The Role of a Brand Manager in the Sweet Industry

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

How did you start your career at Mondelēz International?

Mondelēz hired me into the Leadership Development Program which included short rotations across sales and marketing. I learned so much in my two years in the program and it gave me the opportunity to network with senior leadership at an early stage in my career, so I really appreciated that investment the company made in me. Getting a chance to start day one out of undergrad in the direct-store-delivery side of our business by selling displays into store managers was a challenging and dynamic experience. The members of our salesforce are some of the hardest working people at the company and I valued the hands-on experience I got as a Sales Representative and Retail Merchandising Supervisor, managing some of our talented sales colleagues.

What does a typical day (or week) look like for you as a Brand Manager at Mondelēz?

What is truly exciting about brand management at Mondelēz is this answer can vary heavily based on the week. We are tasked with growing the brand so this can pull us in a lot of different directions both short and long term. Responsibilities span from developing a creative strategy for a launch and a media plan for a new year with our external agency partners to leading the commercial development and forecast of a new product and analyzing in-year business performance with our internal cross functional teams.

My current role with SOUR PATCH KIDS has a strategic focus on the communications and media for the unique Gen-Z brand, so my day-to-day is spent on meetings with our agency teams evaluating how we can extend our mischievous sour persona in culture and build out relevant campaigns to boost brand performance.

What's the most exciting or rewarding project you've worked on since joining the Marketing team?

In a prior role on RITZ Innovation, I had the opportunity to lead the launch of our RITZ Toasted Chips Everything flavor all the way from a concept through launch in market. It is hard to describe how rewarding it is to see a flavor that was once just one of many on a list for consumer testing finally hitting the marketplace and in stores nationwide where friends and family can pick it up and try it. As the brand management lead for an innovation, we scope the concept and ensure the eventual execution maintains the critical consumer insights that initiated its development with the support and hard work from our strong cross functional team who specialize in research and development, P&L management, sales forecast planning, etc. to bring the item to life.

How does the company support your professional development and growth as a Brand Manager?

I am thankful that Mondelēz leadership has consistently found ways to challenge me by exposing me to new parts of our business and entrusting me with new responsibilities when I am ready for them. I have tried my best to deliver at a high level in each role that I am given and once I am able to deliver to the team’s expectation, I am vocal about areas where I would like to pursue personal growth. I am appreciative that leadership is always supportive of finding ways for me to achieve that growth in an existing position or in a new role when timing dictates. In addition to these growth opportunities on the job, there are also several employee resource groups and business-adjacent training meetings where we can hone our skills or get exposure to a different function in the organization.

In your opinion, what makes the marketing culture at Mondelēz unique and a great place to work?

Something I value about Mondelēz marketing culture is that folks at all levels are entrusted to lead campaigns and new item launches to make an impact on the business. While it may be a cliché expectation that early career colleagues are expected to support the business by making data pulls for their managers and carrying our smaller administrative tasks, at Mondelēz every brand management individual is empowered to own projects and conduct critical business analysis to inform strategic decisions being made across the brand. There is truly no better way to learn than by doing and Mondelēz really embraces that mindset by putting everyone in a position to succeed through invaluable hands-on experiences.

What advice would you give to someone who is interested in pursuing a career in Brand Management at Mondelēz?

It is incredibly important to find ways to showcase learning agility by going above and beyond the scope of your current role, whatever that may be. For an ever-changing business landscape, the one element that I feel is consistently true with anyone you may meet who works in brand management is that they are a self-starter. You really need to be to succeed in a role that can be at times ambiguous and always anchors to the north star of brand growth. Showcasing an ability to extend beyond your responsibilities and identify new opportunities to improve our business is an imperative skill in the brand management world and one that can be exemplified in any role or opportunity (extracurricular club, volunteer assignment, etc.) that you are given.

I have had the good fortune of learning from so many impressive leaders and peers in my time at Mondelēz and a common thread in everyone I admire here is that self-starter mindset.