Director, Brand Strategy

PURPOSE AND SCOPE:

Reporting to the Senior Global Brand Director, the Global Brand Strategist will be a hands-on strategic thinker, collaborator, and implementer within the Brand Strategy Center of Excellence (COE) as part of the Fresenius Medical Care (FME) Global Communications organization. In this capacity, the Global Brand Strategist will support the Senior Director in delivering top-tier global services to FME's global Business Partners (BP) in the area of Brand Strategy. Additionally, working with the Senior Director, the Global Brand Strategist will help establish and maintain industry-standard global practices in process, planning and stakeholder partnership with their Business Partners. This management role will be a key asset to FME and its world class communications team that develops and implements a global company communications strategy supporting FME in achieving their business goals.

The Global Brand Strategist will work closely with the Senior Global Brand Director and manage brand marketing, communications, and strategy for the global Fresenius Medical Care brand. The Senior Global Brand Strategist will help develop, champion, and implement initiatives to ensure the brand remains relevant to core audiences, supports the brand story, and strengthens brand equity across the globe. Initiatives will involve the hardwiring of our global brand narrative into our business operations, providing education and inspiration for employees and driving widespread understanding and adoption of the one global Fresenius Medical Care brand story.

PRINCIPAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Work in close partnership with the Senior Global Brand Director to shape and share the overall global brand strategy including:
  • Brand identity, narrative, equity, health, and reputation approach
  • Brand governance model
• Manage branding projects in partnership with internal creative resources to deliver best in class results in:
  • Brand architecture, naming and portfolio alignment
  • Key messaging and positioning, working in concert with Business Partners from business segments and regions
  • Visual expression, systems, and related assets for internal and external audiences
• Assist in driving audience insights work (in partnership with analytics team and segment marketing) including patient, customer and partner segmentation work, acquisition and retention strategies and overarching brand building strategies
• Communicate brand objectives and strategies to internal and external partners to inform their work, including market development, creative briefs, etc.
• Collaborate effectively with a global team of internal and external partners for integrated brand campaign development including ideation, insight definition, reasons to believe, customer research and claims development - ensuring a consistent audience experience (patients/physicians/partners) across all marketing touchpoints
  • Serve as a reliable partner to and collaborator with regional peers to ensure the addressing of cultural nuances unique to any given region: North America, EMEA, Asia Pacific, and LATAM
• Conduct competitive, category, and industry mapping regularly to keep teams on the forefront of the business landscape and to better inform our marketing and innovation

PHYSICAL DEMANDS AND WORKING CONDITIONS:

• The physical demands and work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
• Occasional travel required

SUPERVISION:

• No direct reports as of yet, but plenty of collaboration with peers and others across levels and across the globe

EDUCATION:

• Bachelor’s Degree required; Advanced Degree desirable
• Concentrations in Management, Marketing or Advertising preferred

EXPERIENCE AND REQUIRED SKILLS:

• Min of 7 years’ experience in marketing, brand, research, brand strategy, and implementation; Agency experience a plus
• Effective oral and written communication skills
• Experience developing insight-collection approaches (qualitative and quantitative) to inform brand strategies and collect learnings from branding efforts
• Strong ability to foster trusting relationships with cross functional teammates, ensuring brand strategy is always well-informed as well as well-communicated across the organization
• Demonstrated interest in transformational storytelling focused on driving brand excellence and culture within the organization
• Has shown curiosity and ability to navigate complex challenges, work with team members to understand these, and to articulate paths forward
• Brings tact, diplomacy and professionalism to each and every interaction
• Values relationship creation and management with people at all levels of the organization
• Strong program and project management skills – coordinating multiple stakeholders and initiatives
• Resourceful and thoughtful problem solver
• Experience working in teams