Vice President, Consumer Insights & & Marketing Intelligence

International Dairy Queen, Inc. • Bloomington, MN

2d • $220,096 - $275,120 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Vice President, Consumer Insights & Marketing Intelligence serves as Dairy Queen’s authority on consumers, brands, the marketplace, and marketing effectiveness. The role drives deep understanding of consumer behavior and market dynamics, translating insights into strategies and recommendations that support brand growth and business performance. As a trusted advisor to senior leadership, this executive establishes the vision, capabilities, and roadmap for Consumer Insights and Marketing Intelligence and ensures consumer and competitive perspectives inform important decisions.

The position connects consumer research, brand health, marketing effectiveness, marketplace intelligence, and business performance to provide actionable foresight and strategic direction. The leader personally guides high-priority research and analytics, develops a high-performing team, and fosters a culture that turns insights into measurable business results. The role partners across Marketing, Business Intelligence & Analytics, Operations, R&D, and other functions, and works effectively within Dairy Queen’s franchise system.

The position is based in the United States. Most positions located at the global headquarters in Bloomington, Minnesota, follow a hybrid schedule with three collaboration days per week; additional in-office time may be required to support team or project needs. The US national base salary range is $220,096–$275,120, and the position is also eligible for a bonus. Individual pay is determined by job-related skills, work location, and relevant education or experience. Employment is at-will.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, Marketing Research, Psychology, Behavioral or Cognitive Science, or a related field.
• 15+ years of progressive experience in Consumer Insights, Marketing Insights, Marketing Analytics, Strategy, or closely related disciplines.
• At least 7 years of experience leading teams and influencing senior executives.
• Track record of building, developing, and inspiring high-performing teams.
• Experience in restaurant, retail, consumer packaged goods, or another consumer-led business.
• Mastery of qualitative and quantitative consumer research, including experience with areas such as segmentation, consumer journey mapping, needs and occasions, positioning, brand health, product or concept development, advertising and creative assessment, and behavioral research.
• Strong understanding of marketing effectiveness, including creative and campaign measurement and media and marketing investment measurement methodologies such as Marketing Mix Modeling and Return on Marketing Spend.
• Ability to integrate primary research, syndicated sources, behavioral data, marketing analytics, marketplace intelligence, and business performance information.
• Strong understanding of research design and analytical principles, including the ability to optimize approaches, interrogate findings, and distinguish correlation from causation where relevant.
• Experience identifying and applying emerging research methods, tools, technologies, and approaches to improve insights quality, speed, and business impact.
• Demonstrated success operating in complex, matrixed organizations and influencing decisions through formal and informal relationships.
• Authorization to work in the United States without employer sponsorship.

Nice To Haves

• Advanced degree or MBA.
• QSR and/or franchise-system experience.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the organizational authority on DQ consumers and develop a holistic understanding of their needs, motivations, behaviors, occasions, and decision drivers.
• Identify consumer-driven opportunities to strengthen the brand and drive short- and long-term growth.
• Develop and lead foundational learning agendas covering areas such as segmentation, target definition, attitudes and behaviors, needs and occasions, customer journeys, brand positioning, and emerging consumer needs.
• Ensure consumer understanding informs annual business and marketing planning and longer-term strategic planning.
• Integrate qualitative, quantitative, behavioral, syndicated, and business information to create a comprehensive perspective.
• Establish ways to disseminate and embed foundational consumer learning across the organization.
• Embed consumer understanding throughout the go-to-market process, partnering with Marketing and cross-functional teams on strategy, propositions, menu and innovation, targeting, positioning, promotions, communications, customer experience, and activation.
• Bring insights into early decisions and provide research and reporting to validate decisions after they are made.
• Develop a deep understanding of the consumer journey and drivers of brand consideration, choice, purchase, and loyalty.
• Partner with Marketing and agency teams to guide what Dairy Queen should communicate, how and to whom, and where communications can have the greatest impact in the consumer journey.
• Lead or actively contribute to high-priority and complex consumer learning initiatives, from business-question framing and research design through synthesis, recommendation, and activation.
• Lead understanding of brand health, equity, salience, consideration, preference, perceptions, competitive positioning, and drivers of brand growth.
• Establish an integrated approach to understanding how marketing influences consumer perceptions, behavior, and business performance.
• Partner with Marketing and agency teams to improve campaign strategy, creative execution, and marketing effectiveness.
• Develop learning agendas for creative and campaign evaluation, from early strategy and development through in-market and post-campaign learning.
• Partner with Business Intelligence & Analytics, Marketing, and other stakeholders to integrate brand and consumer measures with Marketing Mix Modeling, Return on Marketing Spend, media measurement, and business results.
• Identify and communicate learning across campaigns and initiatives to improve marketing effectiveness over time.
• Build and maintain an integrated understanding of the restaurant marketplace and broader forces influencing Dairy Queen consumers.
• Monitor changes in consumer behavior, culture, technology, competition, category dynamics, and the marketing environment to identify opportunities and threats.
• Establish foresight capabilities to identify meaningful signals of change and prepare the organization for future consumer and marketplace shifts.
• Translate trends and marketplace intelligence into implications and choices.
• Bring emerging consumer and marketplace opportunities to senior leadership and challenge assumptions when evidence supports a different direction.
• Establish and continually evolve the strategic roadmap for Consumer Insights & Marketing Intelligence.
• Ensure excellence in qualitative and quantitative research design, execution, analysis, interpretation, and storytelling.
• Explore, test, and adopt research methodologies, behavioral approaches, and technology-enabled capabilities that can improve speed, depth, or competitive advantage.
• Develop a strategic ecosystem of research, data, technology, and consulting partners.
• Create a culture of meta-learning by connecting findings across research, marketing initiatives, time periods, and data sources.
• Help business partners become more effective consumers and users of research and evidence.
• Advise senior leadership and cross-functional partners, bringing an objective, evidence-based consumer and marketplace perspective to critical decisions.
• Maintain direct involvement in high-priority initiatives by framing business questions, shaping research and analytical approaches, challenging assumptions and methodology, interpreting results, and developing business recommendations.
• Reconcile disparate information and translate consumer, marketing, marketplace, and business information into a clear point of view.
• Build strong partnerships across Marketing, Business Intelligence & Analytics, Operations, R&D, and other functions.
• Navigate and influence within a franchise system, considering consumers, franchisees, and the enterprise when developing recommendations.
• Build and develop a high-performing Consumer Insights & Marketing Intelligence team and foster curiosity, intellectual honesty, experimentation, collaboration, and constructive provocation.

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits package for eligible employees, including medical and dental coverage.
• 401(k) match.
• Paid time off, including volunteer time and parental leave.
• Bonus eligibility.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive