Purpose

Being a Brand and Data Strategist is all about finding connections between business, consumers, and culture. As an Associate Strategist, you do a lot of research, a lot of observing and a lot of listening. You gather data from resources like surveys, social media, syndicated resources and business intel to help our team paint a picture of business opportunities for our teammates and clients. But you also unpack the humans behind that data through qualitative methods - whether you observe customers at a grocery store or hang out in their house while they clean. Strategy is a constant process of interrogating, distilling and inspiring.

Responsibilities

Interrogating

• This is about research in its myriad forms. It can include a wide range of projects from researching the store/web experience, investigating trends, doing an analysis of conversation and community engagement, digging into a brand’s history, helping the account team with competitive analyses, conducting consumer interviews, etc.
• You will help design, field and report findings on custom surveys for clients. You will learn how to use market research databases to understand consumers’ habits. You will tap into social media tools to quantify what topics and brands people are talking about.

Distilling, Interpreting and Storytelling

• The goal of the above is to have you get smart about a specific strategic issue and think through the implications of what you find—implications for the creatives, for the clients, for what we’re making and how we’re measuring success, etc. Over time, you will learn to tell stories with data. That can turn into a variety of strategic products:
• The brief. You will get experience writing briefs with support and guidance from your manager. The goal is to identify the most important elements of a brief and sharpen your writing skills—keeping it simple and writing with your creative audience in mind.
• The POV. You might be asked to form a well-researched opinion on a specific topic. The goal will be to see how clearly you can lay out the case for something, including its implications.
• The trend analysis. Another typical strategy product is the trend analysis. This work requires rigor and resourcefulness, as well as being able to identify patterns and pull out the “so what” behind the trends you uncover.

Inspiring

• Once you’ve done the research and the writing, you need to deliver it in a way that inspires the team (and/or clients). It’s never too early to start thinking about your creative audience—their motivations and concerns—and what they need to be inspired.

Evaluating

• In internal creative reviews, you will gain experience talking about, and delivering constructive feedback, on creative ideas—this, too, takes practice...lots and lots of practice. Core to this is holding the work up to the brief—does the creative answer the challenge and express the insight/strategic idea?
• Finally, you also need to get exposure to and understanding of how we determine our metrics for success based on business and strategy objectives, as well as how we measure success.
• Essentially, at this level, your job is to start to get familiar with the general cycle of the strategic process, leaning in heavier into the standard toolbox of research and frameworks we use to do our job, and to practice, practice, practice.

Competencies

• You are incredibly curious and ask interesting questions
• You love brands and unexpected ideas, and can talk about brands in terms of ideas
• You are resourceful and persistent and can find answers to tough questions
• You’re passionate about culture and have deep empathy for the human condition
• You love solving problems
• You are a strong writer
• You have a proven growth orientation—an eagerness to learn from experiences
• You can multitask, juggling between various assignments and relishing that each day is different than the one before
• Data does not scare you; in fact, you have a special kind of love for charts and graphs

Experience

Ideal candidate has 2-5 years of experience.

Salary Range

Our estimated range for this role is $50k - $65k

Compensation packages are based on the skill level and experience each candidate brings to their role. There may also be a more senior or junior position available that could be a better fit with your expertise. Each level has its own compensation range.

We pride ourselves on competitive salaries, and ensuring pay equity exists across our organization. We benchmark each position against existing employee competencies and 4As compensation data which includes geographic and agency size benchmarks. We also meet with department leaders 3x/year to ensure we are supporting employees in living into their full potential. Our promotions are not limited to a specific time per year. Promotions are tied to performance.

Right To Work In The US

You must be authorized to work in the US for any employer. At this time, we are not sponsoring or providing assistance with obtaining work authorization.

McKinney is a place where everyone can grow. Studies have shown that marginalized communities such as women, LGBTQ+ and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. However you identify, and whatever background you bring with you, please apply if this is a role that would make you excited to come into work every day.

We are in the office Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on a hybrid schedule. We look forward to meeting you!