a one-WestRock strategy.

S/he will have a proven ability to establish strong relationships and trust.

S/he will also demonstrate openness and flexibility, and adaptability in her/his communication and engagement style. 

Responsibilities: 

• Work closely with the respective processed foods Sales teams as single point of contact; develop Play to Win strategies and identify best current and future profit pools within the industry/ sub-industries; segment and prioritize customers by these opportunities; create and activate differentiated marketing strategies to help sales realize opportunities and drive organic growth 

• Develop deep understanding of WestRock’s portfolio of solutions to determine applicability for customer needs; identify portfolio gaps and partner with Product Marketing to address 

• Partner with the Customer Experience team to develop industry and initiative-specific content as well as thought leadership to be used by sales with customers to drive awareness of WestRock’s understanding of / experience with the industry’s challenges, unique needs; promote case studies that demonstrate WestRock’s success in the respective sub-segments 

• Become the expert on unique characteristics, challenges, needs, buying behaviors of customers and prospects for the processed food segments by partnering with internal teams such as Sales, Design, Strategy, and the broader marketing organization 

• Partner with Growth Marketing to active campaigns to specific industry customers; monitor campaign results and report back to sales teams 

• Work closely with Product Marketing to develop and execute sales enablement (training) to ensure salespeople are highly credible when speaking to various personas within an industry account; provide feedback to product marketing on new product needs based on feedback from industry customers and synthesized insights 

• Act as a spokesperson at industry events and customer-facing meetings

Qualifications: 

Highly capable in each of the following dimensions (among others): adaptability, curiosity, resourcefulness, analytical thinking/problem solving, proactivity, collaboration, technological savvy, and operating with cross-functional teams. 

• 5+ years of experience creating and implementing marketing plans to grow sales
• Packaged Food industry experience, from either brand or packaging company, required; experience with processed food manufacturers preferred 

• Experience partnering closely with sales teams to support account growth 

• Analytical marketing background, including experience with customer segmentation and market analysis; MBA a plus 

• Excellent presentation and communication skills; has acted in customer facing roles and is comfortable working with WestRock customers 

• Ability to develop a solid understanding of WestRock’s business, its goals and its systems, with the intuition to see how the current state can be improved 

• Ability to assess needs, influence, collaborate, deliver and partner at all levels in the organization 

• Ability to pragmatically prioritize importance / urgency of work based on a keen sense of expected impact on business objectives in both the short and long term