Marketing Manager, Brightkins

Regular Full-Time Learning Resources, Vernon Hills, IL, US 3 days ago Requisition ID: 1974 Salary Range: $110,000.00 To $115,000.00 Annually About Learning Resources: We are Learning Resources®, and learning is where we play. Voted one of the Chicago Tribune's Top Workplaces, we’re a growing, family-owned company known for our award-winning educational toys, including top sellers Pretend & Play® Calculator Cash Register, Farmer's Market Color Sorting Set and multiple Toy of the Year winners! We even help pets learn and grow through our pet brand Brightkins®. If you're curious, collaborative, and a kid at heart, you'll feel right at home here. Join us in shaping the future of learning with our award-winning team! Team & Position Description: We are looking for a Marketing Manager to lead the relaunch of Brightkins. It's an exciting brand in a fragmented industry with a lot of white space, and we need a brand builder to take it forward: someone with a vision for what Brightkins can become in the eyes of consumers, and the creativity to build a narrative around it. We foster a collaborative environment where continuous learning, teamwork, and innovation drive our success, and this role comes with significant room to grow alongside our brands and retail presence. Most of all, the person in this seat will create the brand vision and start bringing it to life, beginning with social media, which is where we really connect with our audience. What you'll do day to day: Author and execute a brand strategy for the Brightkins brand, including Distinctive Assets development and brand storytelling narrative. This is the most important part of the role: creating a clear vision for what the brand can become. Build, lead, and develop a high-performing Brand team. Establish performance standards that enable the team to deliver a strong, consistent pipeline of high-impact content and partnerships aligned to strategic priorities. Oversee social media, our most important channel. Develop the organic social strategy that builds mental availability and strengthens brand positioning across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and emerging platforms. Scale our influencer, affiliate and creator ecosystem, including long-term community building to scale brand reach, attribution and advocacy. Strategizes and owns annual, seasonal, and product-driven marketing campaign execution. Translate business objectives into cross-functional campaigns and ensure flawless execution across all channels, while owning channel-level KPIs and optimization. Partner with Product Development to develop market insights that shape our innovation strategy. Work with Sales to capture retail opportunities and then secure sell-through. Partner with internal Centers of Excellence teams to manage the budget, oversee trade show executions, retail/shopper marketing, and media planning. Oversee and evaluate PR strategy to elevate brand credibility with agency partner. What we’re looking for (Key Performance Objectives): Within the first 3 months, author a brand strategy, including distinctiveness research and brand positioning. Within the first 12 months, complete a branding project, with a final deliverable being a brand book. Within the first 6 months, scale our affiliate community to increase traffic by 200%. Establish a regular communication cadence where we keep our partners engaged in our various marketing campaigns, new product releases, and affiliate opportunities. Within the first 6 months, execute paid and organic social media strategies to grow engagements by 3x. Within the first 12 months, establish a YouTube strategy and relaunch the channel, with a posting cadence of at least once a week of high-quality content. Results-driven attitude – a self-starter who thinks and participates effectively, both independently and as part of a team Analytical skills, and sales acumen – must be able to gather, analyze and interpret data to deliver business insights Strong communication skills, including synthesizing information from a broad range of stakeholders and market research Proactive and resourceful in solving problems, making decisions and executing on goals Connects inside and outside the team; shares information, transfers knowledge and seeks diverse input from others within the team and across the organization Ability to build and maintain effective relationships with management, sales teams, peers and agency partners and manage those relationships to achieve business objectives Owns results and follows through on commitments, takes responsibility and produces quality results Physical Demands: Standing - up to 10% of the time Sitting - up to 90% of the time Oral communication and audio skills Visual skills to work with customer accounts which require use of a computer. Ability to lift up to 20lbs. We are a drug-free workplace and an EEO employer. Compensation Range: $110,000 - $115,000 annual salary - Actual compensation may vary due to other factors such as: years of experience, skill set and location. Total compensation includes profit sharing bonus potential, 401k matching, and a variety of other benefits (details can be found here). #J-18808-Ljbffr Learning Resources