Job Description

We Go Places! How about you?
Immediate Superior: [[ Meryll Stocks Roos]]
Job Grade: [[20]]
Location: [[Stellenbosch]]
Function: [[Marketing]]
Sub Function: [[Brand Team Spirits]]
Type of Contract: [[Permanent]]
Reference Number: [[94484]]
Closing Date: 13 October 2023

Purpose of the job

The Senior Brand Manager is responsible for value creation with the development and implementation integrated brand plans, the creation of cut through communication assets, and engagement and activation of the brands to excite consumers and customers. They are responsible for leading brand execution and driving marketing initiatives to build brand equity, increase market share, and deliver business results. This role involves strategic planning, creative direction, and collaboration with internal and external stakeholders to achieve brand objectives

Key Responsibilities

Consumer Centricity

• Develop deep understanding of consumer segmentation and demand spaces, alongside typologies to execute targeted marketing initiatives.
• Conduct market research to analyze and interpret consumer insights to understand consumer needs, preferences, and behavior, using the monthly brand health tracker, and bespoke qualitative or quantitative studies.
• Supplement formal market data with insights garnered from internal and external stakeholders: consumers, customers, trade, buyers, sales force.
• Implement consumer experience mapping to optimize consumer touchpoints.

Brand Strategy

• Support the development and execution brand strategies aligned with business objectives, ensuring consistent positioning, purpose, creative big idea, and messaging to build brand equity.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to implement brand visual, tonal and execution guidelines and ensure brand consistency across all channels and touchpoints.
• Monitor market trends, competitive landscape, market share, brand performance, brand health, and consumer perceptions to feedback into brand strategies.

Communication Strategy

• Support the development of integrated TTL communication strategies across various channels, including digital and tech innovation, social media, CRM, TV, radio, OOH, print, PR, influencer, events, and experiences.
• Execute ATL and BTL sponsorships, and influencer or ambassador partnership management.
• Website, CRM, social channels, and community management oversight.
• Create and execute compelling, engaging and locally relevant TTL creative campaigns that resonate with the target audience.
• Brand Asset Management oversight on internal and external platforms: packs, brand visual identity, logos, creative assets.
• Support the creative and media agencies to execute effective campaigns using the bottoms up zero-based budgeting approach.
• Share performance against established KPIs for media, and campaign objective metrics.

Integrated Commercial Planning

• Support the collaboration between sales, group key account, and trade marketing teams to execute integrated commercial plans that drive brand growth and maximize volume, value, and profitability.
• Execute marketing activities aligned to trade promotions and sales initiatives using a commercial framework, key objectives, and execution approach.
• Monitor campaign performance and provide insights to optimize commercial plans.
• Support brand budget management. Ensuring efficient and effective resource allocation, between scope of work and brand priorities.

Brand Profitability

• Understand the brand income statement to support execution of brand profitability initiatives.
• Implement margin enhancing opportunities including: COGs savings, mix shift, revenue management, and incremental innovation, to optimize the brand P&L without compromising brand impact.
• Understand the revenue management pricing strategy, pack-price approach, and promotional effectiveness.
• Analyze uplift and ROI from all initiatives and make data-driven decisions to optimize approach.
• Manage brand A&P cost centers including monthly recons and reporting.

Innovation

• Use segmentation, consumer insights and category competitor analysis to identify opportunity spaces within and beyond the bottle.
• Collaborate with intrinsic, packaging, and product development teams to implement future fit products or product variations in both existing and adjacent categories.
• Implement pack upgrades to maintain brand relevance and manage PIPO with limited write offs.
• Use qualitative and quantitative market testing and analysis to validate new product concepts or brand innovation, with volumetric assessment to confirm incremental contribution to portfolio.

Trade Marketing and Route to Consumer

• Collaborate with trade marketing and channel partners to execute impactful visibility, consistent branding, and overall consumer experience on the path to purchase.
• Execute marketing strategies that complement the dynamics of each class of trade: off trade, on trade, eCommerce.
• Develop and execute in-store merchandising, and trade assets, and POS materials with a consistent trade playbook for all channels.
• Develop and execute channel-specific trade promotions and activations.
• Use shopper market research and analysis to understand consumer behavior and preferences in different channels.
• Monitor regional, channel, customer, and store-level performance and provide recommendations for improvement.

Team Management

• Management of task coordination with brand marketing teams including BMs, and ABMs.
• Integrated creative and media agency account administration.
• Ability to engage and collaborate with internal stakeholders across multiple projects: Global and Regional Marketing Teams, MT, Innovation, Trade Marketing, Sales, Group Key Accounts,

• Logistics, Finance, Legal, Revenue Management, Supply and Operations, Procurement, Corporate Affairs.

Job Requirements

Education

• Bachelor's degree in marketing, business, or a related field (Postgraduate, Honours, or Master's degree preferred).

Experience

• Minimum of 5-7 years of experience in brand management, marketing, or a related role.
• Proven track record of successfully developing and implementing brand strategies that drive business growth.
• Strong understanding of consumer behavior, market dynamics, and brand development principles.
• Excellent leadership and project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple initiatives simultaneously.
• Exceptional communication and presentation skills.
• Strong analytical skills to interpret data, measure performance, and provide insights.
• Proficiency in marketing software and tools, such as CRM systems, marketing automation platforms, and analytics tools.
• Creative thinking and a passion for innovative brand marketing.
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to collaborate effectively with internal and external stakeholders.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced and dynamic environment.

The Company's approved Employment Equity Plan and Targets will be considered as part of the recruitment process. As an Equal Opportunities employer, we actively encourage and welcome people with various disabilities to apply. Heineken Beverages (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd) is committed to an organisational culture that recognises, appreciates and values inclusion and diversity. You must be fully eligible to live and work in South Africa to apply.

Heineken