Natural Products Associate

SPINS, Inc. is the leading provider of marketing research, information and consulting services to the natural/organic products industry.  Since 1995, we have provided the sales tracking and consumer information services required by current industry participants and new companies seeking opportunities in this rapidly growing market.

SPINS, Inc. is dedicated to supporting the growing movement toward healthy, natural and organic products by providing reliable marketing information needed to make sound business decisions.

Position Overview: 

We are currently seeking a Natural Products Associate to join our Content Services Group at our Schaumburg, IL offices. The ideal candidate will have previous experience in the Natural Products Industry (e.g.; health food stores, distributors, manufacturers, and other industry groups), a broad and deep knowledge of brands and products that drive the industry, a passion for health and wellness, and a desire to work in an exciting start-up type of work environment.

Responsibilities:

Researching of product information:

• Acquiring and auditing product information on natural products utilizing manufacturers, SPINS partners, the Internet, etc.
• Researching and retrieving information on brands and specific products.
• Contacting manufacturers for additional information when needed.
• Researching attributes of products (such as whether or not a product is organic, fair-trade certified, etc)

Updating and maintaining our product ‘library' (database):

• Maintaining/updating all product information in our database (Microsoft Access).

Ad-hoc Projects:

• Custom coding work outside our standard coding framework, assigned from the Director, often involving researching full ranges of products such as Frozen Desserts (2,000 + UPCs) for a new attribute, etc.
• Making necessary enhancements/changes and communicating any and all status to the Content Team and in some cases the SPINS Sales Team and Clients directly.

Additional tasks:

• Participation in occasional natural products store tours (reviewing merchandising, new product launches, etc)
• Contributions to new Content initiatives that draw on your industry expertise and further SPINS' ability to capture emerging trends in our Industry Standard hierarchy.
• Participation/commentary for reports produced by SPINS Client Services team. These reports range from Business Overviews to Strategic Expansion, and the Content team contributions are often in fact checking, directional support (competing brands and manufacturer background), etc
• Reporting to and providing regular status reports on assigned tasks/projects and other issues relevant to your responsibilities to the Director of Content Services.

Qualifications:

• Full-time employment Monday through Friday in our Schaumburg, IL office (Chicago-area).
• High level of proficiency and comfort with natural and organic companies and products.
• High degree of proficiency in using Windows and Microsoft Professional Office tool set (Internet Explorer, Outlook, Word, Excel, and Access is a big plus)
• Excellent written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills
• Ability to work with minimal supervision, meeting specified deadlines and team standards.