Senior Brand Marketing Manager

About The Opportunity

Inspired by a commitment to excellence, the AQV marketing team creates unforgettable memories for our guests. The Senior Brand Marketing Manager is responsible for developing the brand strategy, positioning platform, customer journey touchpoints, and oversees the guest loyalty program for AQV. This role helps provide the AQV brand voice and positioning consistently throughout the marketing ecosystem and programs throughout the organization. Additionally, the Senior Brand Marketing Manager is the champion of the Loyalty Program and utilizes guest experience data and competitive research to provide insights and formulate recommendations for continued growth.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

• Leads loyalty program as a key driver of brand excellence and guest retention
• Work closely with VP & Director to create short- & long-term marketing & brand goals.
• Identify gaps and inconsistencies, creating planned approach to correct and communicate.
• Solicits feedback; acts to continuously improve success of team
• Drive marketing strategy, planning and implementation, together with marketing team leads, ensuring that the brand and product ideas are powerfully brought to life across all major touchpoints
• Analyze current brand positioning and insights to develop strategic marketing plans and content to ensure differentiation and unique voice in market.
• Builds strong relationships within a matrix structure to ensure achievement of business objectives, marketing message consistency and adherence to brand guardrails
• Develops brand partnerships with support positioning and loyalty strategies as a driver of AQV awareness and business growth
• Plays a key role in ensuring consistent, insight-driven brand messaging and communications across all internal (employees) and external (consumer) touch points.
• Utilize brand positioning to drive awareness and elevate AQV brand from inception to retention
• Develops customer journey map platform to identify gaps and creates plans for improvement
• Work with creative team and copywriters to develop brand content library for multiple channels and marketing mediums
• Leads launch and communication of loyalty program, promotions strategy and KPI development goals and success metrics
• Evaluate and drive the customer journey strategy from on-shore to on-board ensuring a best-in-class guest experience working across departments to ensure a guest-first philosophy
• Ensure behavior and performance supports the company’s mission, vision, values and operating principles
• Work collaboratively cross-functionally to ensure strong alignment across the business and manage the day-to-day of bringing best-in-class experiences to life in accordance with agreed upon brand strategy.
• Utilize competitive research and persona profiles to drive content ecosystem around our unique selling propositions (USPs) and reach relevant audience
• Perform other duties as assigned
• Message guidelines and updates to the organization and agencies, inclusive of brand strategy, core products, service, competitive and messaging priorities, in conjunction with broader marcom and creative teams
• Informs AQV marketing, creative teams and agencies to ensure consistency in messaging and positioning
• Create guidelines that define our company’s voice both online and offline marketing channels
• Develops a loyalty strategic framework to focus on Service Beyond - at every touchpoint, guest experience is beyond expectations
• Partner with wider marketing team to plan, manage & measure efforts to grow revenue driving initiatives.

Education

Requirements & Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent experience with a minimum of 5 years working in marketing/ media

Skills & Abilities

• Excel in managing multiple deadlines in fast-paced environment
• Ability to assess each initiative with a critical eye to ensure that it provides incremental learning, actionable insights, and a positive and meaningful ROI
• Work experience as a Brand Strategist or similar role in Marketing
• Data-driven thinking leading to strategic planning
• Portfolio of brand-building projects
• Experience with Tableau and Microsoft Office Suite
• Market segmentation and persona work to help drive business decisions
• Excellent understanding of the full marketing mix
• Excellent communication skills; written and verbal
• Experience developing loyalty marketing strategies
• Ability to work collaboratively and drive business results

This Is a Great Fit For You If

• You have experience in cruise/travel hospitality metrics and marketing KPIs
• You have an entrepreneurial spirit and know how to take initiative and seize opportunity
• You know how to visualize information and present it in an inspiring way
• You have experience planning and executing brand marketing
• You put guests and travel partners at the center of everything you do
• You are incredible at taking complex strategic information and making it simple and inspiring for your audience

Other

• Submit to and pass alcohol and drug tests including but not limited to pre-employment, random, reasonable suspicion and post-accident/incident testing
• Must be at least 21 years of age
• Additional requirements may be required depending on the physical needs of the role

About Us

At Hornblower Group and American Queen Voyages, our mission is to create amazing experiences – not only for our guests, but our employees. Our company values (RESPECT) and operating principles (Hornblower 12) allow us to live out our mission of creating amazing experiences.

RESPECT stands for: Respect, Environment, Safety First, Professionalism, Exceed, Communication and Teamwork. Our Operating Principles, known as the Hornblower 12 demonstrate the ways we promise to engage to live those values:

• We work hard but have fun and don’t take ourselves too seriously.
• We are transparent and efficient in our processes and do not entertain politics and bureaucracy.
• We strive to innovate and reinvent, always looking forward and not stuck in the past.
• We are stewards of the Environment through practicing conservation, protection and education.
• We prioritize by making difficult trade-offs and fast, quality decisions. We follow the 80:100 rule, making decisions that are at least 80% right, but 100% actionable.
• And most importantly, we take the time to recognize and celebrate our successes together under the Hornblower family!
• We make objective data- and logic-based decisions with limited emotion.
• We value Communication, by following guiding principles:
• As employees, we expect to win, but always prepare and passionately compete like an underdog.
• We believe in Safety First by creating and maintaining a safe and secure workplace.
• We are Professional, and will demonstrate that in the following ways:
• Teamwork helps drive us towards success, and together we embody teamwork by:
• We Exceed expectations, embracing these principles:
• We listen to each other – fellow crew members and guests – and are responsive, vehemently following the 24-hour rule.
• We treat others – guests and fellow crew members alike – with Respect, by fostering a diverse and inclusive environment.
• We are on time – to start and stop – and we come prepared.
• We function as a team, playing our role and trusting our teammates.

EEO-Equal Opportunity Employment

The Company is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We prohibit discrimination and or/harassment of any type, including but not limited to discrimination and or harassment based upon race, religion, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, pregnancy or relation medical conditions, childbirth, breastfeeding, parental status, veteran and/or military statue, disability (physical or mental) medical condition, genetic information or characteristics, political affiliation, domestic violence survivor status, marital status, or other characteristics prohibited by federal, state, or local law. The Company participates in the E-Verify program in certain locations.