COMPANY DESCRIPTION
Muse Paintbar (www.musepaintbar.com) combines an event-based art studio with a beer & wine bar. Typically, customers attend sessions lasting 2-2.5 hours where they create a work of art taught by an experienced instructor. Most people attend with friends or family, and it is more of a social gathering than a classroom setting.
It was started by Stan Finch (CEO) and Ray Weaver (Chairman) as part of a marketing project at Harvard Business School in 2012. It’s come a long way from there, but we still love to experiment, test, analyze, and learn! The company is backed by several experienced, well-funded angel investors and has several top-notch advisors who provide guidance and connections.
We currently operate 12 studios across New England and Tri-State, and we’re in the process of opening many additional locations within this geographic footprint while also expanding to Maryland/Virginia by early 2016. The company is headquartered in NYC and maintains regional offices in Boston and Washington D.C.
ROLE DESCRIPTION
We’re looking for this position to perform 2 very important roles at the company:
- Develop advertising plan and coordinate its execution [~65% of job]
- Assume responsibility for branding and development on website and with collateral [~35% of job]
ADVERTISING EFFORTS
Muse has established a proven model that generates extremely high customer satisfaction and word-of-mouth marketing. We also employ marketing tactics across a variety of online and off-line mediums. Currently, however, the efforts are somewhat fragmented across personnel, and the company president still manages too much work himself. We’re looking for someone to i) bring additional marketing capabilities and bandwidth to the organization and ii) organize these efforts into a more cohesive strategy.
A good candidate will have extensive experience with online/digital marketing efforts and tactics. Experience with in-store methods, partnerships, etc., would also be a plus.
BRANDING ON WEBSITE, COLLATERAL, ETC.
Website: The biggest piece of this is the website. The last full re-design of Muse’s website was in 2012. There have been several smaller updates since then, and we’ve added a lot of locations. But we’ve done nothing substantive from a branding/aesthetic perspective. Recently, Muse has engaged a designer to develop some new prototypes. These are promising, but there is still a lot that we can explore.
Coding/development skills would not be expected as we will engage agencies to do the design and development work. That said, it would be helpful to have some experience with this, or with managing it, so that you have a better understanding of what the possibilities are.
Collateral: We currently have a suite of collateral that includes logos, brochures, gift certificates, food menus, and signage (e.g., A-Frame signs). Most of the original creative was developed by outside agencies (with heavy input from and coordination with us), and we have developed several iterations of these using Illustrator, Photoshop, etc. There is always additional collateral and content we’re thinking about, but we don’t have a lot of bandwidth right now (or organizational expertise) to develop this.
To this end, a basic working knowledge of the Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign) would be helpful. We will continue to use design agencies for any major projects, but it would be helpful to have additional capabilities in-house for making more minor tweaks.
Other: The other big area that shapes our brand is, of course, the look/feel of our studios and the experience customers have when they attend our events. We have a store opening team that
LOCATION/ORGANIZATION
The company has an office presence in NYC & Boston and will soon have one in D.C. NYC has recently taken over as more of the HQ (from Boston) and is where the company president lives (although he also spends a lot of time at studios and on Amtrak!). We’d likely want someone to work in the NYC office, although we could be receptive to very strong candidates who currently live in the Boston area and would be receptive to moving to NYC in the near future.
This role will report directly to the president/CEO of the company, Stan Finch. You would also work closely and coordinate with other members of the executive team. Most specifically, you will work with regional managers (New England, Tri-State, Mid-Atlantic), director of planning, and director of product management. Furthermore, you will manage several agencies (digital marketing, website/collateral design, PR firms, etc.).
Down the road (6-12 months), we plan to have regional marketing personnel (i.e., one in each of our company regions) that would likely report to this position. We might also hire a corporate marketing analyst or something similar. Right now, there would be no direct reports in-house.
WHO WE’RE LOOKING FOR
The ideal candidate would be able to check each of these boxes:
- 4+ years of full-time work experience, preferably all in the marketing field
- 2+ years of experience with digital marketing, either with a marketing agency or in-house with a retail/consumer company, with:
- Some experience across most of: SEM, SEO, social media, display, re-targeting, & email
- High comfort with analyzing and optimizing around conversions, CPA, CPC, LTV, etc.
- Demonstrated track record of strong results in driving additional customer acquisition
- Experience with managing various marketing, design, and web development agencies
- Love of data and very high proficiency with analytics/Excel (e.g., regressions, array functions, solver)
- Proficiency with some Adobe design applications (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign)
- Degree from a top ~50 school (or very strong performance somewhere else)
- Excited to work in a fun, fast-growing, entrepreneurial environment (yes, we have beer in the office)
Additional selling points would be:
- Degree in economics, marketing, statistics, business, finance, or something similar
- Experience with in-store or local marketing/branding
- Experience in advertising to primarily female target audiences
- Some interest and/or experience with art (professional or personal)
- Already located in NYC area
COMPENSATION
- Will be competitive based on experience
- There will be a fixed salary and bonus that is tied to company and individual performance
- Possibility of equity if interested in trading some cash salary
- All expenses are, of course, reimbursed (travel, etc.)
- Full healthcare benefits are available if needed
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
- Most people involved in Muse are young (20’s & 30’s) and energetic.
- We take pride in growing and running a good, ethical business that we can all be proud of. But we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We like happy hours and don’t wear a lot of suits.
- Must be authorized to work in the U.S.
- We do not discriminate against any race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, or any other demographic.