Roles & Responsibilities
The Regional Visual Merchandising (VM) Assistant Manager, APAC, plays a pivotal role in shaping and executing the brand's visual identity across the dynamic Asia-Pacific market. This role demands a highly collaborative and creative individual with a deep understanding of visual merchandising principles, regional market nuances, and a passion for elevating the customer experience. Working closely with both Travel Retail and Local Market CVM teams, the Assistant Manager will be instrumental in driving VM launches, adapting global strategies, and ensuring consistent brand representation across all touchpoints, including in-store environments, events, exhibitions, and new store openings. This role requires a blend of creative vision and commercial acumen, with a focus on translating brand narratives into compelling visual displays that drive business results.
Visual Merchandising Excellence:
- Strategic Collaboration: Partner with the Regional Visual Merchandising Manager, APAC, to strategically allocate workload and ensure comprehensive coverage of VM initiatives. Foster strong working relationships with global HQ VM teams and local market VM teams, advocating for and addressing the specific VM needs of the Travel Retail SEAOC region.
- Brand Guardianship & Localization: Champion brand aesthetics and ensure visual merchandising guidelines are consistently applied and regionally relevant. Collaborate with regional stakeholders, including the Marketing team, to develop and disseminate staging guidelines, axis rules, and visual guidelines, providing essential support for market adaptations, artwork files, and technical drawing reviews.
- Operational Execution & Support: Uphold Axis guidelines and the overarching merchandising strategy across all stores, proactively identifying and addressing VM collateral needs in partnership with Retail teams. Manage and liaise with external vendors for the regional production of soft POSM, including seasonal items in ensuring alignment with HQ guidelines, market needs, qualitative production, and timely delivery. Provide daily support to markets on VM documentation requests, including artwork, visual assets, and Axis rules guidance.
- Problem Solving & Adaptation: Demonstrate a keen ability to resolve store-specific merchandising challenges, adapting strategies based on regional characteristics, market demands, store design constraints, inventory levels, and prevailing business trends.
- Market Immersion & Guidance: Participate in team travel within APAC regions for ultimate door openings, providing expert guidance to local markets on VM set-up and execution.
Launch Development & Planning:
- Campaign Collateral Management: Oversee the entire lifecycle of campaign collaterals, from managing newness and institutional display design and concept adaptation to production and allocation.
- Visual Asset Optimization: Process cropping adaptations, strategically plan language integration, and validate visual assets to ensure maximum impact and regional relevance.
- Timely Implementation: Implement launches efficiently and effectively, adhering strictly to the marketing calendar and ensuring timely execution.
- End-to-End Support (TR SEAOC): Provide comprehensive support for all VM collateral updates throughout the year, specifically for the Travel Retail SEAOC region.
Events & Pop-ups Management:
- Strategic Liaison: Act as a key liaison with HQ VM teams, regularly communicating and advocating for APAC market trade and event plans, ensuring brand DNA is upheld while value-adding to individual market requests.
- Project Leadership: Exercise independent judgment, project management, and time management skills to oversee end-to-end animation processes for trade and event plans, promoting best-in-class practices and upholding stringent VM standards.
- Feedback & Innovation: Review and provide constructive feedback on Market Request submissions, aligning with individual regional innovation launch matrices.
- Guideline Updates & Training: Assist in updating global visual guidelines and provide essential support and training to markets as needed.
- Creative Solutions: Offer professional advice and support on execution needs, proposing alternative and creative solutions when necessary.
New Store Openings and Renovations:
- VM Planogram & Visual Plan Contribution: Assist the CVM team by providing insightful feedback on New Opening Reports, specifically concerning VM planograms and visual plans for new store openings.
- Counter Opening Display Guidelines: Establish specific counter opening display guidelines across TR APAC, encompassing visual and video plans, PVM, campaign display guides, and planograms.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner effectively with the Store Design Team for new counter openings, renovations, and retrofits, ensuring all necessary VM tools are in place for assigned doors. Collaborate closely with the Hard Merch team to identify and address any inconsistencies in design and operational matters related to soft merchandising.
- Small Works Project Management: Work with Regional and Market stakeholders on VM-related small works projects, ensuring seamless execution.
Launch Development - Execution:
- In-Store Excellence: Organize all in-store soft merchandising materials to consistently enhance POS retail excellence.
- Promotions & HPP Execution: Lead project management for promotions and High-Performance Projects (HPP), from initial design and technical input to production, installation, and rectification, meticulously documenting through reports and records.
- Comprehensive Guidelines: Provide comprehensive display guidelines and planograms for operation teams (Retail Managers, Beauty Advisors, agents) to ensure consistent and effective on-floor execution.
- Reporting & Documentation: Maintain systematic photo reports and records for presentations and review purposes, ensuring thorough documentation of all VM activities.
- Market Visits & Competitor Analysis: Conduct regular market visits to personally experience execution, evaluate VM strategy effectiveness, and analyze competitor performance.
Administration & Operations:
- Vendor Management: Oversee in-market vendors, including sourcing, onboarding, procurement processes (where applicable), and invoice management, ensuring efficient and effective partnerships.
- Logistics Coordination: Manage in-market logistics for VM-related collateral and prints, ensuring smooth distribution and timely delivery.
- Global Logistics Partnership: Cultivate a strong partnership with the global CVM logistics team to ensure all creative shipments are meticulously tracked and successfully cleared into each market.
Required Competencies:
- Strong leadership skills with at least 3-5 years with relevant experience
- Ability to work independently and a Team player
- Dynamic, creative, self-motivated & well-organized with a strong sense of urgency and deadlines in projects and tasks
- Proficient in Sketchup, Illustrator and Photoshop, InDesign and Microsoft Office software is ideal
- Able to adapt in a fast-paced environment with multi-tasking capacity and work under pressure
