Head of Consumer Planning & Insight
Fáilte Ireland is currently seeking to recruit a highly motivated and consumer-orientated executive to join its management team.

This is a fantastic opportunity to join the Executive team and work with an incredible portfolio of brands, bringing effective strategic direction and leadership in the growth of tourism in Ireland. The world-class brands include Wild Atlantic Way, Ireland’s Ancient East, Dublin and Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands.

You will have previously worked as a senior consumer planner within a large corporate organisation or research agency where you will have extensive strategic development, consumer planning and research methodology experience. Overseeing a strong consumer planning team, you will have clear leadership skills and experience in managing people and working cross functionally with other teams and stakeholders. You will also be able to demonstrate excellent relationship management of agencies and a range of external partners.

The role will report to the Director of Marketing and be based at Fáilte Ireland, Aras Fáilte, 88-95 Amiens Street, Dublin 1.Fáilte Ireland is an equal opportunities employer.
Closing Date: Wednesday 6th Feb 2019 at 12pm
Salary Range: €83,428 – €104,171*
Ref No: FI-009HCPI

Job Purpose
The role concentrates on unlocking the growth potential for the Republic of Ireland as a holiday destination to Republic and Northern Ireland consumers, as well as understanding the in-market experience and needs of all tourists (domestic and international).

Note: Our partner agency, Tourism Ireland, has the responsibility of marketing the Island of Ireland to overseas holidaymakers. We work very closely in partnership with them as they develop global campaigns.

The candidate will champion and drive world class understanding of consumer attitudes, motivations and trends that can be leveraged to grow tourism in Ireland. Specifically:
o To be the custodian of consumer insights
o To build an understanding of the consumer
o To ensure that the brand strategies, marketing communications and our support of new product development (e.g. our capital grant support for new attractions, etc.) are founded upon a deep understanding of the consumer
o To deliver Measurement and Evaluation for key advertising and promotional projects
o Ensuring strategic consumer insights are at the heart of all marketing activity and support to tourism businesses.

Primary Objectives
o Develop a research strategic approach that will unlock data and insights to help the internal teams and external stakeholders unlock the potential for the tourism sector.
o Regularly review our key domestic/NI target audiences and re-develop consumer segments as appropriate, ensuring their motivations and behaviours/drivers are fed into the marketing communications team
o With the Director of Marketing, Head of Marketing Communications and other Executive members, determine an effective marketing communications strategy for domestic and NI consumers.
o Support the Product Development and Regional Brand teams to develop, test and evaluate new concepts, experiences and activities to enhance the tourism product offering available across the country.
o Work closely with our sister agency Tourism Ireland and support them appropriately
o Identify and build strategic partnerships with third-party organisations across various sectors who can help us better understand consumer holiday behaviour and unlock increased consumer insight (e.g. Online booking engines, mobile phone companies, etc.).
o Help the organisation set clear goals and KPIs that are aligned with Fáilte Ireland corporate objectives and establish robust, measurable methodologies to review performance against these objectives and appropriate international benchmarks.
o Act as the voice of the consumer and ensure that that consumers’ needs are reflected in our actions and decisions as they related to brand building, market communications and tourism experiences development (attractions, cycling trails, etc.).
o Build key external stakeholder relationships including research agency partners, marketing agencies, Tourism Ireland, Tourism Northern Ireland, tourism trade bodies, local authorities, etc.

Team Development
Inspire, lead and support team members to perform to the best of their ability individually and collectively within teams to meet predetermined objectives. Specifically:
o With other members of the Executive team, build an appropriate high performance culture.
o Proactively develop the skills of the team to maximise their potential.
o Role model and coach the team in collaborative working across projects and with internal and external stakeholders.
o Manage all staff reporting to the position to effectively train, evaluate, motivate, delegate and monitor their activities.
o Conduct Performance Reviews in line with Fáilte Ireland policy.
o Develop accurate work force plans to ensure that all projects within the Consumer Planning & Insight team are resourced with the appropriate skills and headcount.
o Managing procurement and budgeting processes within agreed policy.

Carry out all other duties as required.
The flexibility to travel domestically, internationally and work unsociable hours is a key element of this role.
* The successful candidate will commence on the 1st point of the salary scale in line with current Government policy.

Essential Experience:
o Graduate
o At least 7 years’ senior experience either within a consumer-driven organisation with a strong planning, brand and consumer focus, or a research agency background
o Experience in both quantitative and qualitative research techniques
o Directly involved in sophisticated research projects that created rich consumer insights that unlocked significant growth for the organisation
o Clear leadership skills and experience of managing a team including working cross functionally with other teams and stakeholders. Demonstrate the ability to help nurture great talent to reach their full potential and support underperformers to help them turnaround performance.
o Demonstrated excellent relationship management of agencies and a range of external partners.

Key Competencies:
o Customer Orientation
o Strategic Thinking
o Commercial Acumen
o Data Analysis
o Influencing (in formal and informal settings)

Notes:
o We may ask applicants to complete online psychometric assessment(s) as a means of progressing to the next stage of the process.
o Interviews for this position are likely to take place in February 2019 and will be held in Dublin.

All interested applicants can only apply via Alternatives. Contact Kristin Ryan, kryan@alternatives.ie or 01 661 8889