Follain leads the movement toward healthier personal care by curating and creating the best products on follain.com and in a growing number of stores across the country. We believe everyone deserves to experience the power of clean beauty. Do you want to join our mission to change the wildly unregulated and unhealthy beauty industry, for good?

Follain is seeking a curious, self-motivated and highly structured Brand Development Manager. We are looking for a self-starter and creative problem solver with passion and expertise in the consumer space.

In this role, you will support the rapid growth of Follain’s owned line of beauty products. Our team is very lean, and this is truly a hands-on role that requires top to bottom strategy and execution. This means you will directly influence a range of critical areas of the business, including: (1) Strategy (new product concepts, positioning, pricing, GTM tactics, business reviews), (2) New Product Development (packaging, product, testing, commercialization), (3) Brand Content (campaigns, creative assets, training materials, etc.) and (4) Channel Marketing (point of sale and ecomm across retail channels)

This position reports to the Head of Owned Brands and will collaborate very closely with the following cross-functional partners: Director of Planning and Operations, Content Marketing, Creative Services (Packaging Design, Graphic Design, Copywriting) and External Suppliers (Formulation, Packaging Sourcing, Consumer Testing). Other key stakeholders include Founder/CEO, Digital Marketing, Finance/Accounting, Retail Sales and Customer Experience.

This role will support the following workstreams. Based on your training/area of expertise, we will work together to identify the optimal areas of deeper focus.

• Competitive Analysis with a Focus on Innovation – Continuously review and analyze industry landscape, consumer insights and trends to support identification of new product and activation opportunities (new formats, packaging, assortments, positioning, ingredients, claims, etc.) driving towards a 2-year innovation pipeline. 
• New Product & Packaging Development – Support end-to-end product management process, taking ideas from concept through launch. Examples: help draft new product concepts and briefs to cross-functional partners (product, design, packaging, artwork, copy), identify new packaging solutions and manage cost of goods and margins for new products.
• Product Marketing – Help draft claims, product copy and selling hook/messaging across consumer touchpoints (packaging, POS, PDP, social, email).
• Brand Marketing – Support creative asset generation and portfolio management of all assets related to new product launches; includes supporting photoshoots for new product launches and managing asset and content library.
• Channel Marketing – Support channel activation for new product launches, working closely with internal DTC channel team and wholesale retail partners.
• Sales & Business Reporting – Manage owned brand sales tracking, hindsight launches and help identify opportunities for growth based on internal business performance metrics.

Required Work Experience

• Must have one of the following professional experiences:
• Classically trained CPG Brand Manager or Product Marketing Manager with 5-6 years of experience in innovation-focused role at consumer goods company (ideally beauty, personal care, food or comparable lifestyle brand). OR
• Post-MBA Management Consultant with 2-3 years of experience supporting organic growth strategy and/or incubation projects for consumer goods clients and eager to move to client side and make a big impact at a small startup.

Education

• Bachelor's degree with a concentration in business, marketing, product design, engineering or a related field
• MBA preferred but not required

Required Characteristics / Keys to Success in this Role

• Passion for creating new products and experiences from the ground up with no job is too big/small mentality
• Desire to work in highly fluid, fast-paced, lean start-up environment; must be comfortable with ambiguity, flexible/adaptable to changing business needs
• Hyper-organized, detail-oriented program manager with ability to manage multiple fast-track projects and quickly adapt to changing priorities and responsibilities
• Ability to execute projects with both speed and accuracy
• Analytical problem solver / solutions-oriented critical thinker
• Positive, can-do attitude, highly collaborative and able to work well cross-functionally with both creative and operational partners; ability to develop and nurture effective relationships across the organization
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with ability to present ideas, conclusions and recommendations with clarity
• Passion for / intuitive understanding of beauty products – to be effective in this role, you must have a practical understanding of how positioning, branding, pricing, design, and product work together to create a holistic experience for the consumer
• Strong understanding of product and brand storytelling, positioning and product marketing framework; ability to identify and clearly articulate consumer insight/need, value proposition / point of differentiation, RTB
• Comfortable taking on paperwork/administrative management where needed (we are a lean team!)

Additional Qualifications (Preferred But Not Required)

• Experience with an early to mid-stage start-up OR exposure to a front-end incubation / agile innovation team at a larger company 
• Experienced in prestige beauty
• Experience managing external retail and vendor partnerships
• Successfully executed (or supported execution of) launches of new brands, franchises and/or products
• Experience with consumer research methodologies and consumer testing to uncover insights
• Advanced Excel and PowerPoint skills a major plus