Description
The Customer Planning & Local Marketing Lead Manager leads the development and continuous improvement of customer plans that guide Asda's key events, campaigns and customer activity.
The role ensures customer insight is at the heart of decision-making and helps translate customer understanding into actions that drive sales, customer satisfaction, market share and brand health.
Working across Marketing, Commercial, Retail Operations and Online teams, the role brings together customer-facing activity into a clear and aligned customer plan, ensuring a consistent and compelling customer experience across Food, George Fashion, Home, General Merchandise as well as adjacent businesses and services such as Asda Money & Mobile and Asda Online Doctor.
The role also leads Asda's local marketing agenda, helping stores maximise performance, supporting stores through refits and protecting sales when competitors open nearby.
Key Responsibilities
Customer Planning
- Lead the development and optimisation of Asda's customer plans, ensuring they support key retail events, campaigns and business priorities.
- Translate customer insights, market trends and performance data into clear commercial and marketing actions.
- Work closely with Commercial, Trade Planning, Marketing, Retail Operations and Online teams to align priorities and deliver customer-focused growth.
- Own and manage the annual, quarterly and weekly customer planning process.
- Ensure all customer-facing activity is aligned, prioritised and communicated effectively across the business.
- Lead governance forums and planning reviews to track progress, resolve issues and ensure delivery against objectives.
Local Marketing
- Lead the development and execution of local marketing strategies that build relevance, engagement and loyalty in local communities.
- Support stores through refits, major changes and competitor openings by delivering targeted local marketing activity.
- Partner with Retail Operations to provide stores with appropriate tools, guidance and support.
- Adapt national campaigns or develop targeted local activity to meet specific customer and market needs.
- Measure effectiveness and optimise investment to maximise sales and customer impact.
- Lead governance and performance reviews to ensure local marketing activity delivers measurable outcomes.
Stakeholder Management
- Build strong partnerships across Marketing, Food and Non-Food Commercial, Retail Operations, Online, Finance and Customer teams.
- Act as a trusted adviser on customer planning priorities and opportunities.
- Influence senior stakeholders and secure alignment across a complex, matrix organisation.
- Ensure customer insight is reflected consistently in business planning and decision-making.
Leadership
- Lead, coach and develop a high-performing team of customer planning professionals.
- Foster a culture of collaboration, accountability and customer focus.
- Build capability across the team and create an environment of continuous improvement.
About You
- Significant experience in customer planning, local marketing, commercial planning or strategy within a large retail or FMCG environment.
- Strong understanding of how marketing, trading and retail operations work together to drive sales and customer engagement.
- Proven ability to translate customer insight into actionable commercial plans.
- Experience leading cross-functional planning processes and governance forums.
- Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, including engagement with senior leaders.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities with a data-led approach to decision-making.
- Excellent communication and presentation skills.
- Demonstrated experience leading and developing teams within a fast-paced, matrix organisation.
- Highly organised, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and drive delivery through others.
What You'll Be Accountable For
- Delivering a clear and aligned customer plan across the business.
- Ensuring customer insight informs key business decisions and priorities.
- Driving effective collaboration across Marketing, Commercial, Retail and Online teams.
- Maximising the effectiveness of local marketing investment.
- Improving customer engagement, satisfaction, sales performance and market share through customer-led planning.
Benefits
- Discretionary company bonus
- Company pension up 1.5 times colleagues' contribution (Max 15%)
- Company Car allowance of £8000
- 15% colleague discount in store and online
- Free access to wellbeing services such as Stream, 24/7 virtual GP, counselling, health and dental cash plans and a 24/7 employee assistance helpline, alongside discounts across a range of services and activities, from airport parking, enhanced to theme parks and cinemas.
- Asda Allies Inclusion Networks – helping colleagues to make sure everybody is included and that our differences are recognised and celebrated
- Excellent parental leave policies, including maternity & adoption leave, paternity leave, shared parental leave, neonatal care leave, and support for those doing fertility treatments.