VP Marketing

Description JOB DESCRIPTION This role reports to the CEO and serves as a brand steward and marketing strategy owner across our multi-channel business. You will work in close partnership with our Head of eCommerce, Head of Retail and Head of Brand Partnerships to ensure Milk Bar’s identity and strategy remains consistent across all channels. KEY OUTCOME: Build Marketing & Brand as a Performance Growth Channel Establish marketing and brand as a measurable, ROI-driven performance engine accountable for profitable revenue growth across all channels. Develop and own the full-funnel growth strategy, spanning brand awareness, traffic generation, conversion, retention, and customer lifetime value. Build a data-driven KPI framework that directly connects marketing investment to sales growth, traffic, customer acquisition, and contribution margin. Lead budget allocation and channel mix optimization across paid, owned, earned, partnerships, CRM, and retail / omnichannel marketing. Drive a culture of test, learn, optimize, with clear attribution, incrementality measurement, and continuous improvement of marketing efficiency. Partner cross-functionally with sales, finance, operations, digital, and innovation teams to align marketing initiatives with company growth objectives. Elevate brand equity while ensuring brand investments translate into measurable commercial outcomes. RESPONSIBILITIES: MARKETING STRATEGY, CAMPAIGN LEADERSHIP AND CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT Collaborate with founder to define, refine, and lead Milk Bar’s master brand strategy—establishing brand vision, voice, positioning, personality, and aesthetic to ensure a clear, differentiated, and enduring market presence. Guide cross-functional marketing strategy development—ensuring positioning, messaging, and creative direction translate into high-impact campaigns, channel strategy, and measurable growth outcomes. Develop, along with key stakeholders, the Milk Bar story and thread through all consumer-facing communications touchpoints. Ensure consistency across Retail, eComm and Partnerships. Support creation of compelling seasonal campaigns for major brand launches, holidays and other milestones. Lead social media storytelling, channel and content strategy across established and emerging formats. Collaborate with the Creative team, which delivers the marketing content for the organization. Provide strategic insights and positioning for creative campaign development, and provide high level feedback on campaign and creative assets to ensure consistency and integration to cross-channel / masterbrand messaging and strongest possible consumer message and brand voice. Execute thoughtful and strategic founder positioning in conjunction with Milk Bar’s key objectives and growth priorities. Amplify positioning between Milk Bar brand and founder moments. DEMAND GENERATION Own total traffic strategy and accountability (retail + digital). Oversee organic social, influencer, and PR strategy. Lead paid media strategy and growth & acquisition marketing, focused but not limited to DTC: Build annual paid media plan, budget, KPIs and oversee execution and management across an ecosystem of channels, with the goal to efficiently acquire new customers. Source, RFP and manage agencies and vendors to maximize partnerships for business results. Develop KPIs to continually optimize channels toward optimal CAC / LTV targets. Identify and execute high-impact, low-cost growth initiatives. SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER AND AFFILIATE MARKETING Drive social media growth across views, discoverability, and engagement by managing the Social Media Manager and leading strategy that breaks through the noise. Own overarching social strategy - identifying which channels to prioritize, where Milk Bar should show up, and ensuring content decisions ladder up to awareness and business goals. Own influencer and affiliate marketing strategy : build a creator program, establish affiliate partnerships, and hold both channels accountable to traffic and sales performance. Partner with ecommerce to develop and execute social commerce strategy across emerging channels like TikTok Shop and Meta Shop, connecting social audiences directly to purchase. Set performance standards across social, influencer, and affiliate - establishing KPIs, reporting cadence, and a test-and-learn framework the team executes against. RETAIL STRATEGY AND MARKETING: Develop strategies to drive same store sales growth, focusing on in-store activations, local and market-level marketing initiatives, and customer engagement strategies. Partner with Retail Ops and Ops teams on product strategy, seasonal offerings and promotional calendar to achieve channel revenue targets. Lead branding and experiential design including renovations and in-store communications. Partner with Bakery team to develop annual marketing calendar for bakery promotions, including seasonal innovations, LTOs, and special occasion based marketing. Work with Bakery team to execute. Partner with Retail ops to measure store performance through ratings analysis. ECOMMERCE STRATEGY & MARKETING Enhance brand awareness, intrigue, and conversion by partnering with eCommerce to produce and test creative content across acquisition channels, email, and SMS. Deliver consistent, on-brand experiences from top to bottom funnel. Provide content, copy and art direction for website and related programs in partnership with eCommerce team and UXD resources. Partner with eCommerce team on product strategy, seasonal offerings and promotional calendar to achieve channel revenue targets. Partner with Ops team on physicality (design, costs) of shipping experience including box, unboxing experience and individual product packaging and quality. Partner with eCommerce team on retention & loyalty initiatives, providing strategic, execution and creative support. Partner with eCommerce team to execute email and lifecycle marketing communications. Partner with CX team to ensure customer touchpoint strategies are aligned with the brand. PARTNERSHIPS & LICENSING SUPPORT Partner with VP of Brand Partnerships on strategies to maximize partnerships within marketing and our owned channels. Ensure all collateral needs for partnerships are properly supported. FINANCIAL OWNERSHIP Own all marketing spend. Work in tandem with Finance to ensure compliance with annual budgeting processes. Report out on key KPIs as they relate to the performance of marketing. PEOPLE MANAGEMENT, LEADERSHIP & CULTURE Oversee and support the development of team members. Work closely with all cross functional leaders to ensure a cohesive marketing strategy that spans across all channels. Work closely with all departments to strategize and implement company growth initiatives, including product pricing strategy and product mix. Fully understand and exhibit the Milk Bar ethos, embodying core values, inspiring celebration, and creating real magic while serving as a brand ambassador internally and externally. Please note that job duties are subject to change at the Company’s discretion. Requirements 10+ years of progressive marketing leadership experience, including senior leadership roles overseeing multiple marketing disciplines in omnichannel DTC brands, retail, or CPG environments. Experience in brand management, campaign development, and content strategy. Proven experience leading and integrating creative, digital, performance marketing, lifecycle/CRM, and field marketing. Strong operational and organizational leadership skills with a track record of building scalable processes. High financial acumen with the ability to connect marketing investment to business outcomes. Exceptional communication, influence, and stakeholder management skills. Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial, and highly collaborative environment. The pay range for this role is $175,000 - $225,000 annually. Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate, including but not limited to skill set, depth of experience and certifications. In addition to those factors, we consider the relative pay of our current employees in similar positions when making a final offer. #J-18808-Ljbffr