Communications Director
About the team
The Harry’s Marketing team comprises a Brand team, an Innovation team, a Consumer Insights team, an in-house Creative team and the PR, Social & Partnerships team, this role would lead the latter. The Harry’s Marketing team also works closely with Shopper Marketing (which reports in to the retail sales team) and the acquisition and email marketing teams (which report in to the direct-to-consumer team that drives sales for Harrys.com).
About the role
The Director orchestrates our earned brand communication, understanding the market opportunities, identifying consumer/press/influencer insights to tap into to build a stronger emotional connection with consumers and generate a disproportionate share of buzz and cache, something that is harder yet even more important as we scale.
The Director's role is to ensure that our brand leads popular culture through our communication, engagements and partnerships, rather than following it. The Director oversees and manages the communication process – from brief definition, pulling together different partners to ensure cohesion, to evaluation of creative materials against goals. The job requires both diplomacy, collaboration and communication skills in liaising with other teams and creative leadership in working with our partners.
Specific work areas:
- Brand Positioning: While the ultimate responsibility for refining Harry’s brand positioning sits with the brand team this Director is responsible for bringing our brand strategy to life in a creative & resonant way. A great Director stays true to the positioning and strategy but knows how to ask for, find, and create really compelling inroads & deliver creative executions.
- Define Harry’s PR, Social and Partnerships narrative: The IMC Director must lead the planning of a calendar so we know the arc of the 12-18 months ahead and what steps we'll take with comms along the way. The Director needs to bring together the different individuals and teams that help bring brand stories to life and lead external agencies to ensure optimal impact is achieved in market. Specifically:
- Provide regular status reports, timelines and delivery calendars, risk/issues reports to key stakeholders are engaged at the right times through the process.
- Track budget, supervise third parties and agencies, follow timelines and manage team members to achieve outcomes as outlined in the initiative's project objectives.
- Nurture a high quality relationship with in-house brand and creative teams, and external agency partners to provide them with guidance, leadership and inspiration.
- PR: The Directors role is to ensure our PR efforts link in a more detailed and authentic way to our positioning to ensure we're using that engine to power us as best we can. We seek to shift from a brand seeking amplification to a brand with a progressive voice on a cultural debate / discussion.
- Guide the PR team in the briefing and management of the PR agency. Ensure a clear PR activity calendar is developed and managed against that leverages the brand positioning and ultimately the creative idea to engage a national audience.
- The Director’s role is to ensure we are pushing the most compelling points / hooks in to the creative idea, pulling out the components of our creative narrative that will generate a disproportionate share of engagement and interest.
- Social communications framework:
- Oversee the development of a content framework and strategy by channel for execution in 2018+, that leverages the brand positioning and creative ideas.
- Leverage the above to guide the Channel Manager in the development of content calendars with the appropriate frequency of engagement to progress the state of our audience relationships.
- Guide the Channel Manager in the process of leveraging in house creative teams to develop stories that can spread.
- Partnerships identification and management:
- Guide the Partnerships Manager to identify key partnership collaborators to execute leading edge offerings - be that product collaborations, specialty availability (our J.Crew, Barney’s, Urban Outfitters partnerships etc), or content collaborations, that build our brand with intention
- Oversee the management of the partners to deliver our goals on time and in a way that pushes forward our brand equity.
- Oversee the negotiation of relationship details such as product briefs, cost structures, and outreach expectations.
This should describe you:
- Deeply customer centric
- You are able to think holistically about communication strategies
- You are dialed in to what’s cool, new and relevant and how to translate that for brands
- You are able to see beyond the obvious and push for brilliant creative ideas
- You are adept at translating ideas into concrete activities that deliver results
- You have a natural passion for building and love getting your hands dirty, you’re a doer
- You are able to thrive in fast-paced environments and adapt quickly
- Excellent communication skills both in writing and verbally
- A natural coach and mentor - someone people are excited to work for
- You are a learner - always seeking to improve yourself and your team
- Sense of humor, we take our work seriously not ourselves
Harry’s started as a men’s grooming brand that was built out of respect for quality craftsmanship, simple design, modern convenience and for guys who know they shouldn’t have to overpay for a great shave. Since launching in early 2013, we have been blown away by the customer response to our brand. As we grow our opportunities to communicate with potential customers increase, but with those opportunities comes increased complexity and a heightened need to be thoughtful as we extend. Ensuring we continue to push our thinking, strive for innovation, all while protecting the charm of our brand that has so successfully resonated to date.
Harry’s is committed to bringing together individuals from different backgrounds and perspectives. We strive to create an inclusive environment where everyone can thrive, feel a sense of belonging, and do great work together. As an equal opportunity employer, we prohibit any unlawful discrimination against a job applicant on the basis of their race, color, religion, veteran status, sex, parental status, gender identity or expression, transgender status, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability or genetic information. We respect the laws enforced by the EEOC and are dedicated to going above and beyond in fostering diversity across our company.