Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization
Responsible for supporting the Senior Director Business Units Football, Basketball, Motorsport & Golf in defining Emerging Markets’ short- and medium-term objectives for the Football Footwear and Hardware business. Implement global Go-To-Market strategies in a regionally relevant way, working closely with each cluster’s Category Management team and considering different consumer needs and distribution channels.
Responsible for building a product range for the dedicated category that fulfils the needs of the Emerging Markets Hub and clusters and is competitive in terms of completeness, structure, price and margin.
Key Responsibilities
- Support the generation and execution of a 3–5 year category plan for the assigned business segment, based on the overall Emerging Markets strategic business plan and balanced with the needs of the adidas brand horizontally.
- Assemble a compelling, commercial and viable range/concept selection for the assigned business segments to support the overall brand strategy, purpose and business direction for each cluster within Emerging Markets.
- Deliver the seasonal product range through the respective Cluster Category Management leads, including a “Category Power Pack” selection, balancing brand and commercial considerations.
- Coordinate and drive Special Make-Up (SMU) brief submissions from clusters to the Global Business Unit.
- Provide Emerging Markets Business Unit input to Global Headquarters, consolidated from all clusters, including insights on future trends, incremental business opportunities, key concepts and category activation plans.
- Maintain and deliver regular analyses on category sell-in, sell-out, margin and article productivity across channels and segments in Emerging Markets clusters.
- Support the Senior Business Unit Director in aligning net sales objectives, margins, pricing and range architecture with each cluster.
KPIs
- Emerging Markets brand health KPIs, including brand momentum, Net Promoter Score and spontaneous purchase intent.
- Business segment market share versus plan in each Emerging Markets cluster.
- Emerging Markets direct business segment contribution versus plan.
- Emerging Markets category range efficiency, SKU targets and pricing targets.
- Emerging Markets net sales, category growth, key franchise growth/share of net sales and go-in margin.
Key Relationships
Cluster CTC and Category Management teams; Emerging Markets Hub CTC and MOPS team; Global Football Business Unit; Emerging Markets Business Intelligence, Strategy and Demand Planning teams; Emerging Markets DTC, WHS and E-commerce teams.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
- Passion for sports, preferably football, with product-ranging knowledge.
- Consumer-focused, with deep product and range understanding and the ability to balance brand and commercial aspects.
- Cross-functional marketing knowledge and market experience, with a strong understanding of retail, e-commerce and WHS channels in sporting goods, fashion or other youth culture brands.
- Ability to guide optimal range building according to segmentation strategy and option plan across product type, gender and price points.
- Proactive, impact-oriented mindset and ability to think end-to-end.
- Ability to work in a fast-paced environment with different international cultures.
- Strong organizational, time management, numerical and analytical skills.
- Good written and verbal communication, presentation and facilitation skills.
- Ability to travel domestically or internationally as required.
Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications
- University degree in business, ideally with a marketing and sales focus, or equivalent professional experience.
- 3+ years of merchandising experience, including sales and retail exposure, ideally in sporting goods, fashion or other youth culture brands.
- Fluent English, verbal and written.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint, as well as Power BI tools.
- Proficiency with AI and its applications to category management or merchandising is a plus.
Culture
At adidas, employees are encouraged to demonstrate courage, ownership, innovation, teamplay, integrity and respect. The company emphasizes diversity, equity and inclusion as part of its culture and talent processes.