Manager Disney Creative Development Jobs in Chicago, IL

Description: Culligan is seeking a strategic, consumer-centric and execution-oriented Brand Manager to lead the development, stewardship, and growth of our consumer-facing brands across digital and e-commerce channels. This role will be responsible for driving brand strategy, positioning, naming architecture, creative development, brand governance, and integrated marketing initiatives that strengthen brand awareness, consumer engagement, and business growth.

The Brand Manager will serve as the steward of the Culligan PurePlay portfolio, ensuring a consistent and compelling brand experience across Amazon, direct-to-consumer (DTC), retailer websites, social media, and emerging digital channels. This individual will partner closely with Product Management, E-Commerce, Sales, Consumer Insights, Customer Experience, and external agencies to translate consumer and market insights into winning brand strategies and high-impact marketing programs.

The ideal candidate combines strategic thinking with strong executional capabilities and is equally comfortable developing long-term brand vision, managing agencies, overseeing creative production, and bringing integrated campaigns to market.

Responsibilities:

Brand Strategy & Management

• Lead brand strategy, positioning, messaging, and value proposition development across Culligan's PurePlay portfolio.
• Develop and maintain brand architecture, naming conventions, product nomenclature, and portfolio organization.
• Establish, maintain, and develop brand guidelines to ensure consistency across all customers (end user) touchpoints.
• Serve as the internal brand steward, driving adherence to brand standards across marketing, sales, product, customer experience, and external partners.
• Develop compelling brand narratives that communicate product innovation, category leadership, and customer benefits.
• Leverage consumer insights, market trends, competitive intelligence, and category dynamics to identify growth opportunities and inform brand strategy.

Creative Leadership & Content Development

• Lead development of creative assets across e-commerce, digital, social, influencers and video channels.
• Manage relationships with creative, branding, content, production, and media agencies.
• Develop clear creative briefs and guide agencies from concept through execution.
• Oversee photography, lifestyle shoots, product demonstrations, video production, and content creation initiatives.
• Ensure all creative work aligns with brand strategy, business priorities, and channel requirements.
• Drive consistency and excellence in visual identity, messaging, and consumer experience.

Product Storytelling & Customer Education

• Translate product features and technical capabilities into compelling consumer-facing benefits and messaging.
• Develop product narratives, educational content, comparison frameworks, and communication standards.
• Partner with Product Management to support new product launches and portfolio innovation.
• Improve how consumers understand, evaluate, and shop Culligan products across all digital touchpoints.
• Partner with e-commerce teams to optimize content, imagery, video, messaging, and overall brand presentation.
• Improve consumer experience across digital shelves by partnering with Product, Quality, Consumer Care, and Operations to address ratings, reviews, returns, product claims, and content accuracy
• Use VOC, reviews, Q&A, returns data, and marketplace insights to identify product, content, and service improvement opportunities.
• Strengthen analytics expectations with weekly & monthly analysis of volume, share, awareness, trial, repeat, equity metrics, and response plans.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner closely with Product Management, Sales, E-Commerce, Consumer Insights, Analytics, Customer Experience, and external agencies.
• Drive alignment on brand strategy, portfolio priorities, product launches, and growth initiatives.
• Act as the voice of the consumer across the organization, helping ensure customer needs are reflected in marketing and business decisions.

Qualifications:

Required

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Business, Communications, or related field.
• 5-8+ years of progressive experience in Brand Management, Consumer Marketing, or Integrated Marketing.
• Proven experience developing and executing successful brand and marketing strategies.
• Experience managing agencies and leading creative development projects.
• Demonstrated ability to translate consumer insights into business and marketing actions.
• Exceptional communication, storytelling, presentation, and influencing skills.
• Strong project management and cross-functional leadership capabilities.
• Analytical mindset with the ability to connect marketing initiatives to business outcomes.

Preferred

• Experience in consumer products, home products, water treatment, appliances, durable goods, or related categories.
• Experience with Amazon, marketplace, or e-commerce-focused marketing.
• Familiarity with influencer marketing, paid social, online videos, creator partnerships, PR, and content development.
• Experience overseeing photography, video production, and content creation programs.

About Us

The PurePlay business is a growing portfolio of purpose-driven water filtration brands and part of Culligan International, a private-equity held company based in Rosemont, Illinois. Our PurePlay brands serve a shared mission: to make clean, great-tasting, and contaminant-free water accessible in every household.

• APEC Water is our flagship brand, widely trusted by professionals and discerning consumers alike for its uncompromising performance, rigorous engineering, and industry-leading reverse osmosis systems.
• Express Water brings bold design and modern simplicity to everyday households, delivering powerful water filtration in sleek, user-friendly formats—designed for DIY installers and first-time buyers alike.
• CuZn extends our professional-grade portfolio with performance-focused specialty filters, while
• Pure Blue delivers reliable, accessible solutions tailored for value-seeking families looking for high-quality hydration with minimal complexity.

Across the portfolio, we combine technical credibility with consumer-first thinking—creating products that are engineered to perform, built to last, and positioned to win in every channel.

Target Salary Range: $110,000 - $145,000 per year plus bonus. Exact pay will be based on factors including, but not limited to relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, level, geographic location, and business and organizational needs. Full-time positions are eligible for competitive benefits, including paid time off, health, dental, vision, life, disability benefits and 401(k).