Head of Marketing Strategy & Planning

About the position

The Head of Marketing Strategy and Planning understands what makes the Love’s brand valuable. The role will create and drive world class strategic marketing & advertising initiatives to articulate the Love’s vision, resulting in increasing sales and enhancing the brand image. They will partner and lead cross-functionally in their mission to innovatively tell the Love’s story and differentiate the Love’s brand from competitors.

Responsibilities

• Create a winning, long-term, cross-channel marketing strategy that maximizes company profitability, yet remains lean and financially disciplined.
• Lead the development of brand and marketing strategy for Love’s Travel Stops and associated lines of business.
• Identify and analyze key market trends, competitor activities, and consumer habits to formulate the best strategies to effectively influence the market landscape and emotionally engage with our customers.
• Steward and align marketing & business goals in a way that ensures creative deliverables authentically bring Love’s principal of 'Highway Hospitality' to the market.
• Drive collaboration among internal teams & external partners to create the most engaging marketing content, promotions, and advertising materials.
• Partner with internal & external sales organizations, along with utilizing current – and vetting prospective – agency & technology partners, to craft the most refined and efficient go-to-market strategies, including paid marketing opportunities.
• Own accountability for self and group by tracking performance against organizational goals.
• Establish & develop scalable marketing strategies, which includes determining & optimizing best practices, budgets, and appropriate KPIs.
• Monitor and regularly report on marketing expenses, particularly on ROI & Return on Goal metrics for campaign effectiveness, adjusting strategies as needed.
• Define ‘new business’ vs. ‘mature business’ spend strategies and ensure marketing is included in all relevant pro-forma.
• Manage and evolve the Love’s enterprise marketing strategy to ensure sustained growth.
• Collaborate with marketing team to refine Love’s brand positioning & brand promise, including differences between Love’s Travel Stops and the Love’s Family of Companies.
• Oversee the planning, execution, and measurement of multi-channel enterprise marketing campaigns, including digital, traditional, and social media marketing.
• Work closely with other leaders in marketing to ensure consistency within brands and differentiation across the company’s brands.
• Build a sustainable marketing strategy that is inclusive of EV and alternative fuel investments, but does not alienate our primary customer, the professional driver.
• Build up and direct an efficient, high performing creative team.
• Empower department leaders and their team members to bring innovative ideas to the business, delegating responsibility and tracking accountability as appropriate.
• Attentive to the coaching, mentoring, and support of leaders who can lead leaders.
• Foster a spirit of teamwork and champion the Love’s culture of inclusion & diversity.
• Responsible for personnel actions within department, including hiring, performance management, and termination.

Requirements

• Bachelor of arts degree in Marketing, Business Administration, or related field; Master’s degree preferred.
• Proven experience of at least 10 years in a senior marketing role, with a focus on marketing strategy development, advertising, and brand management within the retail industry.
• Creativity and originality in design of brand campaigns and marketing strategies.
• Demonstrated expertise in budget management, ROI tracking, and performance measurement.
• Strong leadership skills with the ability to inspire and motivate cross-functional teams.
• Supervises the work of others through a team of subordinate managers.
• Exceptional strategic thinking, analytical abilities, and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively collaborate with stakeholders at all levels of the organization.
• Knowledge of sustainability practices and their integration into marketing strategies is preferred.
• Proficiency in marketing analytics tools and platforms.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment and drive results under pressure.

Nice-to-haves

• Knowledge of sustainability practices and their integration into marketing strategies is preferred.

Benefits

• Inclusive workplace culture
• Opportunities for community involvement