Junior Marketing Manager: Rest of Africa – FBH & Foods

Woolworths; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 30 000 - 60 000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is looking for a Junior Marketing Manager to spearhead marketing activities across multiple African markets. This role involves collaborating with various teams to drive brand awareness and customer engagement while executing strategic marketing plans. The ideal candidate will have a passion for retail and a strong understanding of digital marketing channels. If you're looking to make a significant impact in a dynamic environment and help shape the brand's presence across Africa, this is the perfect opportunity for you!

Qualifications

• 2+ years of marketing experience in Retail, Brands, or Agency.
• Strong technical knowledge across all elements of marketing.
• Experience managing marketing strategies across African markets.

Responsibilities

• Drive brand awareness and customer acquisition across African markets.
• Manage end-to-end campaign activation with local agencies.
• Ensure timely and effective execution of marketing plans.

Skills

Brand Marketing

Digital Marketing

Customer Insights

Campaign Management

Communication Skills

Education

3-year diploma or degree in Brand Marketing or Commerce

Tools

Digital Media Channels

Social Media Platforms

Job description

Main Purpose

This role is responsible for driving Fashion, Home & Beauty (FBH) & Foods marketing activities across 10 African markets, including Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zambia, Mozambique, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Mauritius. The role includes the activation and implementation of marketing and communication plans in collaboration with South African brand teams, local in-country management teams, trade partners, and product teams. This requires taking a global brand approach to these markets, nuancing to ensure localised and culturally relevant execution, and supporting the broader marketing strategy for each market.

The Junior Marketing Manager will ensure high attention to detail, a focus on delivery, and successful execution along the critical path for campaigns. They will partner with cross-functional teams to drive brand awareness, customer acquisition, and overall brand growth in these African markets.

Key Responsibilities

Position the FBH and Foods Categories

• Assist in delivering the agreed positioning of the FBH & Foods brands/product allocated to the 10 different markets, in a way that focuses on driving profitable sales and customer engagement.
• Support the business area you work with to proactively solve business challenges with Marketing solutions, working collaboratively with colleagues and the business area to provide appropriate solutions..
• Support the brand objectives in understanding the product and how to take that product to market to the Woolworths target customer e.g. product and seasonal launches.
• Assist in driving the delivery of the agreed strategic marketing vision and direction to key business units and stakeholders in the business.
• Responsible for the execution of the Marketing and Comms plans to deliver the overall Brand Strategy for the Brand portfolios covered working in collaboration with colleagues, your line manager and teams across Marketing and the business area accountable for.

Action and implement the detailed marketing and communication plans and detailed brief

• Action the Brand marketing and communication plans and briefs in line with agreed plans and timelines.
• Working with the Senior Marketing Manager, action the integrated marketing and comms plan, and provide the micro-detail to ensure the brief has all necessary elements to be actioned by Creative teams and relevant colleagues using the Project Manager link for delivery, risk management and tracking.
• Check that all relevant digital and online opportunities have been considered, working in collaboration with your Senior Marketing Manager and Digital colleagues as input into the Marketing and Comms plans and detailed brief to target customer needs and new business opportunities.
• Use customer data and insights from the African markets to guide the planning and execution of campaigns that drive customer engagement and brand growth.
• Deliver the achievement of brand goals and targets through the agreed compelling & engaging customer communication.
• Assist in growing existing customers and acquiring new customers through brand building.
• Assist in influencing and changing customer perceptions through marketing communication in line with the marketing strategy, customer insights and an understanding of the customer journeys per market and what channels are relevant to the customer you are targeting.
• Implement the agreed marketing communication plan that will influence through relevance and change customer perceptions in line with the marketing strategy.
• Keep up to date with new opportunities and new thinking, to assist in ensuring that Woolworths stays ahead of the game from a global perspective.
• Drive partnership with business stakeholders to ensure alignment of trade and marketing plan.
• Understand and interpret market and business trends.

Activate and execute the marketing communications plan and detailed briefs

• Manage end-to-end campaign activation, working closely with local agencies, SA marketing management teams, product teams, and in-country management to deliver the integrated communications plan across all channels.
• Ensure seamless communication between all stakeholders, including in-country teams, trade partners, creative agencies, and product teams to ensure timely and effective execution.
• Provide support for media plans, trade plans, in-store communication, and all relevant touchpoints to deliver a consistent brand experience across all African markets.
• Ensure that communication objectives are understood and delivered across diverse channels, while proactively managing risks and potential issues.
• Action and deliver all elements of the communications approach such as media plans, trade plans and in-store communication.
• Be proactive in thinking, problem solving and driving best results per campaign objective.

Manage business interface & trade process into marketing

• Ensure timeous delivery of marketing inputs into the buying group merchandise cycle.
• Work closely with the product business units to ensure deep alignment of trade and product objectives are met.
• Take a “can-do”, proactive approach to “make it happen”, working with the FBH & Foods Marketing Teams, In-country management teams, Buying Groups, Trade Forum, Sales Management, Stores, Agency and 360 partners etc.
• Act as the primary Marketing point of contact into the business and product groups where agreed with the Senior Marketing Manager.
• Maintain key in-country relationships with media owners, local in-country agencies and influencers.
• Engage in all key and relevant aspects of the business, including trade planning, sales management and visual management in relation to delivering the 360 integrated plans relevant to your area and role.

Budget and commercial management

• Manage and maintain annual brand budget for given area of responsibility when applicable
• Manage all budget reconciliations to achieve overall plan.
• Deliver PIR’s to measure and assess efficacy of campaigns.

People and stakeholder management

• Work proactively across teams and functions, to optimise integration opportunities.
• Connect and communicate timeously to all internal and external stakeholders, peers and team members where necessary to ensure delivery of the marketing plan
• Raise issues and concerns timeously and in a professional manner, and manage expectations in line with Woolworths Values and Strategy
• Build and maintain effective relationships with key 360 partners including Agency, VM, PR & Corp Comms, Direct, Loyalty, Digital, Social Media, Customer, Sales management, Product Groups, FBH, Foods, Special Occasions and Packaging and Production.
• Proactively manage relationships with product/trade teams, Africa management teams and 360 partners and Agency
• Drive and encourage a motivating and positive working experience across marketing and business units
• Complete IPM discussions with line manager according to IPM timelines
• Ensure that all stakeholders deliver according to the critical path.

Key Competencies

Technical Skills / Experience:

• Relevant 3 year diploma or degree in brand marketing or commerce or similar
• Min 2 years of marketing skills and experience in Retail / Brands / Agency/PR
• Solid technical knowledge and awareness across all elements of marketing including all relevant digital media channels and is up to date with innovative business and marketing solutions
• Managing and executing marketing strategies across multiple African countries and markets is advantageous.
• Experience of driving digital and social media marketing strategies, particularly in the context of taking a global brand to market in Africa.360 media understanding and ability to brief into a creative agency
• Experience in using customer insights optimally to drive a relevant marketing strategy and plan

Competencies and behaviors:

• Passion for retail, the Woolworths product, brand and customers
• Ability to translate a Marketing and Comms plan into integrated operational plans, clear briefs and deliverables
• Action-orientated, delivery and solution focus approach to work
• Creative thinker and ability to evaluate creative work
• Commercial acumen: demonstrates commercially-led marketing delivery and understanding, as well as understands the macroeconomic environment
• Collaborative team player: willing to work co-operatively with others, within a team and across departments, towards a common objective
• Planning, organising and prioritising skills
• Ability to understand local and international trends and stays up to date with the competitor landscape
• Strong communication skills, both verbal and written
• Problem solving ability, assertive and resilient
• Attention to detail and follow up
• Emotional intelligence
• Professional, respectful and courteous in line with the Woolworths values
• Leadership, mentor to the team driving the right culture and behaviours
• Agility, adaptive and flexibile in your approach to work
• Influencing and negotiating skills

“As a proud South African brand, Woolworths is committed to transformation. Meeting our employment equity goals will be taken into account in our recruitment decisions”.