Brand Manager

SMD Technologies, the home of many of South Africa’s most widely distributed and loved electronic brands, including Amplify, Connex and Volkano, is looking for a strong brand manager to assist in the management one of our tier 1 international brands. The role of the brand manager would involve overseeing a wide array of business functions and processes to ensure success and growth of the Brand.

**ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO**:

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**Product and Brand Management**:

- Analyse Brand positioning in the market and set regular growth strategies
- Identify new channels for product distribution and Brand growth
- Carefully consider and execute on product ranging plans for the various channels
- Ensure product offering and range remains relevant in terms of global trends and consumer expectations
- Team alignment and collaboration to deliver on customer experience objectives.
- Communicate brand personality internally and align company around foundational ideas
- Perform Product training
- Retrieve sales data from each sales channel both consistently and in a useable format, transform this data into the required format and report to global business partner weekly by the reporting deadline:

- Sales to channel
- Business stock on hand
- Channel sales
- Channel stock on hand
- Use analysis of sales data to set sales estimates (forecasts), growth targets and perform achievement analysis against set targets, per product, per channel
- Manage inventory levels to maintain optimal in-stock capacity levels based on sales and financial goals
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**Pricing Strategies**:

- Carefully calculate and manage product pricing in order to adhere to cost parameters, whilst ensuring profitability of the Brand and competitiveness of the product pricing against other market offerings in Brand segment
- Plan, execute and manage promotional pricing for various channels, at the correct times, and in line with market sales periods and seasonality, in order to capitalise on growth opportunities
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**Customer and Market Analysis**:

- Carry out customer identification and segmentation
- Perform customer and trend research
- Compile regular competitor analyses of each product against like-for-like competitor offering
- Drive customer retention, and switch from competitor brands
- Map the customer journey and identify opportunities to proactively intervene on the client's behalf
- Develop and implement customer experience strategies
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**Brand Marketing Management**:

- Monitor social media for consumer trends and competitor offerings
- Assist the digital marketing team with relevant and impactful content creation
- Maintain corporate websites with latest Brand offerings and product information
- Strategize with global business partner for feature-rich content and high-resolution product images to ensure timeous updating of product range within listed channels and listing of new products ahead of release
- Lead creative development and motivate target audience

**COMPETENCIES**:

- Customer insight skills
- Presentation and public speaking skills
- Handle multiple tasks simultaneously within established tome constraints
- Ability to adapt in a fast-paced, changing growth environment and to work independently
- Focused and responsible
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Ability to build and maintain relationships with external stakeholders and internal cross-functional team members
- Strong problem-solving skills
- Customer / Client focus
- Analytical thinker with strong attention to detail
- Critical thinking skills and the ability to use data insights to drive sales/marketing strategies and tactics
- Digital and social media marketing insights advantageous

**REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS & SKILLS**:

- Degree in Marketing or Business Management
- Advanced MS Excel skills
- Exceptional ability to manipulate data to highlight trends, risks and to draw accurate conclusions from the data

**DESIRED EXPERIENCE**:

- 3 or more years’ experience in a brand / marketing / sales / product management role