Senior Brand Manager: Lays - Cape Town HQ at PepsiCo

Responsibilities

What we’re looking for:

• Brand Management: Responsible for the Lay’s brand, encompassing marketing and commercial responsibility. Leading the cross functional team. Role modelling the Pepsico values whilst always driving collaboration across multiple internal stakeholders and External stakeholders. Leading Agency & Creative Management by overseeing vendors and agencies and creative process. Influences the scope of work development, creative evaluation and feedback. Drive with agency the media plan development and assessment; Research understanding, evaluation and plan development. Work in partnership with Insights team to unearth killer actionable insights to grow and accelerate the Lay’s brand.
• Strategic planning: working closely with Sector Marketing, ensure a brand strategy for 3-5 years is clearly laid out and revised at the beginning of each business cycle
• Brand Calendar: Shape and prioritize Lays’ 24-month calendar and 360 campaigns
• Brand Identity: Partnering with Sector Marketing, ensure localized brand identity is in line with Global best current thinking.
• Accelerating Lay’s Purpose and Proposition: Evolve the Lay’s brand through brand building initiatives, Develop and deploy the ATL & BTL assets for all campaigns, innovations and launches. Develop through the line campaign and execute a new Brand Proposition for the brand, working with external partners.
• Commercial Ownership: Operationally leads Lays’ input into iS&OP via monthly PMRs, Sales alignment and forecasts. Own and drive the Lays’ P&L, track and contribute to delivery of business performance metrics: Turnover; Net Revenue, GP and EBIT; Monthly Reporting on brand and category performance. Net revenue tracking and management. Proactive identification of opportunities designed to drive growth and efficiencies.
• Go to market: Drive Lays’ channel agenda by working closely with customer, shopper teams and NRM teams to define and implement the right promotional strategy, portfolio priorities, pricing strategy, distribution and visibility initiatives across retail channels
• Performance management: Master knowledge and understanding on performance drivers and performance against key KPIs on brand health, penetration, shares, distribution, volume etc., executing a plan of actions to accelerate performance.
• Innovation: Evolve portfolio through innovation and renovation projects, collaboratively work with Commercial /Sales/ Manufacturing/R&D and other teams to prioritize, commercialize and deliver projects. Collaborate with NRM to recommend pricing strategy and price pack architecture business case development to effect brand growth. Identify new opportunities; set outgrowth ambition assumptions & business case building. Ensure that Lay’s innovative delivery is on time and in full, with impact across all key consumer touchpoints. Build longer-term innovation pipeline partnering with R&D.
• Strategy Planning: ensure alignment with Sector on the 5 years strategic planning, leveraging the most relevant Global work
• Business Planning/AOP - Own and drive Lays’ Planning for Agility initiatives including owning key Snacking occasions moments (cultural, retailer events, calendar etc.) across the year.
• Social strategy and execution: Collaborate with partner agency to develop & execute Lays’ Social strategy including tone of voice and content calendar across the year (local creations)
• A&M Budget Management: Responsible for A&M budgets, raising CE’s and supplying agencies with PO’s.
• Role model the PepsiCo way

Qualifications

What will qualify you for the role:

• 8 – 10 years’ experience, preferably within FMCG
• 3 year tertiary Marketing qualification - Diploma / Degree minimum
• Commercial understanding and ownership: Income statement to GP and bottom line + Budget management and reconciliation.
• Financial acumen for reporting and tracking financial, share performance and forecasting.
• Multi-disciplinary team and project leadership.
• Full value chain understanding and management.
• Consumer behavior and Shopper behavior understanding.
• Research and analytics understanding and tracking; Customer and trade understanding, shopper and category growth strategies
• Excellent communication skills (written, spoken & presentation)
• Efficient and effective cross-functional partnering with Commercialization, R&D, Manufacturing, Category Management, Procurement and Sales teams is critical to role success.
• Requirement for the individual to be future focused, demonstrated through active identification of innovation/ market growth opportunities.
• Strong commercial acumen coupled with ability to analyze data, produce insights, generate reports and present confidently to internal and external stakeholders
• Ability to engage, report to and influence Internal and External stakeholders.
• Ability to work independently and self-manage.
• Willingness and ability to travel