Beam Suntory is Crafting the Spirits that Stir the World. Rooted in two centuries of family heritage, Beam Suntory has evolved into the world’s third largest leading premium spirits company … where each employee is treated like family and trusted with legacy. With our greatest assets – our premium spirits and our people – we’re driving growth through impactful marketing, innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit. Beam Suntory is a place where you can come Unleash your Spirit by making an impact each and every day.

Brand Manager

The following position is open in Gauteng, South Africa.

What makes this a great opportunity?

PURPOSE & SCOPE OF ROLE:

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 tactics which enable the execution of these plans – thereby achieving the business objective as detailed above.

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

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

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

• Contribution to the formulation of Growth Plans through contributing to:
  • 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.
• Competitor review and anticipating impact to the respective brands
• Agency Management and coordination: Media, PR, Creative, BTL, Social/Digital agency
• Translating the brand strategy into activity planning: 18 month plan outlining activity by channel and brand.
• Manage and optimise relationship with the global brand teams.
• Development and management of brand budgets for each activity/sales driver alongside the respective Commercial Channel Managers
• Plan promotional initiatives or projects in detail with agencies
• Provide agencies with the necessary frame of reference to enable them to endorse and advance the brand in a manner that adds value to the brand positioning.
• Ensure all activities developed within the legislated marketing guides and meets the AWARE principles.
• Work in conjunction with the trade marketing manager and Business Unit Leaders to ensure seamless distribution of marketing material into region
• Effective use and management of Consumer insight research and other research tools to strengthen Brand performance and to develop brand plans that are effective.
• Establish a close working relationship with different commercial teams in order to apply trade and consumer feedback effectively in order to assist commercial teams in achieving and exceeding targets.
• Accountable for working with strategic partners to develop activity plans based on a clear understanding of the impact of both new & existing activities. Measurement & evaluation / A&P effectiveness to maximise activity and consumer engagement
• Assist and or support the Commercial Director and principle on key projects, as and when needed.
• 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.
• Contribute meaningful input into the LE process (volume forecasting & A&P).
• Defining and tracking of brand KPIs against forecasts

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 grounded in reality 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
• Budgetary and cost containment understanding
• Research interpretation, tools and usage
• Competitive analysis
• Consumer insight and understanding
• Influencing skills, with a level of comfort in working across levels and functions within the organization.

At Beam Suntory, people are our number one priority, and we believe our people grow together in diverse and inclusive environments where their unique insights, experiences and backgrounds are valued and respected. Beam Suntory is committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, military veteran status and all other characteristics, attributes or choices protected by law. All recruitment and hiring decisions are based on an applicant’s skills and experience.