Category Manager
Essity
Category Manager
Essity is seeking a Category Manager for Consumer Tissue to join the Customer Marketing team in the Benelux, based in Zeist. The role involves developing category strategies, translating insights into activation plans, and collaborating with sales, marketing, and retail partners. Candidates should have 2-5 years of FMCG experience, strong analytical skills, and fluency in Dutch and English.
Category Manager
Essity is seeking a Category Manager for Consumer Tissue to join the Customer Marketing team in the Benelux, based in Zeist. The role involves developing category strategies, translating insights into activation plans, and collaborating with sales, marketing, and retail partners. Candidates should have 2-5 years of FMCG experience, strong analytical skills, and fluency in Dutch and English.
Salary
Core Qualifications
Technical (Must-have)
Soft Skills
Preferred Qualifications
Technical (Nice-to-have)
Key Responsibilities
- Develop and implement category strategies and visions across key customers and channels
- Translate shopper insights, market data, and brand strategies into customer-specific activation plans
- Lead category reviews and range reviews with retailers
- Provide assortment, shelving (planograms), and merchandising recommendations
- Define and monitor category KPIs, track performance, and define corrective actions
- Analyse prices and promotions, and provide recommendations for optimization
- Build strong relationships with retailer category managers and buyers to deliver joint value
- Act as a core member of the brand team (Marketing, Sales, Supply) for Consumer Tissue
- Contribute to the annual business planning process, including category growth plans
- Monitor performance against KPIs and develop action plans to achieve targets
- Bring proactive insights and opportunities based on data and shopper understanding
- Leverage retail (Nielsen IQ), consumer panel, retail data and POS data to generate insights
- Develop reports, dashboards, and category scorecards
- Identify growth opportunities through trend analysis, OOS analysis, and competitive tracking
- Translate insights into clear recommendations and compelling selling stories
- Provide input into consumer pricing strategy and scenario planning
- Define promotion guidelines and mechanics that drive category growth
- Support range prioritization and portfolio optimization
- Justify shelf space allocation with data-driven arguments
- Lead or support NPD launches and relaunches in your category
- Develop customer-specific trade stories, presentations, and launch toolkits
- Ensure successful execution of innovations in-store
- Coordinate with internal teams and agencies for implementation