Brand Manager - Courvoisier at Beam Suntory

About the job 

The following position is open in Gauteng, South Africa.

• What makes this a great opportunity?
• As an integral part of the Marketing and Commercial team, the Brand Manager plays a vital role in ensuring our brands and strategies are successfully deployed and executed in the SA market.
• To manage and build a strong profitable and identifiable brand that are powerful with distinctive propositions to customers and consumers. Development of strategic marketing plans (which are consumer centric) and the delivery of activity which enable the execution of these.
• Think in the future and anticipate trends and opportunities by using the key marketing pillars of: Research; Insights Generation, Promotional Planning and Execution Excellence

Role Responsibilities

Reporting to the Head of Marketing for Beam Suntory South Africa this individual will be responsible for but not limited to:

• Development of a strong Brand Plans that use insights and a better understanding of market dynamics to formulate local Marketing plans supported by the Global Brand Strategy.
• Market Review and insight generation & application
• Brand market positioning
• Setting consumer & activity goals (consideration & conversion) and customer goals.
• Working with principles to develop activity plans based on a clear understanding of the estimated impact of both new & existing activities.
• Develop the annual digital marketing strategy
• Clearly identify local market challenges and issues
• Agency Management and coordination: Media, PR, Creative, Social/Digital and Activation/BTL agencies.
• Translating the brand strategy into activity planning.
• Development and management of brand budgets for each activity/sales driver.
• Brief and plan Communication Strategies for the year.
• Provide agencies with the necessary frame of reference to enable them to advance the brand in a manner that adds value to the brand positioning.
• Manage the marketing budget, supplier cost, invoicing, and general brand admin.
• Measurement & evaluation the A&P effectiveness to maximise activity and consumer engagement.
• Effective use and management of Consumer insight research and other research tools to strengthen Brand performance and develop brand plans that are effective.
• Monthly submission of brand scorecards/reports (rationale & commentary of brand volume, brand performance) & A&P variance commentary. Development of brand updates for Exec on request.
• Long term brand strategy, architecture, and positioning development in alignment with portfolio strategy through insight generation.
• Ensure all activities developed within the legislated marketing guides and meets the AWARE principles.
• Manage Brand CI and creative standards on key brand touchpoints such as website, social media, paid media, ATL and marketing collateral.
• Work closely with the Brand Ambassador to develop an annual activity plan that fully supports the overall brand strategy.
• Work cross-functionally with the Trade Marketing Manager to ensure that channel activations and POS are deployed and delivered at expected standards and on time.
• Establish a close working relationship the commercial teams and jointly develop Brand and Commercial Plans for the most efficient and effective use of the brand investment in order to achieve targets.
• Build strong relationship with the global brand teams and agencies alike.
• Build and source 3P supplier that will steps change the way we go to market and build a sense of partnership with these.

Qualifications & Experience

KEY SKILLS & COMPETENCIES:

• Strategic Penetration (Uses analytical skills to generate consumer driven strategies that deliver focused, growth driving business outcomes)
• Consumer Insight (Identifies key consumer issues and ensures penetrative consumer understanding and insights are applied to drive brand growth)
• Motivating & inspiring agencies & cross functional teams (Understands what drives & motivates internal & 3rd party teams & constantly strives to build great productive relationships by breaking down barriers to performance)
• Marketing Judgement (Understands the true consumer impact of our brand building ‘output’ by using clearly defined logical criteria balanced with practical instinct to judge the work)
• Commerciality (Uses performance measurement & sound financial management – balancing short & long term – to build the brands. Balances commercial, customer & consumer motivations to deliver outstanding results)
• Excellence in execution (Delivers high quality results seen through to world class completion. Maintains high standards by driving quality, speed & cost management appropriately.)
• Project Management (Develops fully integrated project plans and aimed at delivering required outputs within time and budget constraints.)

EXPERIENCE & QUALIFICATIONS:

• Appropriate tertiary qualification (Marketing Degree)
• Post Graduate Degree would be advantageous
• +5 yrs Brand Marketing experience in FMCG industry
• Understanding the South African Market and intimate knowledge of Main Market will be advantageous
• Research & Data interpretation, tools, and usage
• Strong consumer insight and understanding
• Understanding of Influencer Marketing
• Strong Digital Marketing skills
• Influencing skills, with a level of comfort in working across levels and functions within the organization.