Brand Manager - Private Brands chez Guitar Center

The Manager, Brand supports the Director of Brand in driving the growth, health, and performance of the company’s brand portfolio. This role is responsible for executing brand strategies, managing category performance, and ensuring consistent brand positioning across products and channels. The Manager will work cross-functionally with Merchandising, Marketing, Finance, and Planning to execute go-to-market initiatives, monitor business results, and contribute to the brand’s long-term success. 

This position is ideal for a collaborative, data-driven brand professional who combines strategic thinking with hands-on execution to bring brand strategies to life. 

Key Responsibilities 

• Brand Strategy Execution: Implement brand strategies and category plans developed in partnership with the Director, ensuring alignment with company goals and market opportunities. Help to define and manage brand architecture and equity: measure brand health (awareness, preference, NPS) and recommend interventions to strengthen brand value.
• Drive social media channels and efforts to tell the stories of our brands and products in a compelling way. 
• Portfolio & Product Management: Manage the product lifecycle within assigned categories — tracking performance, identifying optimization opportunities, and recommending product introductions, refreshes, or retirements based on data insights.
• Pricing & Positioning Support: Collaborate with Merchandising and Finance to support pricing strategies and value propositions that enhance competitiveness and profitability.
• Go-to-Market (GTM) Planning: Coordinate go-to-market activities for product launches and seasonal initiatives, ensuring consistent execution across Marketing, Merchandising, and Supply Chain teams. Manage brand experience across channels (digital, social, retail, direct-to-consumer), ensuring coherence and compelling consumer engagement in each channel.
• Brand Storytelling: Partner with Marketing to ensure brand messaging, visuals, and campaigns reflect brand positioning and resonate with target audiences.
• Business Analysis: Monitor brand and product performance metrics (sales, margin, velocity, etc.), and provide actionable insights to guide strategic decisions.
• Consumer & Market Insight: Track market trends, consumer behavior, and competitive activity to inform brand and product recommendations.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with key stakeholders across Sourcing, Planning, and Creative to ensure cohesive execution of brand objectives and initiatives.
• Support regional/local brand execution in retail stores where applicable and engage with store leadership and high-performers to build and maintain brand presence and awareness
• Build and engage brand communities and customer advocacy programs (influencers, ambassadors, loyalty) to deepen brand-consumer connection
• Operational Excellence: Support process improvement across brand planning, reporting, and communication workflows to enhance efficiency and visibility.
• Team Partnership: Provide mentorship and support to coordinators or analysts on the brand team, fostering a culture of curiosity, collaboration, and accountability.
• Brand Stewardship: Act as a brand ambassador internally and externally, ensuring all touchpoints uphold brand integrity and voice. Strong storytelling ability and experience in partnering with Marketing teams to translate brand strategy into compelling consumer narratives across platforms and touchpoint