Manager, Hype Merchandising

PURPOSE & OVERALL RELEVANCE FOR THE ORGANISATION

Contribute to deliver the global merchandising strategy and roadmap for Hype. Ensuring development of Hype range architecture based on range guidance from the central Merchandising team. Including Range Roadmap, Range Architecture, and leading allocation and volume business planning.

Support & align on shared goals and strategies for growth between market partners, product, design, marketing, digital and strategy, and planning teammates.

KEY RESPONSIBILTIES:

• Manage seasonal product journeys, franchise deliverables, pricing, flow, lifecycle management, branding across the category that aligns with the range plan strategy
• Partner to execute strategy with the product creation team made up of Product Marketing, Design, and Development to form “the quad”
• Manage the range architecture and assortment framework for approval against the range targets, including integration of special market requests based on guidance from the central Merchandising team
• Manage the detailed range architecture plan including model & article level detail 
• Manage market/ channel allocation planning with support from GTM Planning, to hand over to the Marketplace teams to develop plans further.
• Provide merchandising fundamentals through the execution of the range plan; segmentation and strategy
• Collect and organize key market insights. Look for key global and regional trends and shifts in market direction to inform your manager
• Build consumer centric assortment plans with an understanding of the Hype layer positioning in the market, blending fact based and intuitive inputs
• Manage DTC first approach to ensure necessary differentiation among channels and key accounts
• Partner to organize assortment feedback to ensure excellent and regular connection with global markets
• Participate in updates to markets on BU range strategy (quantitative and qualitative) covering decisions to meet / not meet gaps identified by markets
• Help support the category handovers in partnership with cross functional partners to enable/facilitate markets understanding and implementation of the go to market strategy
• Support building seasonal financial plans of the business across all markets and channels.
• Support and contribute to an end-to-end (global to markets) range plan, assortment strategy, and go-to-market to drive growth targets, and strong sell-thru for your area of responsibility.
• Support defining, communicating, presenting and adjusting the seasonal strategy and architecture plan along the creation milestones process.
• Communicate an understanding of the consumer, markets, and business to adidas in a way that accelerates what is possible from a product, assortment, and distribution standpoint.   
• Support defining and establishing KPI’s, processes and tools to monitor range development through Hype.
• Manage the segmentation and development of global volume allocations for each market and channel based on range and GTM planning for your respective area.
• Support on the IBP alignment across BU and Market, driving the accuracy of Brand vs Sales and Global vs Market plans for your area of responsibility.
• Partner on communicating goals, clarity, and focus to deliver the strategy that will achieve these goals 
• Deliver the Merchandising content on time in full with accuracy
• Provide regular updates on status, progress, results, key learning & opportunities to Sr Management.

KEY RELATIONSHIPS:

• Senior Managers, Directors, and key peers in the HYPE ABOVE MARKET Team
• Cross Functional Teams: DTC, adidas E-Commerce Teams, Corporate Strategy, Marketing, Sales, Finance, Product, Design, Category/BU’s, Development, Planning, Analytics, Operations, Sourcing, and Insights

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:  

• Proficiency with MS applications (Outlook, Excel, Word, PowerPoint) and other computer software (Internet, POS Systems, etc.)
• Knowledge of merchandising management systems
• Fluent in English. An additional European language is an advantage. 
• Ability to influence cross functionally
• Attention to detail
• Can identify process areas to simplify for efficiency
• Strong presentation and communication skills
• Balanced, resilience and collaborative  

REQUISITE EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE / MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

• University degree in business/marketing or related field or equivalent professional experience required
• 5 years of retail, merchandising, buying, eCom experience
• Previous global, wholesale, retail, digital/ecom, vertical experience in merchandising, buying
• Broad & profound theoretical and practical knowledge in functional area
• Experience in Product Creation, Supply Chain, Visual Merchandising, Planning & Allocation a plus