ECOMMERCE DIRECTOR JOBS: Healthy Directions seeks a Director, Online Acquisition Marketing (Bethesda, MD 20817)

Healthy Directions markets alternative health solutions to the 60+ segment of the market. HD’s products are supported by world-class science and research and they tend to be health condition based – developed to prevent or alleviate the symptoms of specific maladies. HD maintains a strong product development capability and the Doctors who endorse the firm’s brands have been featured in numerous popular media outlets including Huffington Post, CNN, InStyle magazine, and Shape magazine.

Healthy Directions’ core business, strategies, and financial discipline made it a natural fit for Helen of Troy’s acquisition profile. Helen of Troy had been building a portfolio within the health and wellness space since its acquisition of Kaz and OXO, and prior to snapping up Healthy Directions, its health and wellness businesses accounted for >25% of the firm’s sales — thanks for products like Vicks and Braun humidifiers, vaporizers, and thermometers; Honeywell in air purifiers; and PUR water filters.

Healthy Directions’ owns a huge portfolio of highly respected physicians and medical experts who lend their names on an exclusive basis to Healthy Directions’ doctor-branded products in growing vitamins, nutrition, and health-oriented product categories such as heart health, blood sugar, digestive health with probiotics, anti-aging, joint health, vision support, and skin rejuvenation. Additionally, HD has a strong R&D pipeline plus relationships with additional doctors intended to add new, well-researched doctor-branded products in the future.

In 2013, the Nutrition Business Journal projected that the vitamin, mineral supplement industry is expected to continue to grow at a mid to high single-digit rate annually over the next five years. Healthy Directions which targets consumers age 55/up expects to benefit from the aging of the US population, with over 70% of those aged 55 and up taking vitamin supplements in 2013.

According to the US Census Bureau’s national population forecast, the 65 to 74 age segment is expected to grow more than 50% between 2012 and 2025. And the segment of age 75/up is expected to grow more than 40%. This positions Helen of Troy to benefit from further diversification by adding an additional business in these population segments.

At 80 million strong, Americans born between 1946 and 1964 make up 26% of the US population. Roughly 1 in 4 consumers is a Boomer, and every day for the next 18 years 10,000 Boomers will reach the age 65. 40% of Boomers are considered affluent with median household incomes of $140,000. 46% of this group have net worth exceeding $2 million. This puts the number of affluent Boomers at approximately 25,000,000.

For Directors of Online Acquisition Marketing who target this demographic, it’s important to know that Boomers see themselves differently than everyone else sees them. According to the 2010 Del Webb Baby Boomer Survey …

• Boomers set the benchmark of old age at 80 (!!), and there is considerable distance between their chronological age and the age they identify with, which is 15 years younger.
• More than 50% of Boomers say they exercise regularly, and many feel they are in better shape now than they were some years ago.
• Many Boomers, especially younger Boomers, are extremely skeptical of government benefits being available when they become seniors.
• 72% of Boomers intend to keep working past the classic retirement age of 65.

Boomers are focused on maintaining their health, which makes this market very attractive to competitors of all shapes and sizes. The US health supplement retail industry includes 5,000 companies operating ~10,000 stores with combined annual sales of approximately $6 billion. As Healthy Directions’ Director, Online Acquisition Marketing, that’s what you’re up against.

Healthy Directions’ go-to-market model is unlike many other traditional branded supplement players. It goes direct to consumer for marketing and delivery. HD collaborates with its doctors to create unique magalogs, to educate consumers on its products, and to drive traffic to its call centers and website. The transaction process is simple, and set up to encourage automatic replenishment for recurring revenue stream and trial of additional products. Think Netflix …

Healthy Directions’ website has a massive amount of content on it, and that content can be used to drive leads and sales in a multi-touch, omnichannel way. Your job won’t just be about paid search and display advertising – although those tactics are essential to success. Rather, your success will rely on using data to effectively allocate your marketing budget across every channel so that the whole of your efforts are greater than the sum of its parts.

Healthy Directions’ marketing executives are terrifically bright, and they’re experts in the areas of DRTV, Direct Marketing, Product Development, Marketing Strategy, Customer Insight, Marketing Research, and Retail. No doubt, you’ll learn a lot working with them, but they’ll expect you to bring a lot to the table, too.

For example, Google rankings are always important at HD, but ROI is where the rubber hits the road. It’s one thing for Healthy Directions’ site to be loaded with great content, but that content won’t perform well if it isn’t mobile friendly. Also, social signals must be integrated more effectively given that Google has begun to rely more on social signals in its SERPs.

At the end of the day, this role is perfect for a person who loves direct response marketing and understand what it takes to drive DR demand. The job is perfect for someone who loves numbers and has an analytical bias to the way they make marketing decisions.

Ideally, we’re looking for someone who understands “cause and effect” in the marketing realm and can examine spend-versus-yield in a highly intelligent, hypothesis driven way. It will be up to you to define HD’s customer acquisition goals, budget, and leading / lagging indicators of success. You’ll find yourself working across multiple disciplines, such as customer service, brand, created, product sourcing, and more.

The marketers on HD’s hiring committee are terrifically bright, and you can expect these interviews to put you to the test. As always, we’ve pulled together a massive amount of information on 1.) this role, 2.) this client, 3.) the industry, and 4.) what you will need to do to GET the job and WIN in the role once you get it.

If you like what you’ve read so far, then you’ll love everything else we can share with you about the role. Please apply below for additional information.