Trade Promotion Analyst

About the Company

Tootsie Roll Industries, Inc. (the “Company”) has been manufacturing iconic confectionary brands such as Tootsie Roll, Tootsie Pops, Blow Pops, Dots, Dubble Bubble, Junior Mints, Andes, and Charleston Chew for over 125 years.

About the Role

We are searching for a Trade Promotion Analyst to support the Sales organization. The role will report to the Trade Promotion Manager but is also expected to interact regularly with arms of the Marketing and Finance organizations. This role presents an opportunity for the right candidate to exercise operational control of an emerging department while being involved in the development of future standards and best practices organization-wide. The successful candidate will need a familiarity with accrual budgeting and accounting methods, substantial experience with recordkeeping split between Excel and other systems, and a willingness to ask uncomfortable questions. Strong people skills (preferably with experience in a cross-functional role and/or customer service environment) are essential in this role to maintain working relationships with internal and external stakeholders. Ideally, the candidate will utilize this experience and skills combination to reinforce and improve current processes in the Trade Promotion arena.

Responsibilities

Trade Promotion Management: In collaboration with the Trade Promotion Manager, field Sales personnel, and external brokers, act as the key driver behind existing processes to ensure promotional activity runs smoothly and within standard parameters.

• Utilize the Vendavo TPM tool to monitor and adjust existing promotions
• Create and edit internal system data structures related to the Trade Promotion organization
• Collaborate with external developers to guide development of Vendavo TPM instance
• Respond to emergent issues, needs, and concerns from brokers or field Sales personnel
• Coordinate responses to order or claim issues with the relevant departments

Promotional Reporting: Maintain, issue, collect, and collate planning documents at weekly, monthly and yearly intervals to ensure that key milestones and metrics are in compliance with expectations.

• Partner with Marketing and Finance on revenue forecasting and budgeting
• Schedule and drive internal reporting cadences
• Compile results of reporting for executive leadership consumption
• Ensure that all relevant documents from external sources are submitted in a timely manner

Promotional Analysis: Assist the Trade Promotion Manager with analysis on the effectiveness of past promotional activity with an eye toward optimization of discretionary trade spending.

• Extract and transform data from the Circana Unify platform
• Confirm timeframes of promotional activity with external stakeholders

Qualifications

• Minimum of 2 years in Trade Promotion / Sales Support / Finance or other analytical business fields, preferably with CPG and/or accrual accounting experience
• Bachelor’s degree, preferably in Marketing, Economics, or other business fields
• Significant experience working in high-visibility, cross-functional roles
• Precise attention to detail and a strong desire to fill in missing pieces

Required Skills

• Microsoft Office (MS Word, Excel, VBA, and PowerPoint)
• Oracle EBS Software or similar large ERP system
• Problem Solving: ability to quickly diagnose and remedy problems with promotions at all stages as well as willingness to document root causes for future reference
• Process Orientation: desire to understand the purpose of each step in the promotional process, identify inefficiencies, and continuously review to ensure standards and procedures are up to date. This extends to both the operational and reporting sides of the role.
• Communication: capable of explaining and facilitating processes at multiple skill levels from executive to basic. Ability to discern what level of detail is necessary in messaging for various stakeholders. Willingness to provide coaching to users where necessary.
• Collaboration: patience to understand current processes and practices in multiple departments as well as how they relate to the promotional process.