CATEGORY MANAGER – LDB

When you look at L’Oréal, what do you see? If all you see is lipstick, look again and experience the Freedom to go Beyond the ordinary. That’s the beauty of L’Oréal. We operate in 150 countries on 5 continents. With 36 international brands and 86,000 employees worldwide, we’re well on our way to fulfilling our common purpose: to create beauty that moves the world.

By 2030 we want to capture over another 1 billion consumers around the world. How? By creating cosmetic products which meet the infinite diversity of consumers beauty needs and desires, and always through digital innovation. Not only that, but taking our sustainability goals seriously; moving us to a more inclusive and sustainable society, for every generation.

Our brands, dynamic culture, and always being our own challenger mean that we offer freedom and opportunity you won’t get anywhere else. 

If you want the Freedom to go Beyond, we’ll see you at L’Oréal.

Being part of the L’Oréal Dermatological Beauty will give you direct influence in achieving our mission: to help everyone in their quest for healthy and beautiful skin.

We’re the world leader in dermocosmetics, with international skincare brands recommended by health care professionals and distributed in healthcare outlets worldwide, including, pharmacies, drugstores, medi-spa and e-retailers.

Our portfolio is composed of 6 brands offering a range of skincare and haircare across the world; Vichy, CeraVe and La Roche-Posay being just a few. The products respond to all expectations linked to beauty and health of the skin: from dermatological and aesthetics skincare to natural solutions, from the most accessible ranges to the most premium ones.

ROLE OVERVIEW:

The L’Oréal Dermatological Beauty Category Manager is responsible for the collaborative category development relationship with our external B&M retail partners ensuring that we are growing the total category for the retailer and growing LDB’s share of this. This will be done by being the category expert and working with retailers sharing insights and delivering projects which support a consumers experience of shopping the Dermatological skincare category. The role will report into the Senior Category Manager in LDB.

You will

-    Be responsible for the collaborative category development relationship with our B&M retail partners ensuring that we are growing the total category for the retailer and ensuring LDB win within this. This is done by being the category expert across shopper and consumer dynamics thereby landing projects with the retailer to enhance the experience that the beauty shopper receives and ultimately improving category performance 

-    Embed BIC category expertise and ways of working, both internally and externally. Focused on:

-    Range reviews: responsibility for landing RR process both internally and externally growing in-store fundamentals - SOF, SOD, optimized range for their specified retailers 

-    Retailer category strategy: take the developed category strategy and tailor to be retailer centric. Identify and unlock projects for growth outside of standard RR process, agree this with the retailer and successfully land them

-    Lead and land retailer specific projects e.g. eventing, O+O reinvention, shopper segmentation, research

-    Lead regular category trade meetings: market updates (performance, consumer, shopper dynamics), RR proposal and follow ups, post RR analysis, project meetings. Build a clear contact strategy to ensure reliability with the retailer and the appropriate escalation support where required

-    Be the internal expert of the shopper in the specific retailer and/or category – ensure continuous sharing of shopper data with the relevant internal teams to enhance our understanding of topline performance and build shopper driven action plans to address opportunities and challenges

-    Have regular contact with the Global team on the development of retailer vision and take from creation to implementation in store. 

-    Be the expert on sales and shopper tools such as Nielsen Answers, IRI, Kantar

-    Maintain confidentiality with sensitive data both internally and externally 

You have

Alongside experience as a Category Manager and excellent leadership & communication skills, you should be confident demonstrating all of the following: 

-    The ability to build strong relationships with the trade via expertise sharing, reliability and objectivity. Maintaining confidentiality where required 

-    Strong data analysis capability with the ability to integrate multiple sources to build compelling recommendations. 

-    Effectively influence internal and external stakeholders with proposals rooted in shopper, consumer and category insights

-    Be a thought leader with our retailers and internally – drive the future execution of the beauty category and LDB in our market O+O

-    Action orientated – constant focus on ‘insight-in-to-action.’

-    A clear, and confident communication style to best position and represent the objectives of internal LDB and the retailer. 

-    Ability to drive the agenda from the shopper point of view to provide a complimentary perspective to the others shared internally.

-    Excellent teamwork skills with proven ability to collaborate across multiple disciplines to ensure product success and ability to influence cross-functional teams without formal authority

You show

Ambition: You anticipate, think and dream big, demonstrating a high level of aspiration. You are self-driven and show proactivity, especially when seeing problems as challenges. You thrive for exceptional performance.

Judgement: You can balance operational and strategic thinking as a Category Manager, challenging the status quo and managing confrontation effectively. You cut quickly through complexity and ambiguity whilst also thinking sustainably and are future-oriented. You reduce complexity to get things done.

Resilience: You always demonstrate purpose and ownership mindset but manage your own energy well. You uphold positivity for others and persist, bouncing back when faced with obstacles. You step back at times and accept limits.  

Empathy: You cooperate and network effectively, creating genuine and trustful relationships with diverse people. You are sensitive to beauty and related emotions, always supporting others and showing benevolence. You understand and respect others’ feelings and motives.  

Learning Agility: You are a self-motivated learner, showing self-awareness and demonstrating openness and curiosity. You experiment and learn from mistakes and past experiences, always showing courage and stepping out of your comfort zone. You support the development of a learning culture.

You get

We put people development and learning at the heart of our business; we’ll help you master your role, develop your technical expertise and you’ll benefit from exceptional management and leadership programmes. From face-to-face workshops to our global online learning resources, you’re actively encouraged to embed learning into your daily life and are rewarded for continuous improvement. Don’t forget that every employee gets 3 Coursera credits; that means you can get qualifications from over 1000 universities from around the world, with thousands of courses to choose from.

Looking for a good work/life balance? With our new hybrid working scheme, you can take a flexible approach to work as well as benefit from early finishes on Fridays during the summer...so you can enjoy more time with your friends and family.

As any great employer should do, we make sure we look after your financial wellbeing. That’s why we have a great pension plan, profit share scheme and many more incentives to give you the security you deserve. We also put employee health and wellbeing at the front of everything we do; fully training employees as mental health ambassadors to support and educate ourselves further. There’s also the chance to enrol in medical and dental insurance, gym discounts, health check-ups and even yoga and Pilates classes to employees in all of our locations.

Oh, did we mention that as an employee you also get discount sales of up to 70% off throughout the year on our 36 brands? Plus, you also get the option to share that in our Friends and Family sales as well!

How we recruit

At L’Oréal, we take pride in creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment where everyone is welcome and their contributions are valued. When we recruit, hire, train, promote or engage in any other employment practice, we are committed to being an inclusive employer regardless of race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, age, socioeconomic status, medical condition or disability, or any other protected status. When we look for talent, we welcome difference - different backgrounds, experiences, personalities and perspectives. The beauty we find in our differences gives us the freedom to go beyond. That’s the beauty of L’Oréal.