Senior Category Brand Manager, GBM at Mondelez International

What you will bring

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

• Consumer behavior, preferably in the consumer goods sector in matrix environment
• Developing a seamless consumer experience
• Managing business objectives beyond brand and budget
• Analytics and creativity—a balance of commercial and strategic acumen
• Leading and influencing teams
• Communicating effectively, verbally and in writing, and executive presentation skills
• Markets with diverse economic environments a distinct advantage
• More about this role

Purpose                     

The purpose of the Category Senior Brand Manager, Gum Portfolio South Africa, is to lead the Gum team in developing and executing superior brand, activation and innovations plans to achieve the annual growth ambition of the SSA Gum portfolio.

The Category Senior Brand Manager works closely with the Category Lead, Brand Equity & Innovation team as well as the Insights, Sales & Trade Marketing, Finance and Supply teams to deliver plans. The role relies on effective working relationships and collaboration across teams.

Key Responsibilities 

• Lead the development of the annual brand plans for RSA, aligned to the long term Gum Strategy, to meet annual growth targets for the category
• Challenge all aspects of the marketing mix in terms of understanding and awareness of consumer and customer trends and their impact on category strategy and plans
• Manage the execution of marketing and activation plans, working closely with internal stakeholders and external partner agencies to deliver the revenue, profit and share objectives
• Ensure cross functional integration and alignment of the category brand plans with Sales (Category Planning & KAM), Consumer Insights, Supply, Logistics and Finance
• Work with global and local teams to ensure sustainable sourcing supply model for gum portfolio
• Collaborate with the Equity & Innovation teams to develop insight led and strategically relevant communication and innovation plans that drive brand health and category growth
• Lead, motivate and develop skills/capabilities of the Brand Team (2 Brand Manager reports)
• Financial Management:
• Brand & SKU P&L responsibility and accountability for delivering annual contract targets through day-to-day execution of brand plans, whilst recommending and implementing corrective actions to optimize effectiveness and profitability
• Monitor and measure business performance for the specific brand against a set of KPIs including: volume, revenue, profit, A&C (Advertisement & Consumer Spending), net contribution, and share of market
• Manage marketing spend budgets including phasing, balancing and reporting to finance team 
• Provide quality input into supply forecasting for the category:
• Under the guidance of the Category Lead, the Category Senior Brand Manager is responsible for collaborating to determine the volume targets for their brand/s and subsequent monitoring volume achievement and inventory levels for the brands
• Market landscape dissecting and understanding:
• Drive the analysis of market information (incl Market trends, Nielsen, Mintel, Euromonitor, etc) to contribute to the discussion on category/brands share performance and have action orientated plans
• Evaluate executions, innovation, pricing, distribution, competitors, portfolio etc. against set targets and report on the ROI
• Track ongoing pricing activities (for both brand and competitor) within the market place and provide an understanding of opportunities and risks existing in the local market
• Firm understanding of trade marketing and in-store execution to ultimately guide on priorities and drive execution on brands

External & Internal Key Interfaces

• Internal:  Global Gum Brand team, Customer Planning & Activations, Category Finance, Sales, Equity & Innovation, Supply, R&D and Insights
• External:  Creative, Digital, Media, PR and Activation agencies

Knowledge & Skills

Education, Knowledge, Skills and Experience Required

To succeed in this role, it is expected that the ideal candidate will have:

• Relevant tertiary degree or diploma – Marketing or related.
• Minimum 5 years’ experience, having worked in a similar role, with at least 18 months’ experience as a Senior Brand Manager
• FMCG experience advantageous
• Knowledge and experience:  Consumer, Shopper and Trade Insights / Marketing Planning and Budget Management
• Demonstrated experience in applying strategic insights and translating strategies into executional plans
• Demonstrated experience in managing a 360-marketing campaign from ideation to execution
• Proven ability to manage / lead and collaborate with cross functional teams
• Strong digital background advantageous
• Ability to demonstrate a clear understanding of the core principles of marketing, project management experience and sales
• Ability to manage projects without significant management support
• Ability to build strategic and collaborative working relationships across the business
• Strong level of financial acumen is necessary
• Ability to frame and present new ideas to gain buy in and resource
• Strong level of computer competency, i.e. PowerPoint, Outlook, Word, Excel.
• Functions independently and expectation is that successful individual will liaise cross functionally to conduct and collect all relevant market and consumer data to feed into the development of local brand plans
• Successful individual will be required to work under ambiguity in certain instances, building hypothesis about the categories/brands, to ultimately lead to action orientated discussions

Leadership & Functional Competencies

• Problem solving and dealing with ambiguity
• Commercial & Financial Acumen with entrepreneurial mentality
• Creativity, growth mind-set with demonstrated ability in being nibble and agile
• Consumer Centric, with a digital first mindset
• Brand, Activation and Innovation excellence