Reserve Brand Ambassador and Spirits Capability at Diageo

About the role

This is an advocacy position aimed at building the Reserve Luxury Portfolio knowledge, awareness and adoration with our Diageo Reserve Luxury Portfolio salesforces as well as the Trend leading stakeholders, driving, and inspiring customer loyalty and demand, which will in turn transform into consumer demand.

The role will also include managing the capability on spirits for the sales team and an assigned business unit.

There is a need to improve the Distribution and especially the Rate of Sale of our Reserve Luxury Portfolio, and the Ambassador will be pivotal in not only ensuring our TLA/RLA accounts are serviced to a level where visibility, in-outlet rotation activities, account promotions, perfect serves/rituals, recommendation, events, and competitions drive a constant turnover of our brands, but that they are all to the luxury Reserve Luxury Portfolio standard.

Dimensions
Decision Making Responsibility

Effective Relationships: Creates the contact matrix for their area of responsibility and defines how to maximize key relationships (time / resource)

Activation plans: Defines the way in which Reserve Luxury Portfolio activation is delivered with outlets / contacts.

 Financial Responsibility

Managing your budgets for travel, training, and events

 Market Complexity

• The Reserve Luxury Portfolio business has a challenging growth & innovation agenda.
• The trading environment is dynamic with customer and consumers trends changing all the time.
• The challenge in the on-trade is driving penetration and frequency of consumption, the off trade is challenged with retail consolidation & pricing.
• Our customers are targeting a broad diversity of retail propositions at an increasingly marketing-literate consumer base.
• Our major customers expect a high level of consumer insight, strong category management techniques, powerful commercial propositions, and a deep understanding of how their business operates.
• Consumers are trading up in both the on and off trade.
• This is a highly complex role covering a broad portfolio of brands across a range of IMC’s.

Functional capabilities

Highly connected with the Reserve environment

• Deep understanding of what is important to Reserve Luxury Portfolio customers and uses this insight to execute activation plans that delight and influence the customer and their consumers.
• Has their finger on the pulse of what is happening on the ground – is the “face” of luxury in their environment and have brilliant relationships with key influencers in the industry.
• Ability to identify emerging trends & insights. Tenacious in translating this knowledge into commercial actions quickly.
• Category Knowledge across Spirits and TBA (highly recommended on most relevant in local luxury arena i.e., wine) with experience in process, ingredients & provenance
• Passion for luxury dinks and non-drinks brands, our customers & our consumers
• Operates proactively – and where necessary reactively - to beat the competition.
• Brand Ambassador is the personification of the portfolio in the market: attitude, appearance, and personality. The Ambassador will always represent the portfolio but may also have an extra specialization in one or two of the brands.
• Relationship management with external and internal stakeholders
• Ability to develop strong relationships with trade partners, especially through leveraging credibility vs. being seen as a brand salesperson.
• Ability to work cross functionally.

Brilliant Execution

• Exceptional presentation skills that captivate the customer and leads to consistent, high-quality execution that embodies the distinctive elements of the outlet(s)
• Is capable and competent to plan and deliver training with priority customers.
• Can work with others internally to build capability behind these brands.
• Demonstrate high level self-organization and good time management. Ability to meet multiple objectives and deadlines.
• Time management and organization skills
• Post event: evaluation, analysis and report writing skills.

Spirits Capability

• Ensure sales teams can sell our spirits excellently through your training programs.
• Ensure distributor partners can sell our spirits brands excellently through your training programs.
• Be the lead on spirits capability in your assigned regional division – assisting DSMs in owning the Reserve Brands and IPS agenda.
• Build knowledge in your assigned internal business unit of all EABL spirit brands.

Role Responsibilities

• Conduct comprehensive training, tastings, samplings, masterclasses, dinners, across the Reserve Luxury Portfolio of internal and external customers and targeted consumers.
• Create structured monthly meetings with quarterly reporting to key Sales and Marketing stakeholders.
• Execution of Reserve Luxury Portfolio On-Premises and Retail activity – (for example – and not an exhaustive list- to include mapping and building a database of key stakeholders in the accounts and number trained, number of persuasion programs developed, Percentage steal of share from the competition, quantified incremental sales linked to activity, building advocacy, improving visibility, menu share, POS presence, creation of bespoke menu/cocktail lists, World Class execution)
• Prospect and build strong relationships with Gurus/Influencers in key markets, while maintaining and nurturing current relationships
• Continually re-evaluates current Reserve Luxury Portfolio accounts and helps acquire new accounts based on market trends.
• Inspires consumers, customers, and trade to advocate Reserve brands.
• Delivers special events in a way which provides positive surprises for our consumers and customers.
• Own the capability agenda for your assigned business unit, regional division, and distributor partners

Qualifications and Experience Required

• Excellent knowledge and experience in the alcoholic drinks and non-drinks luxury goods sector
• Proven passion to live life of the luxury sector and bring our brands to life.
• Experience as an entrepreneur with a strong understanding of the motivations of bar managers and staff
• Outstanding and proven presentation skills
• Must possess excellent mixology skills with a solid Spirit (and Wine) knowledge.
• Proven training ability, persuasive selling skills, passion for wine and the high-end drinks business, with respect to customers and consumers
• Excellent category, brand, and trade knowledge with a strong ability to identify emerging trends and insights.
• Good informal relationships with wine, culinary and lifestyle journalists an asset
• Fluent in English (highly recommended)