Creative Brand Planning Manager

Job Introduction

Selfridges has always been much more than a shop. We’re a social space where everyone is welcome and feels a sense of belonging, a creative playground where culture and commerce collide, and an experimental hub where you can discover the most innovative and sustainable ideas in retail. We’re here to help make the world brighter. And you can be an important part of this. We’ll talk more about the role below, but before we get to that, let’s share with you the good stuff…  

Rewards and benefits 

Life at Selfridges is dynamic, exciting, and always evolving. As well as working with some of the most cutting-edge, iconic and boundary-pushing brands, designers and creatives, we also offer our team members opportunities to help make a positive difference through our network of communities, both within and outside Selfridges. Here are just a few of our rewards and benefits that help make our team experience that bit more extraordinary. 

• Flexible working options to benefit you, your family and your wellbeing that can include part-time, flexi-time, job sharing or working remotely 

• Generous annual leave that increases with length of service 

• Up to five paid volunteering days – from beach cleans to co-ordinating food and clothing donations 

• Family leave that suits your set up including Maternity, Paternity, Adoption, Surrogacy and Shared Parental leave policies 

• Defined pension contribution scheme  

• Generous bonus and/or commission scheme  

• Enviable team member discount including sale previews and double discount days 

• Exclusive local discounts on a range of restaurants, bars, beauticians and entertainment 

• Subsidised gym memberships  

• Annual travel pass and cycle-to-work schemes  

• A sustainable car salary sacrifice scheme 

• Several internal communities to get involved in from our Diversity Board and Green Warriors who are leading the charge on D,E&I and sustainability, to the Wellbeings who are always thinking of new ways to champion healthy minds, bodies and routines for our team members 

• Workplace Options, our confidential team member assistance programme for when life gets tricky or you need a little guidance 

• Access to a wide range of training programmes to help your career development 

Read on to find out how you can play your part in Reinventing Retail… 

Role Responsibility

As a Brand Planning Manager, you will provide effective project management for brand projects across the business and ensure they are planned, managed and delivered on brand, and effectively to brief and budget.

This is a critical role in delivering extraordinary customer experiences for Selfridges. Part of a cross departmental function, working across Creative, Communications and Customer Channel Teams, to facilitate the management and delivery of key initiatives and campaigns. The jobholder will also interact with many other departments in the business (e.g. Buying and Merchandising, Visual Projects, Retail Operations etc.) and external partners, to ensure content is of a consistently high standard.

The jobholder will provide essential coordination, working alongside a Senior Brand planner and under the guidance of the Brand Planning Lead, to plan and coordinate the delivery of  brand led campaigns and other key miscellaneous project as required.

The role will be critical in originating and/or maintaining detailed documentation – including critical paths & milestones, budgets, status reports and project packs - for each stage of cross-functional campaigns. The job holder will demonstrate excellent communication and organisational skills and ensure relevant documentation is accurate, useful and up to date. They will be able to provide transparency and clear accountability at all times.

The job holder will at times be required to present at a Senior level in the business, so confident presentation skills and the ability to give clarity to multi-layered projects is preferred.

Although project management skills are the key requirement, projects may originate from the Creative, Customer or Communications team, so the jobholder should have an affinity with the creative/ art world, as well as understanding of the fashion/ retail and digital worlds. They must also have a strong desire to surprise, amaze and amuse customers.

Key Responsibilities

• Understanding the Creative Concept brief for campaigns,  developing a deep understanding of the Selfridges brand and acting as a brand guardian throughout a project lifecycle
• Building relationships across Creative, Communications and Customer channel teams, as well as the wider business, ensuring effective and evolving communication processes are in place with key stakeholders
• Maintaining and sharing project status updates, creating master critical paths and milestones, project packs and regularly updating and communicating to key stakeholders as necessary/ requested
• Taking/ producing detailed, succinct notes with action points from steering meetings, workstreams and key creative reviews & sign-off’s sessions.
• Coordinating steering meetings and relevant workstreams, and chairing them as required
• Presenting project overviews at various forums across the business
• Prompting delivery teams to supply documentation to relevant stakeholders, and miscellaneous tasks related to the management of the project.
• Arranging and/ or attending key meetings for the Creative, Comms and Customer teams as required, updating on process when relevant.
• Ensure risks and issues are being recorded, monitored and proactively managed to minimise disruption to successful delivery
• Provide Brand Planning Lead with regular status updates on project development, to enable relevant updates to be taken to Director level forums

Budget and Finance

• Support on campaign budget management where applicable, ensuring that functions are communicating their latest spend and updating trackers and line manager accordingly.
• Communicate correct codes to Project Team leads at the outset of project delivery
• Maintain a clear visibility & transparency on budget expenditure on projects at all times, communicated directly and competently with finance and accounts as appropriate.

People and Communication

• Build strong and effective working relationships with Project Leads and Customer Channel Planners to ensure campaigns are running smoothly.
• Operate with meticulous accuracy, probing and analysing projects looking for gaps in information or planning.
• Communicate confidently, clearly and openly with people using a range of styles and media.
• Produce written work and data that is accurate, clear and well presented.
• Use impeccable organisational skills to facilitate focus, accuracy and quality in the relentlessly fast paced turnover of content.
• Communicate matters of logistics and scheduling to all stakeholders clearly, ensuring all areas of remit/responsibility are understood and agreed. 
• Adhere to all company policies and procedures, e.g. absences, time and attendance and holidays, etc.

The Ideal Candidate

Qualifications/Training

• Educated to degree level or similar (or with comparable experience)
• Alternatively, project management specific qualifications

Experience

• Proven experience in assisting in the delivery of multi-channel projects or comparable, including experience tracking expenditure and producing schedules
• Digital experience an advantage
• Working in a creative or brand-based environment, but with project management focus
• Experience of working in the fashion, retail, media or art world preferred

Technical Skills

• Advanced level of competence in Excel, PowerPoint and Word
• Understands when to use different programs
• Confident using PCs & Mac
• Can resolve technical difficulties when they arise

Personal Attributes/Behavioural Skills

• Highly organised and methodical
• Resilient – able to cope with pressure, be flexible, think quickly to solve problems and safeguard the team’s ability to deliver

• Confident and articulate
• Positive and self-motivated - approaching tasks with energy and enthusiasm
• Seeks to understand the differing views of others, conflicting pressures or differing peak work times, but able to challenge appropriately

• Intuitive, levelheaded and calm. Can clearly demonstrate they have understood what is being asked of them and learn and develop processes from any relevant feedback.

• Strong interest in the Creative / Fashion world.

About the Company

Everyone is welcome 

Selfridges is a place where we want everyone to feel a sense of belonging. We embrace every self and are committed to cultivating a diverse and inclusive working culture. We are leading with purpose to not only increase the visibility and recognition of under-represented talent within our organisation, but the wider industry too. Here at Selfridges, everyone is welcome – irrespective of race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, age or disability, we stand by equal opportunities for all.   

Our awards cabinet  

We’re not ones to brag, but since you asked...Selfridges has won the award for The World’s Best Department Store an unprecedented four times at the IGDS awards, with an additional award for the Best Sustainability Campaign. We were also recognised as a ‘Best 25 Big Company to Work For 2020’ as awarded by The Sunday Times. 

Selfridges