WHO ARE WE LOOKING FOR?
Nike Southeast Asia & India is hiring for a curious and driven Visual Merchandising & Styling Manager who brings passion for retail and collaboration and understands the power of well thought out storytelling and execution in store. This role plays an integral part in ensuring the brand priorities and presentation strategies and standards are implemented consistently across Nike Marketplace Partners (NMP). This candidate needs to be able to think strategically through both brand and business lenses, and translate Nike Marketplace Visual Merchandising & Styling direction cascaded from Nike World Headquarters in a compelling way to inspire the territory and Nike Marketplace teams as well as the Partner to ensure flawless execution. We are looking for someone who has the ability to create solutions and navigate diverse and ambiguous scenarios, a proven people leader with strong communication and influencing skills and a results & solution-oriented mindset.
WHAT WILL YOU WORK ON?
A typical week consists of regular brand and business cross-functional meetings focused on seasonal Visual Merchandising & Styling execution and some retail brand storytelling execution. This includes store visits and close engagement with territory, Nike Marketplace Partners and Partner teams. Your primary focus is to ensure that retail consumer experiences are well executed and adapted, aligned with brand expectations and standards and drive expected financial and productivity results. Ongoing team and talent development as well as the deployment of Visual Merchandising & Styling training curriculum also play a large role in ensuring the continued growth and elevation of the team. You will develop clear territory NMP strategy and execution plans for VMS and product presentation regarding priorities, service levels and expectations with strong communication skills to manage across functions, territory and Geo.
You will indirectly manage a team of in-store visual specialists/managers (third party agencies, outsourcing vendors or Partner teams) and set goals that link to overall brand and business priorities. This will entail coaching, development, helping with hiring decisions, driving performance management, and recognition/rewards. You will also be developing and fostering strong collaborations with Nike Marketplace Partner, Partner Visual Merchandising & Styling teams, Asia Pacific geography Visual Merchandising & Styling, Partner Transformation (PT) and other cross-functional business partners, including Partner Go-To-Market (PGTM) and PT teams to provide VMS guidance and brand point of view for specific business-to-business (B2B) moments and business-to-consumer (B2C) retail projects, involving our brand and/or product presentation.
You will monitor Partner execution to ensure VMS standards are met and consistent while facilitating the reporting process for the Territory VMS team to the Geo VMS leadership team.
WHO WILL YOU WORK WITH?
In this role, you will work with a diverse set of teams and individuals across multiple brand and business functions including, Nike and Nike Marketplace Partners and Partner teams, from the field to Nike World Headquarter based organizations.
You will work closely with the Nike World Headquarter based Visual Merchandising & Styling team to share feedback and best practices related to what’s working or not working and define opportunities for future seasons. Additionally, you will work closely with a cross-functional team of brand and business partners on the mapping, opening and sustaining of doors across your territory.
This role reports directly into the Nike Southeast Asia & India Consumer Direct Marketing Director and requires immersion with Partner Marketing teams. The expectation is that the individual builds and sustains strong and collaborative working relationships with Partner Marketing, Merchandising, PT, Demand Supply Management (DSM), Partner Go-To-Market and Operations to ensure flawless execution in the field. You will also work closely with the Asia Pacific Latin America geography Visual Merchandising & Styling and Partner Marketing functions to build a strong flow of communication to continually improve tools & direction developed by the geography and to inform the team of relevant marketplace learnings and competitive trends.
WHAT YOU BRING
- Bachelor's Degree in Business, Marketing, Visual Merchandising, Design or related field or extensive experience in Visual Merchandising in lieu of a degree.
- Minimum 5 years of experience in retail marketing, visual merchandising, product merchandising or directly related experience in a retail environment (footwear & apparel experience is preferred), with demonstrated experience creating engaging and inspiring in-store displays and keen understanding of the art and science of visual merchandising & styling.
- Knowledge of current retail landscape and the latest trends and innovations for retail. Ability to create unique presentation solutions for various retail environments that inspire the consumer, drive sales, and align with the Nike brand voice.
- Exceptional verbal and written communication skills and ability to influence cross-functional teams
- Confident presentation and computer skills with strong command of Microsoft Office (Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint) and Mac Keynote. Mac proficiency strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated experience and passion for team leadership, people development and coaching & mentoring a diverse team of young talent.
- Perform light lifting of product, fixtures and mannequins.
- Be available to travel 20-40% of time in role and occasionally work outside of regular working hours e.g. during peak retail seasons or new store openings.
