Brand Manager, B2C in Vernon Hills, Illinois at Europa Eyewear

Location: Chicago, IL preferred hybrid, with regular travel to Minneapolis (eyebobs), photoshoots, and industry events

About Europa Eyewear

Founded in 1977 and family-built over four decades, Europa Eyewear is one of the largest independent designers and manufacturers of premium eyewear in the United States. Our portfolio spans more than a dozen distinct brands, sold through independent eye care professionals nationwide and directly to consumers. We manufacture in Chicago, we are unapologetically independent, and we build products and policies designed to help independent ECPs (Eyecare Professionals) win.

The Opportunity

This role owns the consumer brand for two of the most distinctive names in our portfolio.

eyebobs built its following on irreverence premium readers for people who refuse to be invisible, with a voice that has never apologized for itself. American Optical carries a different kind of weight: an American manufacturing lineage stretching back to 1833, with frames worn by pilots, astronauts, and presidents.

Two brands, two entirely different consumers, two different reasons to believe. Your job is to keep each one sharply itself in every channel, in every campaign, in every photo we shoot.

You will set brand strategy for both, own the organic channels that build cultural relevance, and lead campaign development from strategy through the shoot. This is a hands-on brand role for someone who wants to build the work, not just approve it.

Key Responsibilities

1. Brand strategy

• Own brand strategy for eyebobs and American Optical: positioning, consumer target, brand voice, visual identity, and the reason each brand exists in a crowded category.

• Translate strategy into working tools the whole organization can use brand guidelines, messaging frameworks, and seasonal creative platforms.

• Bring the consumer into the room: own brand health tracking, consumer insight, and competitive monitoring, and use it to sharpen positioning over time.

• Partner with Product Development on how strategy shows up in the product itself collection stories, naming, packaging, and the assortment each brand needs to stay true to its consumer.

2. Partnership with sales channels

• Partner with DTC/Amazon, wholesale, and retail teams to create a brand experience that is distinct, differentiated, and consistent everywhere the consumer meets it.

• Translate brand strategy into channel-specific execution knowing that a product page, an Amazon listing, an ECP counter display, and a retail fixture each carry the brand differently and all must feel like the same brand.

• Build the brand toolkit that channel partners actually use: assets, guidelines, copy, and campaign extensions sized for each channel's needs.

• Protect brand integrity across channels pricing presentation, promotional tone, and imagery so that growth in one channel never erodes the brand in another.

3. Ownership of organic channels

• Own PR for both brands: media relationships, story development, product placement, and press moments that build credibility rather than noise.

• Own partnerships and collaborations identifying the brands, creators, and cultural partners who genuinely extend each brand's world, and running those relationships end to end.

• Own organic social: content strategy, editorial calendar, community management, and the voice that makes each brand recognizable in a feed.

• Set and report on the earned and organic metrics that matter reach, engagement, share of voice, and the qualitative signal of whether the brand is landing.

4. Campaign development

• Take the lead on campaign development for both brands from consumer insight and creative brief through to launch across all channels.

• Partner with Creative on strategy and execution for photoshoots: concepting, casting, location, shot lists, and on-set direction, with responsibility for the brief the shoot delivers against.

• Own the ongoing content capture plan, so campaigns produce a full library of assets that feeds every channel between major shoots — not just hero images.

• Manage campaign budgets, timelines, and cross-functional dependencies, and lead the post-campaign review that makes the next one better.

Qualifications

Required

• 6-8 years of brand marketing experience with consumer brands, including direct ownership of brand strategy and campaign development.

• Demonstrated experience leading photoshoots and content production in close partnership with creative teams.

• Hands-on ownership of organic channels PR, partnerships, and social with examples of earned moments you built, not just managed.

• Experience marketing a brand across multiple channels (DTC, marketplace, wholesale, or retail) and keeping it coherent across all of them.

• Comfort with able to read performance, brand health, and consumer research, and change the plan based on what it says.

• Strong writer and editor with an ear for brand voice and the range to hold two very different voices at once.

Preferred

• Experience in eyewear, fashion accessories, apparel, or another design-led consumer category.

• Experience with both a challenger brand and a heritage brand, or a demonstrated instinct for the difference between them.

• Familiarity with Amazon brand presence (A+ content, Brand Store, listing quality).

• Agency management experience across PR, influencer, or production partners.

What Success Looks Like

First 90 days - A clear articulation of where each brand stands today: positioning, consumer, competitive set, and the gaps between the brand on paper and the brand in market.

First 6 months -Refreshed brand strategy and guidelines for both brands; an organic channel plan in market; the first campaign developed and shot under your direction.

First 12 months - Measurable movement in brand awareness and engagement for both brands; a consistent brand experience across DTC, Amazon, wholesale, retail and the ECP channel; a content library and campaign rhythm the whole organization can build on.

Europa Eyewear is an equal opportunity employer.