Senior Brand Director - EM South at adidas Group

Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization

• To drive overall Brand desire, sell out performance and thus sustainable and profitable market share growth. 
• Be the Brand´s face and voice, internally and externally, in South Africa and other African Markets within the responsibility of adidas South Africa. Develop and steer the Go-to Market plan for South Africa in accordance with global guidelines. Build a powerful partner portfolio. Land Global Brand and Product campaigns across all channels and create locally relevant campaign extensions. Bring the brand to life in our own retail fleet as well as with our key accounts. Drive traffic to and conversion on adidas.com.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop the local SBP with a focus on Category development to achieve commercial and brand objectives in line with global direction.
• Develop and steer the Go-To-Market seasonal plan by Channel and by Category.
• Lead key business drivers by managing volume, distribution and availability of key franchises.
• Constantly analyze & strengthen business performance and identify new opportunities to gain market share in multi-branded environments.
• Lead and steer the range selection process from the global range to market range and ultimately to land the best most credible and efficient range for EM South.
• Set up the business to deliver against Net Sales, Category growth and Go-In margin targets.
• Build strategic marketing pillars and initiatives to go after our strategic business plan.
• Conduct consumer research in order to build a strategic marketing plan that is within Global guidelines and targets local consumers to drive brand heat & product desire. 
• Ensure effective and efficient use of the Marketing Working Budget (MWB) as well as the SWB (Sales Working Budget) and deliver against monthly forecasts.
• Build and manage the most credible and resonant Sports Marketing portfolio as well as an Entertainment & influencer marketing portfolio.
• Ensure use of the most optimal marketing mix and inspirational creative to land all Global and local campaigns (including brand activations, trade marketing, PR, paid media channels)
• In conjunction with Mediacom, ensure media spend is meeting all KPI’s and driving efficiency within our eCom P&L.
• Build, grow & sustain an engaged & active membership base for adiClub.
• Define organizational structure, set objectives, and manage workloads and results to achieve goals while adopting best practices and achieving continuous process improvement.
• Ensure high employee engagement at every level through effective motivation, coaching, training, and development of personnel in the team.

Key Relationships

• EM South Cluster GM
• EM South Cluster Commercial Channels (Retail, eCom, Wholesale & Export)
• EM South Cluster Finance & Demand Planning Teams
• Emerging Markets Brand Team
• Emerging Markets MD
• Mediacom & Creative & executional Agencies
• Athletes, Teams & key partners

KPI’s

• Brand desire measured through Google Share of Search
• Brand image measured through Kantar study and other research
• Market share in South Africa and other identified African Countries
• Net Sales and Go-in Margin
• Budget compliance
• Successful implementation of initiatives

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Strong leadership & management skills
• Strong communication with direct reports and key stakeholders and strong presentation skills.
• Strong cross functional experience, across merchandising, marketing, sales and retail.
• Strong knowledge within the sports Industry and retail landscape.
• Expert understanding of South Africa and African Markets’ consumers, accounts, economic environment and commercial needs.
• Strategy – ability to provide input to and implement strategy.

Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications 

• 10 - 12 years of cross functional management experience ideally in merchandising/product (apparel/fashion/shoes), marketing, sales/retail required.
• Bachelor in related field required.
• Previous experience in managing a global matrix organization required, preferably in a FMCG industry.
• Industry experience beneficial.
• Good trend forecasting abilities.
• Excellent strategy development skills – concept, execution and implementation.
• Excellent communication skills – presentation, negotiation, relationship building.
• Strong consumer and trade marketing skills.
• Excellent decision-making skills applying initiative and creativity.
• Passion for sport/fashion and the adidas Brand.
• Leadership experience of large teams.