Marketing Manager, Brightkins

Learning Resources•Vernon Hills, IL

13d•$110,000 - $115,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Learning Resources is a growing, family-owned company known for its award-winning educational toys and its pet brand, Brightkins. Voted one of the Chicago Tribune’s Top Workplaces, the company fosters a collaborative environment where continuous learning, teamwork, and innovation drive success. This role is for a Marketing Manager to lead the relaunch of the Brightkins brand, focusing on building the brand vision and narrative, starting with social media. The position offers significant room for growth alongside the company's brands and retail presence.

Requirements

Author a brand strategy, including distinctiveness research and brand positioning within the first 3 months.
Complete a branding project, with a final deliverable being a brand book within the first 12 months.
Scale affiliate community to increase traffic by 200% and establish regular communication cadence with partners within the first 6 months.
Execute paid and organic social media strategies to grow engagements by 3x within the first 6 months.
Establish a YouTube strategy and relaunch the channel with a posting cadence of at least once a week of high-quality content within the first 12 months.
Results-driven attitude – a self-starter who thinks and participates effectively, both independently and as part of a team.
Analytical skills, and sales acumen – must be able to gather, analyze and interpret data to deliver business insights.
Strong communication skills, including synthesizing information from a broad range of stakeholders and market research.
Proactive and resourceful in solving problems, making decisions and executing on goals.
Ability to build and maintain effective relationships with management, sales teams, peers and agency partners and manage those relationships to achieve business objectives.
Owns results and follows through on commitments, takes responsibility and produces quality results.

Responsibilities

Author and execute a brand strategy for the Brightkins brand, including Distinctive Assets development and brand storytelling narrative.
Build, lead, and develop a high-performing Brand team, establishing performance standards for content and partnerships.
Oversee social media strategy across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube to build mental availability and strengthen brand positioning.
Scale the influencer, affiliate, and creator ecosystem, including long-term community building.
Strategize and own annual, seasonal, and product-driven marketing campaign execution, ensuring flawless execution across all channels and owning channel-level KPIs.
Partner with Product Development to develop market insights that shape innovation strategy.
Work with Sales to capture retail opportunities and secure sell-through.
Partner with internal Centers of Excellence teams to manage budget, oversee trade show executions, retail/shopper marketing, and media planning.
Oversee and evaluate PR strategy with an agency partner.