Assistant Brand Manager at Kao EMEA & Americas | Cincinnati, OH | $90K/yr – $100K/yr

Kao EMEA & Americas

Assistant Brand Manager

Cincinnati, OH (Hybrid)

$90K/yr – $100K/yrMid Level5+ years expFull time

Posted 4 weeks ago

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Job Summary

Own brand activation and performance storytelling for a local market, turning insights into integrated programs across social, retail, and media while keeping a tight lid on budget and P&L signals.

Marketing Planning & Execution: Drive insight-led activations across social, PR, influencer, and retail channels with cross‑functional alignment.
Business Analysis: Build dashboards, synthesize consumer and competitive data to inform strategy and media decisions.
P&L, Budget and/or Financial Management: Track spend, flag optimization opportunities, and support annual planning.

Job Description

Responsibilities

The role: The Assistant Brand Manager supports the planning, execution, and optimization of marketing programs to drive brand growth in the local market.
You will lead insight‑driven execution across social, media, retail, and sampling, working closely with cross‑functional teams and agencies to ensure integrated, on‑brand delivery.
You will serve as a central resource for performance reporting and analysis, translating complex data into clear recommendations that guide strategy, media investment, and commercial planning.
You will also support budget tracking and financial planning, and helps bring innovation to life by collaborating on inputs to the BD team to successfully launch new products.
Marketing Planning & Execution
- Support integrated brand activation efforts (social, PR, influencer, TikTok Shop, sampling, retail, and/or paid media), in alignment to brand strategy and business objectives
- Review and guide agency-led concepts and executions, elevating work to ensure it is insight-led, on-brand, and platform-appropriate
- Partner cross-functionally with Trade Marketing, Consumer Engagement, Legal, and Media teams to ensure integrated, compliant, and effective execution
- Collaborate with other team members, providing prioritization, feedback, and context to elevate execution and impact
- Share key learnings, best practices, and insights with Business Division and other country partners to support alignment and capability building

Business Analysis

- Guide the development and ongoing evolution of performance dashboards and reporting tools to support decision-making
- Synthesize consumer, category, and competitive insights to identify opportunities, risks, and key performance drivers
- Lead insight-driven analyses and retrospectives to inform strategic planning, optimization, and prioritization
- Recommend actions to take based on data and insights

P&L, Budget and/or Financial Management

- Support P&L management by tracking marketing spend, consolidating budget inputs, monitoring variances, and flagging risks or optimization opportunities
- Partner with Finance to understand forecasts, investment trade-offs, and financial implications of brand decisions
- Contribute insight-based input into annual planning and budgeting processes

Innovation Strategy & Influence

- Support innovation plans with BD/ Global teams building from knowledge of consumer, brand and market

Leadership & Development

- Implement a learning mindset for themselves to stay current on trends, resource allocation & industry capabilities to close existing gaps & develop relevant capabilities in the future.
- Foster a positive, fact based, growth-minded, and collaborative team environment within team, department, and cross-functionally. Champion professional development and individual growth while driving performance, alignment, and engagement across the Kao organization.

Kao EMEA & Americas

3.7 Glassdoor

This is the official account of Kao in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and the Americas region with our main hubs in London (UK), Darmstadt (Germany), Amersfoort (the Netherlands) and Cincinnati (USA). We focus on our Beauty Care business with premium brands in three business sectors: Consumer Care, Salon and Molton Brown.Our Consumer Care business represents iconic skin and hair care brands that are recognized for their innovation and quality across the globe, including John Frieda, Guhl, Bioré, Bondi Sands, Curél and Jergens.Our Salon Business is committed to unleashing the creativity of stylists, salons and consumers around the globe. With our brands Goldwell, Oribe, KMS Hair, Kerasilk and Varis, stylists have everything in their hands to create beautiful show-stopping hair representative of the individuality of their clients.Our London-based luxury brand Molton Brown, offers fragrance, body and bath products found only in our exclusive Molton Brown stores, high-end department stores and travel retail, as well as five-star hotels around the world.All three business sectors are driven by the same values and beliefs: We strive to create a Kirei life for people, society and the planet through creation and innovation that enables more sustainable lifestyles. The Japanese word kirei, meaning “clean, well-ordered, and beautiful,” reflects our purpose.And because our people are our greatest asset, we foster an environment where everyone can grow, flourish and help us make life beautiful.Globally, Kao has strived to deliver value to the life of people everywhere in the world since the company's founding in 1887. As a Japan-based manufacturer of personal care and household products, cosmetics, and specialty chemicals, Kao creates high-value-added products and services that provide care and enrichment for the life of all people and the planet.

Tokyo, Tokyo, JPN

3.8K employees (517 in marketing)

www.kao.com

68% recommend to a friend

96% CEO approval