Marketing Consultant

The Marketing Consultant (MC) serves as the trusted advisor to Operators and a strategic member of each Area Support Team* by providing timely, tailored solutions to address the evolving, unique Marketing challenges of each Area across Chick-fil-A. The Marketing Consultant is a unique role, tasked with consulting both to MAP markets within each Area, as well as consulting to local Operators across each Area.

At the market-level, the MC influences and consults Operator groups to align on their market-level strategy, accrual, marketing tactics and marketing investment for the year. At the local-level, the MC also identifies where each Area has the greatest opportunity to grow in a given year, and partners with the rest of the AST members and the Targeted Growth Lead to provide a series of 1:many consulting solutions that help local Operators and RMDs leverage marketing to move from their current state toward achieving their growth goals for that year.

The Marketing Consultant must be able to communicate proficiently about marketing strategy, media, partnerships, events, and community engagement, while simultaneously consulting to the full spectrum of marketing activities and opportunities at a Restaurant level (e.g. Customer experience, Catering, CFA One, Daypart, On-Demand platforms, Multicultural). Each MC will be expected to serve as the lead for a Center of Excellence (COE) in a particular area and provide information and insights to the MC team to fuel and inform team-wide consulting acumen and proficiency.

The Marketing Consultant should be able to balance their expertise with accessible language and a posture that invites conversation, collaboration, and a spirit of partnership amongst Operators and Operator groups. The Marketing Consultant is expected to take a leadership role in marketing planning and must serve at times as a strategist, account manager and liaison all in one. This role must be able to challenge, while maintaining trust; provide objective analytical rationale, while recognizing subjective group dynamics; and influence Operators without having a decision-making role on their final plans. The Marketing Consultant acts as a vital bridge between Operators, AMDs, RMDs, Field Operations, ASTs, BAM, CMI, External Communications, Legal, Finance, external agencies and other teams across Marketing. The role is fast paced, engaging, intellectually stimulating, collaborative by design and creative in approach.

The Marketing Consultant will report to the Team Leader, Market & Local Consulting Team at the Atlanta, GA. Support Center.

• An Area Support Team is an integrated, cross-functional team that collaborates to foster Area health and develop tailored strategies and solutions for each Operator, Restaurant, and Area that promote long term growth and performance. Each area is approximately $900M in sales, includes a minimum of three Operations Leads, has over 100 Operators and is led by an Area Director.
  

Responsibilities

Marketing Consultant success will be determined by performance in the following areas of responsibility:

Marketing Consultants Demonstrate Expertise By

Consulting Operators both at the Market & Local level on marketing strategies & tactics that generate demand and build the brand.

• Seeking to understand and influencing Operators on their marketing strategies and plans
• Building Market-level recommendations, strategy & annual growth plans
• Creating multi-year Market growth strategy for MAP markets
• Uncovering, analyzing and articulating Marketing insights into meaningful action
• Leading 1:many workshops for Operators within assigned Area Support Team(s) (ASTs) for specified Local targeted growth opportunities, with apropos 1:1 follow-up consulting engagements
• Fielding weekly questions/considerations from internal consultants & Operators, and ensure questions are brought to timely and strategic resolutions
  

Serve as a Marketing SME/trusted advisor on at least one Area Support Team (AST) to provide marketing strategy and tailored solutions to fuel long-term, healthy growth. The Marketing Consultant will work to align marketing strategy and plans with the AST’s strategy developed uniquely for each of the Areas, as well as the annual communications plan developed by the Brand Strategy team, brand guardrails and other enterprise-level strategic objectives and platforms.

Outcomes Include

The Marketing Consultant will work with both Chick-fil-A’s media agency and Chick-fil-A’s sponsorship management agency to provide clear direction and accountability across market-level media plans and partnerships on behalf of Operators.

• Developing each market’s media plans
• Developing a strategic POV on the best partnership opportunities within a given market, based on data and insights for each given market
• Developing an approach to a prospective new partner, including benchmarking on price, assets and terms
  

Partner Across The Support Center By

• Collaborating with the Targeted Growth Lead to build scalable Local content & programs
• Leading an assigned Center of Excellence (COE) focus areas: Media / Partnerships / Analytics / Market-Level Strategy / Local Marketing Planning / etc.
• Advocating for Operator needs and priorities in Marketing programs and initiatives.
  

Minimum Qualifications

• Minimum 8 years of experience. Experience desired in at least one of the following areas: restaurant, hospitality, entertainment, food and beverage marketing.
• Bachelor’s degree, with preference in Marketing, Business or Communications
  

Skills And Abilities

• Rising Star: Candidates currently in dynamic positions at agencies or brands, with a track record working on complex projects.
• Passion: Go-getter with the relentless pursuit of excellence in a competitive, changing landscape.
• Influencer: Proven ability to influence groups that may start out with varied POVs and bring those groups together around shared strategies and plans that lead to effective execution.
• Versatile and Savvy: Enjoys the blend of being skilled at relationships, communication, analytical synthesis, innovative thinking and conflict resolution; an enthusiastic bridge builder across disciplines, groups and personalities.
• Motivation: Strong relationship building and communications skills, able to balance demanding needs while simultaneously motivating people to think strategically and creatively.
• Analytical: Strong analytical sensibilities, able to drive and dig into the analytics process and champion insights.
• People: Fits Chick-fil-A’s culture. Personable and approachable. Exhibits strong interpersonal skills that encourage team cooperation, promotes enthusiasm and motivates relationship-building
• Strategic: relentlessly searches for solutions, elements of strategy to tweak, and understands Operator and Market mindsets – finding key win-win-wins as a result. Sees the necessity and power of advertising to grow business. And adjusts and adopts new practices as needed and quickly.
  

Critical Behaviors

• Excellence: Gives personal best every day; demonstrates positive attitude and confidence; sets high standards and meets self- expectations; pursues everything with energy, drive, and a need to finish.
• Communication Skills: Is able to write and speak clearly and succinctly in a variety of communication settings and styles.
• Drive for Results: Can be counted on to exceed goals and maximize capacity.
• Creativity: Thinks across disciplinary lines; uses the insights or techniques from one field to take on the challenges of another. Passionately curious. Making Complex Decisions: great at gleaning meaning from whatever data is available; adds personal wisdom and experience to come to the best conclusion and solution, given the situation; uses multiple problem-solving tools and techniques.
• Continuous Learner: Being a student of Marketing (internal and external) and the restaurant business.
• Collaborative: resourceful through partnering with teammates, other teams, and agencies. Share knowledge and skills. Able to achieve results through others.
  

Preferred Qualifications

• +8 years of experience in an Account Management, Consulting or Marketing Strategy role.
• Experience with marketing analytics and insights.
• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent experience.
• A creative and analytical thinker with a strong strategic mind and a willingness to take risks.
• Manages deadlines and quickly adapts and re-prioritizes to deliver results.
• Ability to work independently with minimal direction.
• Ability to “think on their feet” in front of an audience.
• Attention to detail.
• Maintains highest level of confidentiality.
  

Minimum Years Of Experience

8

Travel Requirements

20%

Required Level Of Education

Bachelor's Degree

Preferred Level Of Education

Masters Degree

Major/Concentration

Marketing, Business, MBA