CommIn Activity Leader

Job description / Role

Retail

About the company

Al-Futtaim Group's entrepreneurship and relentless customer focus enables the organisation to continue to grow and expand; responding to the changing needs of our customers within the societies in which we operate.

By upholding our values of respect, excellence, collaboration and integrity; Al-Futtaim Group continues to enrich the lives and aspirations of our customers each and every day.

Overview of the role

To inspire and surprise visitors by presenting and communicating the IKEA home furnishing offer with strong visual impressions that exceed visitors' expectations. This will strengthen the IKEA brand and convert more visitors into customers.

To ensure that external media and digital advertising and store communication is aligned with local marketing program (in coordination with Communication & Interior team and Marketing team - Service Office) and researched, formulated and delivered in an accurate, timely, high quality and effective manner to have the same tone of voice in the customer journey.

To lead, develop and inspire the store CAT team, other store functions and the communication and interior design co-workers in increasing vitality and seasonality, knowledge of life at home and local market.

Support IKEA FAMILY membership, program and activities including creating fun, surprising and relevant store solutions that contribute to positioning the IKEA brand and the IKEA store as an up-to-date and innovative destination that always offers something new.

• Lead and inspire the visual merchandising and interior design/activity co-workers and develop their visual merchandising and range presentation competence in order to strengthen the uniqueness of the IKEA identity in the stores.
• Support the visual merchandising/activity co-workers in creating inspiring range presentation solutions that reflect life at home activities with seasonal relevance connected to the commercial activities.
• Responsible for the implementation of the vitality calendar in the store (360 approach, planning store media aligned with media, commercial meetings, implementing and follow up together with the sales activity manager).
• Contribute in delivering the department action plan and ensure that specific store design initiatives are focused in order to grow our business and support vitality/activity commercial calendar.
• Be part of the commercial CAT team in the store and take all the necessary steps to get an activity implemented.
• Actively contribute in the regional visual merchandising leaders network and share regional directions and global tools with the visual merchandising/activity co-workers in the store.
• Ensure IKEA uniqueness and IKEA brand identity in range presentation and store communication in order to distance us from the competition. Take ownership for how we are working with our vitality calendar and store activities.
• Use knowledge of the IKEA concept, strategic messages and the IKEA Swedish identity to plan, create and implement store solutions that support the commercial priorities and facilitate the mechanical sales system.
• Optimize sales by supporting local marketing initiatives, drive traffic to the store by supporting commercial calendar, communicate with Communication & Interior and Marketing team - Service Office before executing details of marketing initiatives.
• Partner with other functions to organise vitality/activity meetings and activate local activities including new launches, seasonal celebrations and/or events.
• Gather information and run survey results for initiatives.
• Obtain relevant product and service information from the various departments and communicate it to the co-workers, allowing them to communicate to our customers in an accurate and timely manner.
• Develop, identify, utilize and update communication channels for delivering key messages (i.e. intranet, monthly newsletter, etc.).
• Assist store management in a crisis situation by creating key communication messages and FAQs.
• Identify co-worker target groups and ensure that their information needs are met.
• Support all IKEA FAMILY initiatives.
• Work closely with other departments to ensure IKEA FAMILY concept and benefits are available and visible throughout the store including:
• Products offer
• Services offer
• IKEA FAMILY benefits
• Seminars and workshops offer
• Work with store sales/shopkeepers to make sure that the IKEA FAMILY shop is in shape as new at all times.
• Implement local commercial activities, IKEA FAMILY seminars and workshops.
• Ensure that store co-workers understand the impact the IKEA FAMILY membership has on our long-term growth and profitability.
• Ensure that IKEA FAMILY offers together with external partners are communicated as additional benefits.
• Always look at the store through the eyes of our customers finding ways to drive membership recruitment and inspire our co-workers to do the same.
• Contribute to deliver the IKEA FAMILY action plan based on local potentials.
• Clearly communicate the agreed action plan to store management and commercial team.
• Work with IKEA FAMILY responsible to create new ideas and increase IKEA FAMILY membership.
• Achieve the agreed goals and key performance indicators (KPIs).
• Coordinate with the Communication & Interior and Marketing team in Service Office for supporting national marketing initiatives (e.g. catalogue and catalogue distribution, promotions, soft toy campaign and other online/offline initiatives) supporting the vitality/activity calendar.
• Support and execute projects that support the marketing business plan.

• Strategic planning and analytical skills.
• Problem solving skills.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Good business acumen.
• Experience of setting and implementing action plans, budgets and following up on goals.
• Ability to prioritize and organize own work in order to make the most efficient use of time available.
• Ability to foster collaborative relationships with different target groups (co-workers, store management and commercial team) resulting in the establishment of strong communication networks.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills to engage a receiver by creating a passion for your plans.
• Ability to work autonomously and multi-task accordingly.
• Self-reliant and motivated with proven ability to work as part of a larger team.

• Must have a minimum of 3 years' experience in related field, preferably in retail marketing.
• Significant experience of working as a visual merchandiser/activity leader in an IKEA store or service office.
• A higher education qualification in interior design and visual merchandise.
• Must possess analytical and strategic skills for potential succession planning.
• Must be multi-tasked and have a strong team spirit.
• Must be computer literate (all Microsoft programs).

Candidate experience

We're here to provide excellent service but a little help from you can ensure a five-star candidate experience from start to finish.

Our global talent acquisition team members are all assigned to specific businesses to ensure that we make the best matches between talent and opportunities. We not only consider the requisite compatibility of skills and behaviours, but also how candidates align with our values of respect, integrity, collaboration, and excellence.

As part of our candidate experience promise, we also want to make ourselves available to you throughout the application process. We make every effort to review and respond to every application.

About the Company

Today, it operates collectively over 40 companies bearing the Al-Futtaim name, dominates many market segments in the UAE, and has expanded its sphere of operation to include Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Egypt.

The Groups continued investment in world-class systems technology is clear evidence of its commitment to maintain leading edge performance and service delivery.

The success of the Al-Futtaim Group can be attributed to a business approach that combines the ability to change with the traditional values of integrity, service and social responsibility that define its core business philosophy. This, linked with the Groups belief in decentralisation, gives the heads of the operating companies a high degree of functional autonomy and authority, providing the Group with essential flexibility, and individual employees a clearly defined work culture and sense of responsibility.

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