THE ORGANIZATION

Our client, The Little Potato Company, began its journey in 1996 with the owners (Jacob and Angela – father and daughter) wanting to be able to produce little creamer potatoes, like what Jacob knew from his Dutch roots. They grew their first acre by hand; planting, weeding, harvesting, and washing it themselves. They then packed them into the back of Angela’s hatchback, setting off to farmers markets and restaurants. The potatoes were popular with chefs early on, with one of their first accounts being the Banff Springs Hotel. Jacob and Angela bought their first plant in 2000 and with their continued success, have expanded to increasingly larger facilities over the years with their current production facility located in west Edmonton. With further expansion and growth across Canada and into the United States, the decision was made to open a second production plant in Wisconsin, and a third plant in PEI. Today, Angela leads the organization as CEO and Jacob runs a research and breeding company for little potatoes. The Little Potato Company has grown and operates with over 360 employees across Canada and the United States.

The Little Potato Company continues to experience growth year over year and continue to be the leading farmers of Creamer potatoes. They continue to set their sights high with their purpose being to “Save the Potato. Feed the World, better” where “everyone, everywhere deserves to have healthy, great food”. At The Little Potato Company, they believe in living by a set of deeply held core values representing both their history and how they strive to live every day to make the world a better place. The core values that guide their corporate family are:

Importance of Family:  We are a family-based Company and since our prime support comes from our family, we encourage a healthy work-life balance. We honour the place that family has in our employees’ lives.

Go Beyond:  We acknowledge that employees come to us with their own experience and resources.  We support and encourage our employees to go beyond what they bring, beyond what they envision they can do, and certainly beyond a mere job description. We trust in our employees’ passion and creativity so that they can extend themselves not just for the Company, but for themselves.

Elevate others:  We are a diverse and inclusive work environment that embraces new ideas and ways of doing. When we enhance another by recognizing their skills and expertise we contribute to an overall feeling of worth.

Down To Earth:  We are approachable and recognize the common humanity of all.  We do not pretend to be other than what we are. Whether we are in the office, in the plant, in the field or with a customer we are approachable, genuine, and warm.

Do What You Say:  We walk our talk. Being honest and impeccable really means that we waste no time in pretending, glossing over, or making unfounded promises.  We are reliable, accountable and our words communicate an actual reality.

It is a great time to join The Little Potato Company as they continue to grow and be a global supplier of their unique, healthy, and delicious Little Potatoes! For further information on The Little Potato Company, please visit their website at www.littlepotatoes.com

THE OPPORTUNITY

The Senior Consumer Insights Manager will report to the Director Brand, Product & Consumer, and will have a primary focus on leading The Little Potato Company’s (LPC’s) consumer insights and research initiatives to help achieve their marketing and sales goals. The primary scope will be North America.  This role works extensively across teams/departments and is responsible for ensuring that LPC has a deep knowledge of LPC’s consumer and that it is widely understood across the organization.

This position requires a knowledgeable and experienced professional who has a strong background in consumer insights including CRM data mining, data extraction, market research, liaising with external market research organizations and capturing data from category management and sales to identify the “nuggets of gold” that tell the story of LPC’s consumer. The ideal candidate will have the skill in data mining but will get excited about the story it tells and in bringing solutions forward to the organization for targeted consumer marketing and new product development.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Consumer Insights & Research

• Leads all consumer market research (regional and national) and shares information to all teams
• Creates a strategy for tracking brand awareness, trial, consumer retention and loyalty and reports on this quarterly
• Creates and implements a roadmap that leverages 3rd party industry research, custom qualitative/quantitative research, and panel data sources
• Identifies and vets research partners/tools as required
• Manages and allocates the consumer insights budget to deliver LPC’s research goals
• Stays on top of, and forecasts, consumer trends
• Works with the channel owners in Marketing Operations to reach consumers through our owned channels (e.g., website, email, social) to develop and implement research initiatives

Segmentation

• Identifies relevant consumer segments and tracks their growth and engagement with our brand
• Drives consumer acquisition by identifying relevant segments for growth
• Provides insights to drive consumer retention and maintain brand loyalty
• Ensures consumer segmentation on product level

Stakeholder Support

• Provides consumer research insights to support variety, packaging, and product development
• Provides input to the Senior Product Manager on the product plan
• Provides input to the Director, Marketing Operations to create opportunities for interaction with relevant segments through lead generation on social media and digital advertising
• Provides input to the Website and Email Specialist to develop the strategy and content direction for segmented marketing automation
• Works with the sales team Category Manager to gather consumers insights from retailers
• Leads regular sharing sessions and communicates insights, trends and research across marketing, sales, business development and other departments as needed

Stakeholder Management

• Leads the functional relationship on projects with research agencies

FIRST YEAR – MEASURES OF SUCCESS

• Create a program to track LPC’s consumer brand affinity by setting up a contextual framework around the market research to establish trend lines including:
  • What needs to be measured
  • What is the ideal frequency of measurement?
  • And what trends are we identifying from the data

• Identify trends and bring insight forward as to how LPC can “activate” their consumers turning them from one-time purchasers to loyal, frequent consumers of little potatoes.
• Provide your expertise into identifying a new CRM system that will capture the consumer insight data, will interact with retailers and POS systems, in addition to the LPC website to capture the data needed to activate the consumer.
• On-time, on-budget delivery of research initiatives.

THE INDIVIDUAL

Given the pivotal role this individual will be expected to play in achieving the strategic objectives of The Little Potato Company and in supporting the success of the organization, it is essential that the successful candidate possess the following core competencies, experience, and attributes:

Education

• Bachelor’s Degree in a discipline with strong focus on research and analysis

Experience

• 7+ years working in an insights, research, or similar role on a consumer brand
• Experience in leading qualitative and quantitative consumer research projects with research agencies/partners
• Experience in consumer panel data platforms (e.g. Homescan, Numerator, etc.)
• Experience in defining and analyzing consumer segments, and coaching internal teams on how to apply segmentation
• Proficiency in project management, agency management and budget management
• Loves numbers, is analytical and good at simplifying data to tell a compelling story.
• Experience in presenting to senior leadership teams, as well as all staff
• Desire and ability to contribute to work in a growing, entrepreneurial environment for a purpose-driven business
• Desire to own decisions and take responsibility for outcomes
• Willingness to travel when required

Competencies and Knowledge

• Understanding of food, produce and/or consumer-packaging goods brands
• Familiarity with consumer marketing in the US and Canada
• Adept in using both sides of the brain – from analysis through to creative application of the story the data tells
• Ability to connect the dots across multiple data points and research projects
• Strong ability to project manage simultaneous projects with many inter-dependencies
• Ability to lead through influence at all organizational levels, across teams and departments
• Ability to work in an entrepreneurial, unstructured, and highly changing environment.
• Is a great team member, the type of person that others want to follow; leads by example.

Personal Profile

• Intellectual with high emotional intelligence and creativity.
• Confident without arrogance
• Solution focused using tactics to solve problems
• Strong influencer using data and information to create change
• Strong communication skills
• Highly accountable
• Unquestioned personal and professional integrity
• Able to respond and pivot quickly to new initiatives and business needs
• Respectful of others
• Positive attitude and energy
• Collaborative
• Highly organized with good time management skills
• Critical thinker with problem solving skills
• Self-motivated with the ability to work independently and without supervision
• A positive attitude when faced with adversarial situations
• Exhibits sound judgment

Compensation

An excellent compensation package awaits the successful candidate.

Location

Edmonton, Alberta or Vancouver, BC preferred with other remote locations being considered.

How to Apply

For the opportunity to join The Little Potato Company in the role of Sr. Consumer Insights Manager, please email your resume to DreamBig@profoundtalent.com referencing Position ID #AQEE-572307. Should you have an inquiry regarding this position, please contact Stacey Laing at 587-200-0114 ext. 104 or Terri Davis at 587-200-0114 ext. 101.

For further information on ProFound Talent Inc. please visit:

Website: www.profoundtalent.com
YouTube: ProFound Talent Inc.

* We thank all applicants for your submissions; however, only candidates being considered for this role will be contacted. *