Marketing Manager

To lead profitable brands that delight consumers and deliver on sustainable business and commercial growth objectives.  Develop a deep understanding of the market, consumer preferences within your markets, ensuring all brand and marketing activities are rooted in category and consumer insight and complemented by a solid understanding of market and competitor dynamics, using your marketing expertise to deliver excellence in brand strategy, development and activation. To  develop and implement relevant brand strategies for assigned brands, monitor commercial and brand health performance rectifying with corrective actions as required, providing brand tool kits and brand guardrails for all relevant markets and to oversee the final brand implementation.

Role and Responsibilities

Strategic

• Ensure all brand positioning and development elements are developed to be aligned to the brand strategy in collaboration with eth Marketing Lead.
• Ensure Overall Brand Health targets achieved
• All development plans and projects are delivered on time against key milestones
• Develops Integrated Brand and Channel plans
• Develop digital and innovation plans for the brand
• Manages brand(s) and co-ordinates brand support activities aligned to desired consumer  decision journey and overall consumer experience 
• Collects information and works with market research agencies to inform marketing plans
• Write a clearly articulated research brief when required
• Manages the commercial overview (astute), brand income statements, product costings, marketing spend elements and benchmark costs – designs and runs own promotional effectiveness.
• Manage combo deal effectiveness (where relevant), price compliance, 4A’s
• Manage principles of demand forecasting and Distell S&OP processes and key supply constraints on products within their remit
• Well versed in IBCP – integrated brand and channel planning – and the integrated plan is tracked to deliver desired results.
• Proactively drives and delivers 3-5 year strategy, innovation and campaign pipeline for their brand. 

Operations

• Develops and delivers marketing activities that contribute to the achievement of the desired consumer experience
• Reviews brand performance and provides inputs on actions required to address brand performance
• Contributes to demand forecasting accuracy
• Develops and implements integrated marketing communications campaigns using both physical and digital tools
• Contributes to the embedding and implementation of digitally enhanced marketing plans to the benefit of the consumer
• Develop the brand toolkits and all assets, including gifting and brand home strategy for local brands.
• Develop and collate on and off premise execution guardrails across mainstream and formal channels
• Develop integrated brand and channel plan including key marketing activities
• Work with Revenue Management specialists to inform pricing and discount decisions
• Create business value through influencing ongoing corrective action
• Monthly performance trackers with prioritised and aligned corrective actions in place
• Drive execution of brand plan within agreed guardrails for the brand within relevant BU’s
• Support the development of an integrated brand plan strategy and budget to deliver
• Manage specific brand projects from concept to execution (end to end) including packaging and communication
• Proactive with Brand Governance, Internal Processes and Access to Brand Tools
• Assertive in ensuring procurement commitments are met and proactively follows up to ensure OTIF delivery
• Develops and maintains a full brand catalogue of items that are relevant to the brand and its positioning and ensures that procurement delivers items according to the right material specifications.
• Collaborates with Channel development team and Brand team to develop  TTL campaigns (with support from creative and execution agency partners) and understands which touch-points to use where for maximum equity and commercial impact
• Proactively drives performance correction with regions where required on a daily and weekly basis
• Tracks and understands competitor responses and works closely with DMR and regional teams to understand implications and best responses to competitor moves
• Works closely with  BU teams to ensure that regional campaigns are designed within brand positioning guardrails and using latest updated artwork

Relationship Management

• Proactively manages agency partners for alignment and brand performance
• Has a strong network of internal stakeholders to drive brand performance (regional trade marketing, sales, group accounts, demand planning, supply chain, CoE intrinsic and packaging)
• Collaboratively develop the brand strategies with inputs from key stakeholders, and provides subsequent input into development of brand plans and relevant support for their execution
• Achieved results through mutually beneficial and trusting relationship with team members, manager, peers and other business units within Distell
• Uses their influencing skills to ensure that the quarterly regional plans close all short term tactical response gaps required on the brand by region.

Innovation

• Optimize and improve systems and work processes to drive productivity and reduce cost
• Drive world class implementation of new product launches and take corrective action where required
• Uses social analytics and listening tools to identify improvements to organisational processes that will enhance social reputation
• Participates in reviews of marketing activities using measurement data and analytics to identify improvements
• Contributes to the management and  development of consumer value propositions (Beyond the bottle)
• Implements processes aligned with company values to maintain corporate reputation
• Gathers and distils insights from customer, shopper and consumer data – the so what? Turns insights into action.
• Delivers innovative thinking on product, communication and engagement solutions

Person Specification

• A relevant and recognised marketing qualification
• Minimum 8 years’ experience, preferably in an FMCG environment
• Excellent communication skills (both written and oral) and sound presentation skills
• Proven strategy development experience
• Experience of agency procedures and the successful management thereof
• Budgetary control and cost control management
• Knowledge of the NPD process will be an advantage
• Fully competent in cross functional management and project management skills & experience
• Mastery of developing and executing strategic plans and marketing plans
• Superior background/skills in analytics and data driven business planning
• Superior background in consumer insight and consumer insight driven business planning
• Solid understanding and contribution to demand forecasting accuracy
• Demonstrated creativity and creative management, including strong demonstrated experience in leading creative work and agency partnerships
• Sound understanding of the difference between qualitative and quantitative research and when to use which appropriate research method
• Full knowledge level of digital marketing
• Must walk the streets with regions and sales monthly, understands key market dynamics in SA, Namibia and Botswana (last 2 dependant on whether the brand is relevant in those markets)
• Be present at all activations and events
• Can evaluate brand sponsorship and event platform opportunities that are either brand relevant or can deliver commercial benefit or both. Understanding of brand and category product knowledge. Follows local and international trends within the category.
• Brand ambassador who takes charge of his own brand consumer following. Understands, builds and executes brand influencer strategy, relationship management programme on a daily basis
• Insightfulness – Balancing multiple internal and external sources of information with intuition in order to generate integrated insights that enable the development of compelling narratives that drives business value generation
• Commercial Fluency – Balance short and long term business value generation through the regular application of commercial principles across the whole value chain and take ownership around course corrective rigour
• Innovativeness – Fearlessly challenges conventional ways of working and thinking in all aspects of the business – not just product and packaging – in order to inspire continuous improvements that drives business value. The ability to formulate new ideas or to adapt or use existing ideas in a new or unexpected way to solve problems.
• Portfolio Strategy – Effective and efficient management of the brand portfolio through making tough choices that prioritises resource, increases focus and aligns business strategies to maximize business value
• Brand Crafting – Drive inspirational brand strategies and toolkits aligned to portfolio role that enables excellence in execution and business-wide brand custodianship
• Championing Channels – Drive channel strategies based on channel segmentation and integrated performance management in order to enable excellence in execution of portfolio strategy
• Integrated Brand & Channel Planning – Integrates Brand and Channel Strategies into granular plans that deliver against agreed short and long term business objectives
• Integrated Activity Planning & Execution – The ability to deliver against brand objectives by developing integrated activity plans that brings the brands creative platform to life consistently across multiple touch-points within the consumers decision journey
• Commercial Acumen – Balance long and short term business value generation through the regular application of integrated commercial principles across the whole value chain and P&L levers in order to take ownership and drive course corrective actions with rigour
• Personal effectiveness & excellence – Display an iterative learning mentality.  Actively seeks out opportunities to learn and develop, and promotes learning and development in others
• Resilience – Remains determined despite frequent obstacles. Possess high levels of EQ
• Creative – The ability to use imagination and new ideas to produce solutions
• Entrepreneurial – The ability to think ahead to spot or create opportunities and maximize them
• Builds collaborative relationship and networks – People and relationship building centric. Develops internal/external relationships with an Organisation focus, to resolve both short-term issues and advance longer-term projects/work
• Engagement skills – Communicates persuasively and confidently to influence and negotiate positive outcomes. Ability to use storytelling to effectively inspire stakeholders to implement the proposed actions/ solutions
• Leading change – Involves, supports and motivates others in finding improved ways of working. Manages change projects. This includes the ability to inspire and motivate the team towards a common vision and to challenge the status quo and drive change in the business environment
• Leads a team of individuals through agile ways of working and enable the best business outcome through integration of best skills for the job and flexible work package assignments
• Challenging – The ability to challenge the status quo and drive change in a business environment
• Responsible & Accountable – The ability to work in a way that considers its impact on other people, organisational goals and the wider environment