Consumer Insights Manager

About Imbibe

Imbibe is a dynamic, high-growth food and beverage development company based in Niles, Illinois. We specialize in developing, creating, and manufacturing beverage flavors, ingredient systems, and finished food and beverage products. Our mission is to design ingredients with impact for the food and beverage industry.

Since our founding in 1963, Imbibe has been at the forefront of flavor innovation and product development. We offer a comprehensive range of services, including full product development, taste modulation, and finished product solutions. Our state-of-the-art campus features an Innovation Center and Pilot Plant that enable us to tackle industry-wide taste and texture challenges, ensuring that our clients receive the highest quality products.

At Imbibe, we pride ourselves on our entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to continuous improvement. Our values of collaboration, accountability, and entrepreneurship drive us to deliver exceptional results for our clients. We also believe in giving back to the community. Through various initiatives we support efforts to combat food insecurity in the Chicagoland area by donating ingredients and our time.

If you're passionate about the food and beverage industry and eager to make a meaningful impact, Imbibe is the place for you. Let's create something extraordinary together!

Summary of Position
The Consumer Insights Manager will be responsible for helping to shape the future of R&D at Imbibe through data collection and analysis, insights generation, and storytelling. This role will work in conjunction with the Director – Product Development and Innovation to help scope the growth pipeline for the organization, inclusive of generating insights on market trends and unmet needs to inform the ingredient innovation pipeline. Additionally, this role will support the marketing and sales organization with consumer and market insights that inform the creation of winning marketing programs and sales prospecting strategies. Ideal candidates would feel comfortable using primary and secondary data to build stories and answer questions for the organization that would inform strategy, as well as create impactful presentations to both internal and external stakeholders.

Essential Job Duties
Market and Consumer Insights

• Market research to support innovation – market sizing research, trending claims and ingredients to address through our own innovations
• Conduct market landscape assessments to support innovation strategy, including market sizing, competitive scans, trend analysis, and whitespace identification
• Product development insights – trending claims and products types, trending flavors to support demo development and product development showcase work
• Flavor insights – trending flavor territories and specific flavors broadly and within categories to support marketing presentations/programs and development/applications work
• Own relationships with research vendors and act as the subject matter expert on primary and secondary research tools

Marketing Program and Sales Insights

• Assess marketing program effectiveness and web analytics
• Provide insights to shape and optimize marketing programs, customer campaigns, and thought-leadership content
• Uncover flavor trends to support marketing programs
• Internal insights program – have an outward looking view of the market and be able to share insights with internal teams to inform content creation, sales programs, and connections with customers
• Develop an internal insights-sharing program to consistently communicate market learnings across cross-functional teams

Insights Storytelling

• Marketing presentation storyline co-creation
• Primary research to support marketing programs, showcases, and other customer requests – and the ability to report of research findings; be able to generate, program, and analyze surveys (both qualitative and quantitative)
• Gather data and generate insights to help us create engaging content and shape internal strategy
• Ability to create and deliver presentations to internal and external audiences
• Support the creation of compelling storylines for marketing presentations, customer meetings, and innovation showcases
• Design, program, and analyze primary research studies (quantitative and qualitative) to support marketing, product development, and customer requests
• Distill complex data sets into clear, meaningful insights that shape content creation, influence internal strategy, and elevate customer engagements
• Build and deliver high-quality presentations to internal stakeholders and external partners, including customers and senior leadership

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in marketing, market research, or a related field.
• Minimum of 3 years of experience in insights/research related role, ideally within the flavor or food industry (5+ years preferred)
• Strong understanding of primary and secondary research methodologies and data analysis/ presentation
• Skilled at working cross functionally and in a team environment
• Able to communicate information and ideas so others will understand; must be able to exchange accurate information effectively throughout and outside the organization
• Strong organizational and leadership skills, ability to work independently
• Passion for Imbibe's mission
• Strong capabilities in Microsoft applications
• Familiarity with syndicated data tools (e.g., Nielsen, Circana, Mintel or equivalents)
• Independently motivated
• Good interpersonal/teamwork skills and a sense of business/technical interrelationships
• Collaborative, adaptable, and comfortable working in a changing, entrepreneurial environment
• Regularly operates a computer and other machinery, such as a calculator, copy machine computer and printer

Working Conditions

• Office Setting

Compensation & Benefits

The salary range listed represents the expected earnings for this role. The low end of the range reflects the starting salary for candidates with less experience or qualifications that meet the basic requirements for the position. The high end of the range reflects potential earnings for candidates with extensive experience, specialized skills, or qualifications above the standard requirements for the role.

Imbibe supports employee well-being and professional growth by offering a comprehensive benefits package that includes the following: 

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision care
• 401k retirement plan with company contribution and match
• FSA and HSA account
• Generous company holidays, PTO, and sick time
• Onsite gym and wellness opportunities 
• Paid parental leave
• Life and disability insurance
• Learning and professional development opportunities