Director of Marketing

Headquartered in Boston’s Design Center, Merida designs and manufacturers one-of-a-kind rugs, woven to order in the historic mill town of Fall River, Massachusetts. As a company of makers, we care deeply about the integrity of materials, the art of weaving, and the details of design. With more than 30 years of textile expertise, we partner directly with interior designers to transform their projects and enhance their practices.  Our products have been featured in House Beautiful, Architectural Digest, Elle Decor and The New York Times.

Responsibilities

Customer and Market Intelligence

• Cultivate relationships with interior design clients and prospects with a goal of bringing the customer voice and insights to product development and marketing initiatives
• Develop buyer personas and evangelize throughout the company, ensuring all sales and marketing touchpoints address customer goals, motivations, attitudes and interests
• Scout lifestyle, hospitality and interior trends from trade shows and other sources to deliver new, contemporary products celebrated for their craftmanship and currency

Product Design and Launch

• Collaborate with the design team in planning and executing product strategies from concept to launch, ensuring strategies are informed by customer and market intelligence and supported by key messages and marketing initiatives
• Deliver cohesive design solutions beyond the physical product to packaging, sampling and merchandising
• Establish a Design Council, engaging in dialogue with key design partners and influencers, sourcing ideas for product planning, merchandising, events, etc.

Marketing Leadership

• Lead all marketing and branding initiatives, managing a small team and external agency partners to oversee events, public relations, social media, content marketing, videos, and the Merida website. Direct the team to deliver inspired creative - visual and content - that engages audiences and meets campaign objectives.
• Create an integrated marketing calendar with campaigns tied to product launches, industry events, seasonal design trends, etc.  Develop related content and amplify across the website, social media, showrooms, events and media ensuring the organization and agency partners are in lock-step on key campaign messaging.
• Adopt inbound best practices to reduce dependence on media for exposure, attracting key design audiences to content on the website, blogs, social media, etc.
• Measure marketing performance against established targets, aligning limited resources with high impact initiatives.
• Support the sales organization with training on new product lines and campaigns, delivering toolkits with key messaging, email templates, etc. to enable sales efforts.

Minimum Qualifications

• A Bachelor's degree in design, marketing, communications or related field.
• 8-10 years of marketing experience with a track record of building online audiences, preferably for a high value brand, on the merits of conscious craftmanship and heritage.
• Superb ability to clearly communicate concepts, ideas and vision into actionable assignments for colleagues and agency partners, managing complex projects with a sense of urgency - and humor - when needed.
• Experience building strong relationships with sales colleagues, customers and agency partners to deliver results.
• Collaborative team player skilled at managing and motivating a small team.
• A bias for measuring and analyzing results.
• Keen eye for design and visual merchandising. Proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite a plus.
• Conversant in interior design, luxury retail or related area (fluency a bonus) with an avid appreciation for interior design and/or an impressive collection of design magazines.