Brand Ambassador, House of Suntory - Control

What makes this a great opportunity?

The spirits industry is an exciting, dynamic, and fast-paced business. Suntory Global Spirits is a top player in the spirits business and focused on driving both category and brand growth. This is a great opportunity for you to work on one of the fastest growing, highest priority categories in spirits – to set and implement regional brand strategy in conjunction with cross-functionals (Sales, Global Brand Marketing, Finance, Consumer Insights, etc.). In this role, you will have the responsibility of leading cross-functional teams and external agencies to develop regional brand plans, driving a key strategic priority for Suntory Global Spirits: localization to be brand led, market fed. You will also have ownership on key regional projects, with the autonomy to drive decisions, as well as, the opportunity to provide regional category expertise, create regional brand strategy and provide input into the national brand strategy.

Objective of the Role: Our Ambassadors are the face of the brand to key influencers and interested consumers. They are our storytellers, guardians, and educators about all the things that make our brands so special. As a House of Suntory Brand Ambassador, you’ll be responsible for developing the local advocacy strategy and bringing the magic of Suntory brands and Distilleries to life. Serve as critical in-market liaison to facilitate communication, planning, and execution between the Global Brand House and the North America market. Establish & leverage a network influenced by the Global Brand House, Global Diplomats, Ambassadors & Brand Influencers to maximize our market performance.

Role Responsibilities

Public Relations: (PR)
• Be the face of the House of Suntory (HOS) brands - exhibit expertise and detailed knowledge of the full portfolio, serving as an extension of the distilleries.
• Lead the development of the HoS advocacy strategy to deliver “end-to-end” programs that emotionally connect with the trade to make them advocates of our HoS portfolio. Education and Training:
• Build, lead and deliver the brand training and education strategy for the business in line with the brand and commercial objectives for both on and off premise channels.
• Deliver industry-leading educational seminars, engaging consumers, trade, distributors, internal and media. Innovation & Advocacy
• Leading brand innovation launches through product introduction and education in focus cities, collaborating with brand and sales teams to achieve distribution and sell-through.
• Collaborating with the wider advocacy team to embed Club Suntory team on local trade advocacy strategy and event ideation.
• Act as the conduit between Global brand house, local and global advocacy team.

Key Accounts (HALO accounts)
• Lead generation for desirable accounts, working with our Sales team to commercialize any opportunity.
• Strategic Sell-In and Execution of consumer events with brand building efforts, in the local market to drive strong consumer connections and consumption. Insights & Consumer Behaviors
• Deliver market-relevant insights to the brand and advocacy teams, distillery, and sales teams to help to further drive the portfolio growth strategy.
• Collecting market feedback from consumers & Key account partners in market activations.
• Regularly conduct trade and retail market visits and connecting with our vibrant hospitality community.

Qualifications

• Industry Professional individual with at least 5 years’ experience in related field with a strong hospitality and/or sales background, 3+ years of experience within the alcohol industry preferred
• Excellent spirits knowledge and a good knowledge of the wine and beer markets
• Genuine passion for Japan with extensive spirit knowledge
• Intermediate proficiency using Microsoft applications: Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint etc
• Intermediate proficiency on social media platforms and ability to adopt new tech platforms as required (eg External: Instagram Facebook etc, Internal-: Yammer etc )
• Excellent communicator, both verbal and written across various stakeholder level
• Experience in budget management
• Time management and analytical capabilities
• A nuanced understanding of the hospitality industry in focus markets
• Possess strong public speaking and presentation skills
• Key City Travel up to ~30% of time, (open to travel to other destinations to meet business needs)
• Candidate must have a current US drivers license and have own mode of transportation
• This role may require some evening and weekend work as required
• Holds a relevant passport and has the ability to travel internationally (in particular Japan) when required by Brand House to attend brand summits or events.