Category Strategist Seasons

Job Title: Category Strategist Seasons

Job Location: Minneapolis, MN

Sales employees are responsible for ensuring they meet the time-in-role (TIR) requirements before applying for this position. Refer to the Sales Time In Role Guidelines or speak to your manager if you have questions on the requirements. All employees should align with their manager before applying. Employees who do not meet the TIR requirements must have manager approval to apply. TIR is calculated from the effective date the employee moved into their current position.

Category Strategist Advisor Seasons Overview

The Category Strategist Advisor Seasons plays a pivotal role in achieving Hershey and Target's financial objectives by utilizing insights and the category management toolkit. This position requires a deep understanding of how to apply insights across various aspects of the business to promote growth and demonstrate thought leadership, both within the aisle and at the point of purchase.

A central responsibility of the Category Strategist is to analyze and integrate business trends, competitive dynamics, shopper behaviors, financial data, and Hershey gold standards. By synthesizing these elements, the strategist identifies opportunities and crafts solutions that drive conversion and enhance guest satisfaction throughout the shopping journey. This includes optimizing the experience in traditional brick-and-mortar retail environments as well as advancing performance on the digital shelf.

Responsibilities

• Serves as the category expert, supporting Target in implementing strategic business plans aimed at achieving Joint Business objectives for topline sales, net sales, margin, digital penetration, and category share.
• Provides guidance and consultation to the broader Target team, uncovering insights and developing action plans to drive profitable market share growth. Builds alignment both horizontally and vertically across internal and external stakeholders on key category initiatives.
• Functions as a critical strategic partner, leading projects that fulfil the financial goals of both Hershey and Target. Identifies potential areas for growth within the category and for Hershey.
• Demonstrates exceptional storytelling skills to bring initiatives to life through category management tools including, but not limited to, JDA, IRI syndicated data platform, Numerator, and various external resources, ensuring successful execution and support of strategic business plans.
• Leads best-in-class digital execution to accelerate digital penetration and acts as a liaison to enhance the digital shelf experience in collaboration with the Target Site Merchandising Team-impacting search, item attribution, digital shelf structure, and identifying new category opportunities.
• Partners internally at Hershey to enhance reporting, space planning, and process capabilities, thereby advancing team efficiency.

Qualifications

Education: Bachelor's Degree Required

• 3-5 years of Consumer Product Sales and/or Category Management
• Experience in JDA Space Management
• Ability to build dynamic relationships with the customer across business units
• Technical Skills, Analysis & Problem Assessment
• Proven abilities in the art of capturing the audience through Storytelling
• Team player who will work across desks during crunch times

The Hershey Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer. The policy of The Hershey Company is to extend opportunities to qualified applicants and employees on an equal basis regardless of an individual's race, color, gender, age, national origin, religion, citizenship status, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender status, physical or mental disability, protected veteran status, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other categories protected by applicable federal, state or local laws.

The Hershey Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer - Minority/Female/Disabled/Protected Veterans.

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