Production Planning Manager

The Hiring House; Gauteng; On-site; ZAR 600 000 - 800 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading recruitment agency in South Africa is seeking an experienced Product Manager to develop and manage the product portfolio aligned with market needs. The role involves planning campaigns and analyzing performance to maximize sales. Candidates must have a Bachelor's degree in Marketing or Business Management and at least 5 years of product planning experience. Strong analytical and communication skills are essential for success in this dynamic position.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of product planning experience.
• Experience in direct selling is a prerequisite.
• Strong analytical skills and ability to develop actionable strategies.

Responsibilities

• Develop and manage the product portfolio.
• Plan monthly and promotional campaigns.
• Track and analyse campaign performance.

Skills

Analytical skills

Communication skills

Creativity

Problem-solving skills

Planning and organizing

Education

Bachelor's degree in Marketing or Business Management

Tools

MS Word

MS Excel

MS PowerPoint

Job description

Responsibilities

• Develop and manage the product portfolio, ensuring alignment with market & distributor needs, and company strategy.
• Plan monthly and promotional campaigns across the direct selling channel across the different markets the client is operating in.
• Pricing : responsible for price setting, developing and driving pricing strategies to maximise sales and profitability.
• Track and analyse campaign performance and where applicable, identify areas of improvements.
• Instrumental in reviewing and selecting product ordering from the client's plants globally.
• Collaborate with digital and content team on the themes and selling tools for distributors and Salesforce.
• Prepare monthly postmortem plans to analyse the performance of a campaign.
• Measure and analyse product and campaign performance, providing recommendations for improvement.
• Communicate and collaborate with cross functional teams and stakeholders within the organisation.
• Deliver campaigns that deliver operating profit.
• Lead demand planning and product forecasting in collaboration with supply chain.
• Track sales performance, highlighting risks and opportunities for product categories.
• Effective management of excess stock tracking performance of plans / products and make plans for excess stock.
• Creative : Work with the creative team in conceptualizing company marketing materials for direct selling channel.
• Distributor queries : effectively handle and resolve Distributor queries pertaining to product promotions.
• Partner with Sales team to work on monthly launches, product training material to support Distributors and Sales Force.
• Reporting and presentations : present monthly campaign sign offs and weekly sales updates to the team.
• Ensure pricing can be finalised within required timelines and campaign product codes and images are loaded.

Requirements

• Bachelors degree in Marketing, Business Management or related field.
• 5+ years product planning experience
• Direct selling experience a prerequisite.
• Able to display perseverance, resilience, and the required energy to achieve objectives and outputs.
• Able to initiate action spontaneously without being urged to do so.
• Ability to develop new ideas and to create new concepts and solutions to problems.
• Strong analytical skills and the ability to interpret data into actionable strategies.
• Well-developed computer skills and experience (MS Word; Excel; Power Point).
• Well-developed planning and organizing abilities, systematic with high level of attention to detail
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Creativity and storytelling ability in product positioning.