Senior Brand Manager at Danone

ABOUT THE JOB

To be responsible for a key brand for Danone South Africa. The measure of success will be the ability to manage this brand end-to-end, with minimal support from the Marketing Manager, whilst meeting targets and ensuring innovation pipeline that is launched OTIF and is accretive to the business.

Planning and Strategy

• Fully owns and is accountable for the brand’s performance and contribution to Danone South Africa’s results
• Has complete ownership of the brand, planning and implementation required to achieve the targets and intentions of the brand
• Fully own the below activities, with Marketing Manager alignment:
• ATL strategy – Creative and Media
• BTL strategy – in-store activity to drive awareness / visibility / conversion
• Innovation, extensions and renovation
• Understand all levers on P&L to drive profitability of the brands and portfolio
• Understand all data sets (sales in; sales out; consumer know-how; trends and growth platforms) to derive clear insights and “so what” action-oriented recommendations
• Use consumer understanding and brand knowledge to uncover a powerful tension which the brand can take a stand on and therefore answer a consumer need for
• Be able to understand and process new information
• Provide solutions that have been critically thought-through
• Own and drive annual Brand Plan development and excellent execution, thereof
• Be an advocate of the brand and own key brand activities and initiatives with Trade Marketing
• Full ownership of budget management and tracking thereof to avoid over-spend

Innovation, Renovation and Product Launches

• Within identified growth spaces, ensure brand and portfolio answers specific consumer needs, insights, tensions, pain points, using digital and traditional insight tools
• Creates new products, packaging and experiences leveraging the power of semiotics that strengthen and grow brand equity and experience
• Lead innovation project with cross-functional teams (R&I; Trade Marketing and Finance) to develop clear, sizeable and consumer-oriented business cases
• Be able to craft research (Qual. And Quant.) briefs that articulate the problem to solve and the required outcome, with clear understanding of both research processes
• Manage Innovation P&L with Finance to shape the most desirable and business accretive P&L
• Understand the Industrial processes and production process related to the innovation to understand opportunities / constraints on product development
• Be an advocate of the innovation and own the trade story with Trade Marketing in the successful implementation of innovation launches and Marketing support

Unlocks Creative and Media opportunities

• Lead and own the relationship between Creative and Media agency
• Create the right conditions for partners collaboration and uses great storytelling techniques to transform a factual brief into an inspiring story
• Able to provide clear and inspiring briefs to both Creative and Media agency partners to unlock great creative and media solutions to amplify
• Able to provide clear direction and feedback to Creative agencies on reverts, that builds encouragement and allows for forward movement
• Able to critically assess if creative executions are right for Brand and portfolio, and whether the creative will effectively contribute to the critical KPIs needed for growth
• Have Media know-how and able to co-create strong Media plans with S&I and Media Agency
• Be able to critically evaluate overall Media Plans and KPIs presented by Media Agency

Digital Know-How

• Understands the digital journey a consumer could follow and builds a strong digital media plan across priorities channels
• Be able to critically evaluate Digital Plans presented by Media Agency

Consumer, Shopper & Trade insight

• Take responsibility to personally listen and connect with consumers
• Know the difference between the consumer and shopper of the brand and portfolio
• Convert data from different sources to unlock insights for growth
• Takes the critical insights for growth and articulate the key tasks the brand must do to unlock them
• Be familiar with different trade channels and actively take part in trade visits
• Be on the pulse of competitor activity

Marketing Budget

• Manage weekly and monthly marketing-related expenses
• Manage budget – both actuals and YTG phasing of the brands
• Attend the monthly meeting to give feedback on the budget tracker

Nielsen Data

• Understand monthly market trends by total SA; customer and region
• Understand pricing interactions between brands and categories
• Be able to understand raw data and derive insights from the data

Key behaviours

• Ability to manage complexity and multiple tasks at once
• Be able to both analytical and draw insights from the data into measurable outcomes
• Focused on both what and how (leadership behaviours)
• Collaborative
• Respectful
• Proactive
• Hungry for growth and learning
• Able to adapt and pivot when direction changes
• Able to summarise and succinctly articulate both on presentation and presenting

Management and Leadership

• Manage and motivate direct reports in the delivery of team objectives, if applicable
• Conduct internal performance management and Performance Review processes fairly and consistently, resulting in transparent succession planning and specific development area, if applicable
• Mentor and coach team members, as required