Assistant Brand and Shopper Activations Manager

**JOB PROFILE AT A GLANCE**

An Assistant Brand & Shopper Activations Manager is expected to make a genuine contribution to the organisation. Within the assigned categories, the Assistant Brand & Shopper Activations Manager is responsible for using an insights-based approach to optimise the shopper journey and “perfect store” to ultimately increase Rate of Sale and Net Sales. Focus will also be on driving promotional activities and shopper execution (online and offline) to optimise the tactical impact on brand share and brand revenue performance. You will additionally need to support the work of the brand team and Marketing Executive on projects such as developing marketing campaigns, brand plans and innovation, as well as collect and interpret marketing analytics. This position needs to ensure that all brand and shopper initiatives integrate and align with various category and brand strategies with a seamless approach to the brand experience.

**This role also serves as an Assistant Brand Management role for the beverages portfolio.**

It requires a high level of attention to detail, organisational skills as well as collaboration and stakeholder management to drive alignment across key stakeholders. Key requirements of this role include a solid business acumen to measure impact and ROI, as well as professionalism, responsiveness, the ability to handle multiple projects and remain calm under pressure. You will need to work independently and as part of a team, and ensure that you use your creativity, express ideas and execute tasks to make a real contribution to the organisation and its mission.

**WHAT YOU WILL DO WITHIN THE ASSIGNED CATEGORIES**:

- Planning, managing and execution of promotional, digital and social media activities
- Own and develop the annual shopper plan and budget within your assigned categories, ensuring alignment with the overall brand, channel and customer strategy. Ensure upfront alignment with brand and sales teams, by integrating their feedback and needs early in the process.
- Drive alignment of BTL spend between marketing and sales to optimise Investment and ROI.
- Involvement in the planning, delivery and evaluation of integrated marketing campaigns.
- Based on shopper and industry insights and trends, deliver activation ideas to drive category growth. Initiatives include category and channel activations such as Stokvels, Route-to-market etc.
- Develop Retail Environment Planners that optimise POS by retailer and channel, details the “perfect store” including POS and in-store media, and specifies output with Execution Planners.
- Develop and manage Execution Planners by activation by brand, and drive alignment with ops to optimise effective execution of the plan. Input into store list to ensure POS efficiency and ROI is optimised
- Work with the brand team to design and create POS and In-Store Media for all relevant campaigns, communicate shopper and brand programs, focus products and execution to the brand team (with artwork of in-store display material in PDF / JPEG and layered psd files) so they can amplify key trade / shopper promotions on social media.
- Assistance in managing the project innovation process including (but not exclusively) project financials, project presentation and rationale,, project stakeholder management, project launch (including shopper rationale, sales presenters and sample stock) and designing specific Shopper
- Plans that focus on driving innovation into trade with a compelling reason to believe with the target of gaining optimal distribution, allocated shelf space that optimises shopability and rate of sale, while also delivering an effective ROI.
- Actively work with developing relationships and stakeholder management of creative, digital, BTL,, POS, market research and promotional agencies to manage projects and executions.
- Research to understand global and local market, consumer and industry trends for the purpose of driving awareness of key trends within the team to identify opportunities for innovation, highlight potential threats, shifts in consumer behaviour etc.

**Qualification Requirements**:

- Qualifications:

- A degree in Marketing, Business, Administration or Sales. A post-graduate specialisation in Marketing, Business or Sales is preferable.

**Experience Requirements**:

- Experience
- Minimum 2 - 4 years years’ post-degree experience.
- Trade Marketing, Sales or Marketing experience within an FMCG organisation is required.

**Key Outputs**:
**EXPECTED SKILLS AND ATTRIBUTES**
- Skills / Knowledge:

- Capability to develop aligned shopper and brand strategies and plans and drive seamless execution.
- Insights based approach to shopper and brand plans with a strong focus on industry, shopper and POS trends and best practice, with an understanding of how to translate these into actionable activations.
- Understanding of key marketing drivers and strategies and have demonstrated how these can be utilised to increase mark