Business Category Associate
OVERVIEW
The Centralized Omni Category Management Team is seeking a Business Category Associate (BCA) to support our Publix and HEB customer team, through usage of analytics, strategic thought leadership and selling skills to develop and execute category strategies in alignment with General Mills’ and customers’ priorities. The BCA is responsible, in conjunction with the BCL, for delivering the most current customer insights, competitive insights, category data analysis, shelving, and assortment recommendations to elevate General Mills' (GMI) executional priorities and ensure they come to life with our customers.
In this role, you will be responsible for category distribution and shelving across the Morning Foods OU categories at Publix and HEB. You will be responsible for supporting and managing the category review process, identifying distribution opportunities and risks, creating influential selling stories that turn insights into recommended actions and collaborating with the customer team on ongoing business efforts. In addition, usage of data platforms such as IRI and Nielsen Connect are critical to this role’s category management process.
Strong candidates will demonstrate solid analytical (ability to pull data from multiple sources and create compelling/actionable insights), organizational and communication skills, along with the ability to work collaboratively and agilely with cross-functional teams.
This role is both internally and externally focused. You will present category strategies and opportunities to the customers and work cross-functionally across the OU teams (customer teams, planning teams, and Product Sales Managers (PSMs)) and the different functions within the Omni Center of Excellence group (Insights & Marketing, eCommerce and National Cat Man).
This role is remote eligible; no relocation will be provided.
Key Accountabilities
PROBLEM SOLVING & ANALYTICS
- Develop holistic category strategies by leveraging the tools, insights, and analytics from internal, industry, and retailer-specific sources
- Retrieve and interpret customer, category and shopper data from multiple disparate sources to develop compelling and executable insights to drive distribution and shelving growth and opportunities
- Leverage enterprise-wide problem-solving tools, task management and stakeholders to address business problems
EXECUTIONAL EXCELLENCE (Grow Share of Distribution)
- Maximize sales and profitability by understanding GMI products, categories and brand priorities and linking them with customer-specific strategies and opportunities
- Take personal accountability and ownership for results, deeply understand consumers, and prioritize what’s important
- Participate in special projects intended to evolve or advance General Mills category management influence
SELLING EXPERTISE & LEADERSHIP
- Collaborate with customer teams on the execution of selling strategies by providing category or customer-specific insights and recommendations
- Provide selling teams with support and guidance by leveraging national category management strategies
- Support development of joint business plans with customers by providing key information, and preparing category materials
ENGAGING LEADER
- Model Engaging Leader behaviors to foster an inclusive environment, embrace a learning mindset and demonstrate personal accountability
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s Degree required
- Strong analytical skills and experience aggregating internal and external data sources (e.g., Nielsen, IRI, CPM, sales data) of information to build an influential selling story
- Proficient in software packages (Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint)
- US work authorization and must have a valid driver's license and satisfactory driving record
Preferred Qualifications
- Minimum 2 years of relevant industry experience in sales, account management, trade funding, category management or other relevant experience
- Willingness to relocate for future GMI career opportunities