SPINS, a Chicago-based SaaS company, is seeking to add a Natural Insights Research Director to its growing Marketing team.

For 20 years, SPINS’ mission has been to increase the presence and accessibility of natural products and thereby help consumers live their healthiest and best lives. We believe that as natural and better for you brands and retailers grow, they are changing the landscape of food agriculture in North America. We partner with hundreds of Natural and Specialty retailer partners who trust us exclusively with their data, giving us purview into the innovation that is driving growth for our industry. We also receive data on conventional retail, which gives us the ability to observe trends as they launch in the Natural and Specialty Channels and scale into the mainstream.

On top of this data, we have applied health and wellness coding that allow us to identify the consumer needs, marketing positioning statements, certifications, and nutrition facts driving the change. Lighting up trends that are otherwise unseen. 

WHO ARE WE?

• We eat collaboration and curiosity for breakfast
• We communicate quickly and succinctly
• We believe in roles instead of jobs
• We take initiative independently and hurdle challenges together
• We discuss, debate, decide and do with the same rapidity as we iterate our platform
• We are a talent ecosystem whose health is predicated on each individual’s ability to support every other individual’s success.

WHO ARE YOU?

• Someone energetic, empathic and earnest
• Someone who wakes each morning thinking of which opportunity they will grab today
• Someone that refuses to give up when the path isn’t paved
• Someone that consistently delivers quality work on schedule
• Someone who would rather build the right tool to do the job than wait until they’re handed one
• A creative thinker as adept at looking at the Big Picture as they are at the details
• An obsessive perfectionist that knows when to put down the paintbrush and ship
• The kind of person that can expertly use an Onion headline as an analogy in a serious strategy meeting.

WHAT DO WE NEED?

In the last few years, the Marketing team has set up a web presence, started producing public and gated content on trends and insights, and set up social media pages, but there is more work to do to build our equity in the market place. With our proprietary data in the Natural and Specialty industry, we believe there is significant headroom to establish SPINS as a thought leader in our industry and put us on the map alongside the big data analytic firms, and the big voices in Natural today.

The Research vertical in the Marketing team is the newly established home for our Natural Insights thought leadership and expertise. It will be responsible for growing our equity through thought leadership, cultivating relationships with key partners, trade publications and institutes, webinars, speaking engagements and producing lead-generating (free) and revenue producing (monetized) content to the market. The team is comprised of writer/analysts and health and wellness thought leaders who manage the SPINS voice on social media, in written form and via public and client-facing presentations.

WE'LL BE COUNTING ON YOU FOR...

As the Natural Insights Research Director, leading the Marketing Research vertical and reporting directly into the VP of Marketing, you will have a unique opportunity to launch and establish a comprehensive content strategy encompassing monetized content and free, lead generating content, leveraging SPINS’ proprietary retailer and consumer data to bring to bear B2B State of the Industry Reports, lead-generating thought leadership pieces, infographics, and more.

The role requires a proven leader who can bring strategic direction and best practice to this new team, working with leadership to shape the core deliverables, cadence, and commercialization strategy. An analytic mindset and comfort working with, interpreting and telling stories from vast quantities of data are a must.

This deeply curious person should feel comfortable being an in-demand speaker and should possess confidence, patience, and poise in a swiftly changing business environment.

YOU PROBABLY HAVE...

• 5 - 8 + years of professional experience in consulting, marketing, advertising, marketing research or competitive intelligence
• Natural Retail Industry Experience preferred (at a research agency, trade publication, retailer or brand)
• Excellent analytical skills with demonstrated ability to translate data into business applications and to tell a powerful story
• Demonstrated presentation skills required
• Strong verbal and written professional communication skills
• Entrepreneurial spirit; demonstrated ability to self-start, execute, and follow-through on ideas and projects
• Passion for speaking publicly on behalf of a brand to present at industry and channel-specific events to clients, in-person and via WebEx
• Strong Excel and PowerPoint skills required
• BA/BS required, advanced degree preferred