Category Development Manager, Rest of Africa at Mondelez International

• You ensure that customer plans are developed and executed by supporting the delivery of strategies and tactics for growth. You understand the business metrics and financial drivers needed to unlock profitable growth for Mondelēz International and our customers and work with key account managers to implement plans to deliver our annual target.

How You Will Contribute

You will:

• Leads the development of the trade marketing part of the category annual plans (contract process)
• Understands market dynamics / consumer insights by channel to participate on trade marketing strategic decisions
• Leads the business planning meeting where the sales quotas are built in order to accomplish the annual plans based on relevant building blocks
• Suggests and influences investment in category building blocks, according to category and channel need, and is accountable of execution excellence at point of sale
• Follows up the competition’s commercial activity in the category in order to detect business opportunities and potential threats for the brand
• Plays a leadership role within the multi categories teams by leading, providing accurate and relevant channel point of sale information that will lead to find business opportunities such as innovations, customer promotions, portfolio, pricing, etc. that will lead to achieve multi categories targets

What You Will Bring

A desire to drive your future and accelerate your career and the following experience and knowledge:

• Category planning and delivering growth through category leadership
• Having a future-focused mindset, being curious about industry trends, digital solutions and innovation for consumers, and translating opportunities into business plans
• Developing and delivering plans, measuring and monitoring results and making recommendations to achieve growth targets
• Business planning and how to maximize revenue growth
• Influencing stakeholders and interacting effectively with others with the courage and resilience to hold an alternative point of view
• Analytical skills and business acumen

More About This Role

This role will be responsible for the following:

• Lead range reviews for the portfolio, as well as support smaller range reviews where necessary. Develop detailed plans for range reviews and layouts, with timely communication and involvement of all stakeholders.
• Responsible for optimizing planograms and assortment across the portfolios and within customers.
• Support the creation of 3-year category strategies identifying Category Value Drivers. Contribute relevant consumer insights during brand planning processes and developing customer plans.
• Manage and own the category review process including category story, market analysis and sell in for NPD
• Undertake analysis to create compelling category focused business reviews & recommendations that meet the need of brand, consumer, shopper & retailer
• Create and deliver category sell stories to external customers that link internal initiatives to external category growth
• Lead the NPD & IBP commercialization through the stage & gate process
• Lead fortnightly cross-functional team to discuss & align on priorities
• Set the Brand Pack Price Strategy with the Revenue Growth Management Team
• Long range and budget planning process
• General reporting and data management
• Generating ad-hoc analysis in response to key topics
• Conduct comprehensive and insightful channel, category and market reviews as required through the use of external and internal information sources to facilitate internal decision making as well as decision making with customers and distributors.
• Conduct research and gather information on shopper trends, consumer behavior, local and global mega trends to insure innovative category initiatives
• Manage the relationship with all relevant 3rd party and internal service providers to ensure mutually beneficial relationships
• Compiling, analyzing and distributing business intelligence for finance, marketing and sales departments
• Define the category management strategy through in-depth knowledge and understanding of customer, shopper and consumer behavior
• Stimulate innovation and growth through detailed analysis and interpretation of global and local trends
• Track and measure marketing plans, and implementation against ROI objectives
• Presenting conclusions and insights to the relevant Stakeholders
• ROI measurements on marketing, sales and trade marketing initiatives and promote a culture of best practice learnings through detailed analysis.
• Utilize internal and external information sources to develop regional and national customer reviews and insights to facilitate decision making and drive the commercial strategy
• In-depth understanding of customer and shopper trends in order to define the instore execution strategy
• Develop necessary competency within channel management function to manage the complexity of the channels effectively and provide sufficient analytical backup
• Pricing strategy tracking and analysis

What extra ingredients you will bring:

• Analytical Thinking
• Documenting Facts
• Interpreting Data
• Thinking Conceptually
• Articulating Information
• Attention to Detail
• Planning & Organizing

Education / Certifications:

• 3 – 5 experience using data sources such as Price Probe, Nielsen, IRI, Dunhumby
• 5 years’ experience as an Insights / Category / Customer Manager
• Relevant Tertiary Qualification - Bachelor of Commerce or Similar

Job specific requirements:

• Proficient in MS Word, MS Excel, MS Outlook and MS PowerPoint
• FMCG Industry knowledge is advantageous
• Budget Management
• In-depth understanding of Consumer and Shopper Behaviour
• Channel research systems and tools / Experience using data sources such as Price Probe, Nielsen, IRI, Dunhumby
• ROI analysis and communication of best practice
• Translate data into actionable insights