Job Title: D2C Lead - Japan 

Segment / Business Unit: Pet Nutrition 

Country / Site : Japan  

Job Function: Sales 

Expected Job Level :T2  

Manager’s Name & Position :D2C Director Asia  

 

 

Job Purpose/Overview 

 

• Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) has been identified as a strategic imperative for Mars Pet Nutrition. A core component of the 2025 OGSM, D2C will enable Mars Pet Nutrition to build 1:1 relationships and communities to achieve the goal of knowing 100mn pets intimately and $0.5bn in NSV by 2025.  
• The Asia Direct-to-Consumer team is responsible for shaping the Asia strategy to achieve their share of the 100mn and $0.5bn ambition. Within the Asia D2C team, this role will steer the Japan market roadmap to place Mars as a major D2C player in the next 5 years, and drive stakeholders, capabilities and teams across all functions of the market organization and some global ones in order to achieve this transformation, using agile ways of working. 
• We at Mars PN believe in making a better world for pets and we want to do this through transforming our relationships with pet parents through delivering excellent products, services and experiences with our brands. The D2C team is a newly formed team responsible for running the D2C operations for Mars PN Asia, if you join this team, you'll be right in the midst of the action working with people across the company to create product experiences that delight our pet parents. You will be part of a unique team that will be creating and building the Direct-to-Consumer space, so it's your chance to really make your mark. As a company, we're still family run, and you have the unique opportunity to work for an incubator team that is small enough and everything you do has an impact, while we're big enough for that impact to be meaningful for thousands of pet parents, and their pets.  

 

THE JOB 

• We're looking for an experienced D2C or DCom product manager to join the team. You will be responsible for running the D2C shops for our brands in Japan. 
• This role will be responsible for running a cross-functional squad with our proposition, brand and CRM teams to develop and sell our unique offer of pet food, treats and other services to new and existing pet parents. This is an opportunity to set the standard for the outstanding D2C experience that our pet parents deserve and deliver on the plan you'll create to get us there as we scale in size and ambition.  
• The newly formed Asia D2C team would not have dedicated functional expertise/resources to start with within the team and hence the D2C Lead-Japan would be required to partner with the existing functional teams in the business. He/She would work very closely with shared resources in functions like D-Com, Marketing, Digital technology and Sales/Operations to ensure that the various D2C initiatives are successful. The D2C Lead would be the only dedicated member of the Asia D2C team in Japan in the initial few quarters. 

 

ROADMAP 

• Create the D2C roadmap for Japan market and define the cross-functional capabilities needed to deploy the D2C strategy in market 
• Ensure the top line viability of the value propositions, pre-assess and check their contribution to the business goals for your market  
• Engage key stakeholders outside of D2C (R&D, marketing, Digital Technology, Consumer Care, Commercial, operations etc.) to contribute to the plan, secure the right resources 
• Constantly check on the market and our results, to propose new directions or adaptations if necessary to ensure our relevance and success. 

 

IMPLEMENTATION  

• On implementation, be the convergent point between D2C and the other parts of PN Japan business, establish the right ways of working and processes for a good collaboration 
• Plan the transformational projects to bring the MVPs to life on-line, establish workstreams and leaders, coordinate the leaders 
• Monitor the projects and their interdependencies to meet the deadlines, maximize synergies, help solve major blockers or escalate issues  
• Infuse a spirit of transformation, engage the teams in change management and agile ways of working 

 

Key Responsibilities  

• Co-create the product roadmap with a cross-functional team including user experience design and research, engineering, proposition and range, marketing, finance, and customer teams for Japan market 
• Deliver the right digital experiences focussing on the right customer needs and opportunities using agile methodologies 
• Be responsible - with cross-functional partners - for the definition and delivery of both the pet parent outcomes and commercial metrics using our DTC KPI framework and drive the day-to-day operations  
• Identify and articulate the internal stakeholders and external pet parents' needs in order to inform the product experience opportunities. Liaise with the internal leadership teams to deliver the right strategy and roadmap 
• Be an active member of the Product Management team by helping drive continuous improvement in the team's skills 

 

 

Context and Scope 

• Explain how the job gets done and the way it operates within the team and with stakeholders 
• Core part of the Asia DTC team responsible for running the DTC operations in Japan market 
• Partners closely with the market brand teams in developing and deploying the DTC value propositions  
• Leads the cross functional team to run the DTC shop operations  
• Manages the technology development roadmap for the DTC shop 
• Partners closely with the local media teams to grow, convert and retain consumers on our DTC operations  

 

Job Specifications/Qualifications 

 

Education & Professional Qualifications : 

TBC (basis the local market benchmark) 

Fluency in written and oral English is required 

 

Knowledge / Experience 

• Strong understanding and demonstrable experience of applying best practice ecommerce trends and pricing techniques, ideally with a subscription-based product  
• Digital product management experience working hands on with cross-functional squads of engineers, designers and analysts to deliver against a product strategy and vision 
• Commercial and pet parent focused mindset (KPIs, qualitative and quantitative insights), capable of balancing quick wins and bigger, more impactful pieces of work; 
• A test and learn approach to product management, with a bias to action - delivering what matters most iteratively and not waiting for 'perfect' 
• Proven experience in Agile and Lean methodologies, so knows and has done what good looks like; 
• A real team player - you enjoy working collaboratively with a cross-functional team, are able to unite a diverse group of people around a shared goal and deliver results through others 

 

Key Mars Leadership Competencies (4-6) 

• Learning on the fly 
• Strategic Agility 
• Dealing with ambiguity 
• Problem Solving 
• Action oriented 
• Drive for results 

 

Key Functional Competencies & Technical Skills (3-5)  

• D2C Functional & Technical skills 
• Leveraging Insights 
• Shopper understanding 
• Advanced analytical skills 
• Business requirements Forecasting 
• Business Process Improvement 

. 

 

Relevant Quantitative and Budget Information 

 

Staff: N/A

Team Size :This is an individual contributor role and does not have any direct reportees