Consumer Insights Manager (Market Intelligence)

Since 1940, Dairy Queen® has been one of the world’s best known and loved brands. Based in Minneapolis, MN, International Dairy Queen Inc., (IDQ), is the parent company of American Dairy Queen Corporation. As a leading franchisor, there are more than 7,000 independently owned and operated restaurants in the U.S., Canada and more than 20 countries around the world. IDQ is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (Berkshire) which is led by Warren Buffett, the legendary investor and CEO of Berkshire.

Here at IDQ, we create extraordinary Fan experiences every day and we do this through our commitment to hiring and retaining only the best in class talent. We firmly believe that our employees are the catalyst to the success of the company where their initiative, strategic thinking, and entrepreneurial spirit are recognized and rewarded. We're looking for motivated, passionate and dedicated individuals with an inherent need and ambition to go after bigger challenges.

We have an exciting opportunity available for a Consumer Insights Manager supporting our international marketing team.  Responsibilities include: strategic leadership and vendor relationship management for primary brand-level research initiatives, both proprietary and through syndicated/trade partners; development of target audiences and fan segmentation for major INTL markets consistent with the brand’s voice of the customer strategy; identification of insights that drive overall brand communication, new product development and product positioning; supporting our new market entry initiatives though pre-market assessment research; and consolidating key insights/trends to share with our franchisees and field teams on a regular basis. 

Key Accountabilities Include:

Consumer Research and Insights

• Proactively identify and champion consumer insights that will grow the business, using strong thought leadership skills.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to identify strategic questions for the business that can be solved through research and champion the effectiveness of utilizing data, analytics, and insights to shape business and marketing plans.
• Build the annual research plan and budget based upon an analytical review of historical consumer data and custom research, along with the strategic direction for the brand, menu and consumer.
• Utilize syndicated and custom research to provide organization leadership with an understanding of marketplace risks and opportunities. 
• Manage research vendors to ensure support of research goals, getting the greatest possible value from research investment.
• Effectively present insights and recommendations to marketing teams, executives, and franchise committees.
• Manage and elevate our Brand Health trackers in key markets around the world.

Voice of Consumer

• Lead & incubate brand-level research projects. Directly engage with key leaders across the organization to advance strategic plans, key projects, or other critical items.
• Develop, evolve and communicate the consumer journey map and consumer touchpoints. Prioritize the most critical drivers in our customer experience. Provide recommendations, present, and influence relevant stakeholders to address gaps and opportunities in the customer experience.
• Utilizing data and research, define key targeted consumer segments and personas. Connect and share learnings within the organization and participate in developing into go-to-market strategies for the brand.
• Contribute as a strategic leader in key business meetings and process as voice of consumer and help enable consumer-first decision making.
• Establish digital acquisition and CEM best practices in order to leverage our customer data to drive 1:1 marketing and loyalty/retention.

New Market Entry

• Support our new market entry initiatives by fielding pre-market assessments to gauge overall interest/appeal of our concept and to identify opportunities to optimize.
• Onboard new markets as well as emerging markets to ensure the appropriate level of brand/consumer understand in their respective market.
• Work in partnership with marketing, franchisees, and field teams to develop strategies that drive top and bottom funnel improvements.

Calendar Support

• Lead the upstream stages of our product development process to identify consumer, flavor, and menu trends that will help to define future menu concepts. 
• Manage the validation of product concepts as well as fully developed products to ensure overall appeal and market potential. 
• Work closely with the marketing team to inform brand/promotion briefs, providing rich insight and product benefits to drive our go-to-market communication plans.
• Support the marketing team in the overall brand positioning to ensure that we are remaining relevant and true to our core brand attributes across international markets. 

Education/Experience

• B.A. or B.S. Degree in Marketing Research or Marketing or Social Sciences, or equivalent combination of education and work experience.
• Master’s degree a plus.
• 5+ years relevant business experience. Strong background in marketing research, particularly customer research. Experience in general marketing (product marketing, brand marketing, calendar planning) and/or competitive intelligence a plus.
• Proven familiarity and experience in effective data management & analysis, independent management of custom research studies, ability to independently derive impactful insights out of data, demonstrated experience with custom research design, strong ability to interact with impact with varying levels of marketing organization.
• Experience effectively collaborating with a team of marketing, analytics and/or customer support professionals.
• Experience in either food, retail or restaurant category preferred.
• Experience working within a franchisor organization, preferably a QSR brand.

Skills

• Ability to work with marketing project teams and marketing leadership to identify business issues and provide relevant insights to impact calendar development and assessment.
• Able to translate information across multiple studies and sources into actionable business direction.
• Provides clear point of view based on available information. 
• Communicates insights in a manner that provides clear direction. 
• Influences by building upon past learning applied to current problem to guide management perspective. 
• Integrates and translates learning across multiple projects.
• Relationship building skills with the ability to create mutually beneficial relationships with both internal and external clients.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to articulate marketing concepts to a variety of audiences.
• Strong ability to multi-task and prioritize multiple projects and requests simultaneously, within an intense, deadline-driven environment.
• Well organized with a high attention to detail and accuracy.
• Ability to provide excellent customer service to both internal and external clients.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines. 

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

We are committed to creating a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion for all who touch DQ.  We believe in and commit to fostering a community where employees bring their authentic selves to work; where we recruit, engage and retain employees, franchise owners and suppliers with diverse background and identities; and where everyone feels welcome engaging with our DQ brand.