Shopper Marketing Manager

About Hero UK&I

You probably know us best through our beloved brands, Deliciously Ella for our range of plant-based food products, our Deliciously Ella app and our delicious recipes, Organix for our tasty `toddler snacking foods and Goodies for fun and tasty pre-schooler snacks. This is a unique opportunity to make a visible impact in a market-leading company that prioritises sustainability, integrity, and natural goodness.

We’re proud to be a certified B Corp, using business as a force for good — for people, communities, and the planet. You’ll find our offices in sunny Bournemouth, and the heart of London with a Deliciously Ella factory in Milton Keynes, where our passionate teams make this delicious magic happen. We’ve been named a Great Place to Work, and we’re seriously proud of the positive culture and business we’ve built together.

We’re part of the Hero Group, a global family of brands united by a shared mission to Delight Consumers through honest goodness in every bite.

About Hero Group

Hero is a global food company, founded in 1886 in Switzerland, specializing in branded nutritional products across the Growing Up and Adult categories. With a portfolio of trusted brands like Corny, Semper, Goodies, Beech-Nut, Organix, and Deliciously Ella, Hero delivers high-quality, great-tasting food rooted in natural goodness. Guided by its mission to “To delight Consumers through honest Goodness in every Bite”. With 4,000 team members worldwide, the company is driven by strong values, high performance, and a commitment to doing the right thing—always, without compromise.

About the role

Lead and optimise Shopper Marketing and Retail Media investment across our adult and toddler snacking brands, Deliciously Ella, Organix and Goodies, ensuring every pound spent delivers measurable, profitable growth.

The role owns the end-to-end retail media strategy and budget, building strong partnerships with key retail media agencies and retailers to maximise impact.

Working cross-functionally with Account Managers, Category and Brand Marketing, the role ensures plans are insight-led, commercially focused and aligned to customer and brand objectives.

A core accountability is driving continuous improvement in ROI - rigorously evaluating performance, prioritising the highest-impact activities, and embedding a test-and-learn approach to ensure we are investing in the channels and mechanics that deliver the strongest return.

Internally you will work with all teams, especially Sales, Category, Marketing & Finance. External relationships will include Agency partners – Shopper Marketing, Creative Design & Media; Retailers and their key contacts (including 3rd party shopper marketing agencies) and Research & Insight Partners

Key Responsibilities

• Recommend, own and evolve the Shopper Marketing strategy for Hero UK&I, ensuring the plan aligns with our company strategic objectives
• Lead the annual planning process to create shopper marketing campaigns for each retailer by collaborating with the Sales and Marketing teams. Ensure shopper marketing plans deliver against priorities and evolve through testing and learning strategies, evaluation, and shopper insight to ensure effective KPI delivery and return on investment
• Manage the execution of the plan across Grocery Mults & Discounters and playing a support role to the OOH team to execute their plans. Working closely with the retailers, retailer agencies, sales team, marketing team, shopper marketing agency and other partner agencies.
• Own the review and analysis of shopper marketing activity to deliver shopper insight that can be utilised in future planning. Analyse the results against effective KPI delivery and return on investment.
• Drive best in class visibility of our brands online through close partnership with our E-Commerce Manager and executing Online media through our partner agencies. Support the eCommerce team in delivery of strategy to improve search, content and discoverability working with both the marketing and sales leads across both omnichannel and pure play retailers.
• Securing best-in-class commercial agreements with our retail media agency partners by leading robust negotiations, maximising added value, and delivering significant efficiencies versus rate card. Ensuring our investment works harder through value-driven partnerships and smart buying strategies.
• Drive visibility and trial of our brands fulfilment of retailer sampling activity working closely with the PR & Communications Manager to ensure there is a cohesive sampling plan.
• Own & manage the Shopper Marketing budget, with a focus on efficiency & effectiveness allowing for flexibility whilst ensuring ROI KPIs are set and met. Accurate and timely reporting to the Finance team as well as effective management of the PO and Invoice approval process.
• Support the Commercial Team in the preparation and attendance at retailer strategy days and meetings to presenting the shopper marketing plans.

• Leading a quarterly Shopper Marketing review with cross-functional team and senior stakeholders, updating on key activities, reviewing the plan, sharing learnings and recommending any changes to strategy and budget.
• It is a standard of performance to work to our values as part of your role.

About you

• Degree level or equivalent
• Experienced in developing cross functional relationships internally and with external partners - especially retailers & agencies.
• Proven track record of developing and delivering effective Trade and Shopper Marketing initiatives that have driven measurable commercial results
• Highly numerate and commercially astute, with solid understanding of the full marketing mix and a minimum of 3 years’ experience delivering trade and shopper marketing activity within an FMCG environment.
• Experience managing significant budgets, with strong financial discipline, including accurate forecasting, in-year budget management, reconciliation of actuals and clear ROI reporting.
• FMCG commercial background with the ability to analyse market, shopper and financial data to inform decision-making and optimise performance.
• Experience operating within a small, fast-paced team, demonstrating autonomy, ownership and the ability to proactively drive initiatives forward
• Energy, tenacity, and enthusiasm and a self-starter
• An ambitious, team playing attitude with a growth mindset
• Strong negotiation skills
• Exceptional project management
• Keen problem-solving skills – able to use ‘gut instinct’ balanced with analytical evidence
• Willingness to broaden experience outside of the role as required
• Strong influencing and communication skills at all levels and cross-functionally
• Attention to detail
• Good computer literacy – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Internet, Outlook

What we offer

Our Values

Our values are at the heart of everything we do. Developed through an inclusive process involving colleagues from across the business, they guide how we work, collaborate, and succeed together. They reflect who we are today and the future we are building:

Create Wow - We go beyond expectations and strive to make a meaningful impact

Everyone Hero – Every individual matters and every contribution counts.

Nourish Others – We support, inspire, and help each other grow.

Take Responsibility - We own our actions and outcomes, individually and as a team

You will have the opportunity to be part of a mission driven business at a hugely exciting point in our growth trajectory, where your voice is heard and where you’re able to actively impact our business. Some great perks in working for Hero UK&I include:

• A competitive salary

• 25 days holiday. You will also get an extra day’s holiday for your birthday

• Free Deliciously Ella App Access for you and five friends and family

• Private Medical Insurance

• Contributory pension scheme and access to free pension advice

• Access to Grocery Aid employee assistance resources.

• Massages & Reflexology when you are in our Bournemouth office

• Psycle Classes when you are in our London office

• Home & Tech Scheme

• Nursery Benefit

• Bike to Work and Electric Car Schemes

• Car Park benefits at our Bournemouth Office

• Hybrid Working and Flexible Bank Holidays

• Team breakfasts and Lunches and snacks from all our UK brands

• Learning Opportunities and Study Leave

Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion

At Hero UK&I we are committed to cultivating and maintaining a culture that is inclusive and diverse. We celebrate differences and continually support all team members to be proud of who they are. We pride ourselves on equal employment opportunity regardless of gender, sex, age, disability, race, religion, sexual orientation, or social class. We hire the best people based on an evaluation of their abilities and effectiveness, nothing else.