Strategic Marketing Planner - ECS Tuning

The Company and Opportunity

Headquartered in Wadsworth, OH, Enthusiast Auto Holdings (EAH) is a highly successful primarily direct-to-consumer provider of specialty automotive aftermarket parts which goes to market via eight specialty brands / banners. EAH’s leading destination websites serve “enthusiast” owners of German, Domestic, Japanese and Tesla vehicles, and related professional installers. Our banners include: ECS Tuning, Turner Motorsports, Pelican Parts, Rennline, Texas Speed & Performance, Z1 Motorsports, EVAnnex and RCI Off-Road. With more than 1 million SKUs, EAH sells a mix of performance and repair parts under its own and third-party brands. EAH operates in seven locations and ships from five warehouses, supplemented by large-scale drop shipping by its vendor partners.

Led by a strong leadership team, EAH generates excellent profitability and has experienced high rates of organic growth across economic cycles, including through the pandemic. Further, EAH has grown successfully via acquisition. Revenues are in excess of $300 million.

Since its partnership three years ago with Cortec Group, a premier private equity firm, Cortec has invested millions of dollars to expand EAH’s operations, facilities, technology, and leadership. For more information on Cortec Group, visit https://www.cortecgroup.com.

EAH is now seeking to strengthen its marketing leadership team with a Marketing Planner as the business continues to scale organically and via an aggressive acquisition strategy.

Strategic Marketing Planner

The Marketing Planner takes a leadership role across our organization to develop and execute a proactive marketing and promotional calendar that is exciting and allows the banners to meet and exceed sales and margin targets. This role requires collaboration with the Product Team, Sourcing teams and cross functional teams (banners) to plan and execute promotions and other special marketing events. The Marketing Analyst will have ownership of driving sales and margin targets for at least 2-3 of our banners.

The Marketing Planner is responsible for translating promotional plans into execution by delivering a compelling homepage, marketing emails, social media posts, influencer messaging, forums messaging, etc.); and working with the teams to ensure flawless execution of campaigns. This role will also interact with vendors on promotions and special events throughout the year.

Responsibilities:

• Ownership of the planning process for 2-3 assigned banners; including creation of a marketing calendar, forecasting demand, building project tickets, tracking results, and communicating with banner leadership with the ultimate goal to deliver revenue and margin growth against targets.
• Plan a marketing calendar across assigned EAH banners. Marketing calendar will include major promotions (Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Spring Peak) as well as seasonal themes (Father’s Day; Show Season, etc.) and flash sales and other events as needed to allow us to meet/exceed budget targets. High-level plans should be established up to 6 months in advance to allow adequate time to buy inventory for those events.
• Work directly with the leadership team across banner companies to better understand their current marketing cadence (brands they talk about; special events, sales, other promotions, etc.) and use a structured approach to planning that can best align with cross-banner vendor promotions.
• Forecast demand from marketing activities to provide guidance to sourcing and purchasing teams on upcoming inventory buys.
• Collaborate with the marketing team to develop and execute website, digital, and social marketing initiatives.
• Manage project tickets for design projects, prioritize and track deadlines, and communicate with stakeholders regarding project progress.
• Work with Sourcing and Product teams to manage vendor outreach as needed for promotional support. Ensure that all promotional details are captured and fully communicated across banner teams.
• Leverage business intelligence and site analytics to identify opportunities to grow our businesses (emphasize what works, minimize/change what doesn’t).
• Create and implement tailored marketing plans for new products and campaigns based on individual requirements.
• Create contingency plans so that if we are off-course, we can utilize back-up levers to drive growth.
• Review real-time analytics to determine if we need to change tactics to allow us to hit budget targets.
• Manage queue and execution on special marketing projects (car giveaways; sweepstakes; social giveaways). Partner with other teams within the organization to ensure expectations are clearly communicated and met.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Automotive Enthusiast! Passionate and knowledgeable in the automotive space.
• A minimum of 3-5 years digital experience, particularly with, but not limited to, web, social, and emerging technologies.
• Strong analytical skills. Able to review metrics to determine what’s happening in the business; identify root causes, and come up with and execute on a plan of action to correct any shortfalls.
• Highly organized. Able to manage and prioritize multiple projects simultaneously.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills and uber-collaborative.
• Proficient in Excel & Google Sheets
• Bachelor’s Degree in marketing, merchandising, statistics, management, communications, or other related fields.

What Success Looks Like:

• Marketing plans are:
  • Established up to 6 months in advance of execution (at a high level)
  • Fine-tuned at least one month in advance.
  • Clearly communicated to all stakeholders (Sales, Customer Service, Fulfillment, Sourcing, Product, Marketing, Vendor Partners)
  • Solid marketing plans lead to hitting revenue and margin targets.
• Demand Revenue and GM% are meeting/exceeding budget targets on assigned banners - daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually
• Regular communication with leadership at assigned banners to make sure they are up to speed on results and actions we are taking to drive growth.
• Strong working relationship with Sales, Customer Service, Fulfillment, Sourcing, Product, and Marketing teams.