Marketing Manager - FMCG

Purpose of Role:

- To lead and manage the Marketing function, and implement marketing and category management strategies for the company’s brands, commodities and food solutions that develops our brands and grows our market share in the MENA region.

Reporting And Key Relationships:

- This role will report directly into the Sales and Marketing Director based in Muscat, Oman, and who reports to the CEO.

- 4 Assistant Category Managers and 1 or more Assistant Brand Managers will report to this role. The number of indirect reports will be 3 - 5 employees and include a Graphic Designer, Trade Marketing Executives and a Social Media Executive.

Key Contacts:

- Group Director for Business, Products and Marketing

Other Key Contacts:

- Brands & Commodities General Manager

- Differentiator Solutions General Manager

- Sales Head - Brands & Commodities

- Sales Head - Food Solutions

- Business Development Manager and his team

Duties And Responsibilities:

Marketing Plans:

- Develop annual market plans for our brands, commodities and food solutions for the GCC and our other international markets.

- Present the marketing plans to the senior management team and provide regular progress reports on the marketing plan, marketing research, promotional activity and its effectiveness, and amendments required to the marketing plans following developments in the market.

Category Management:

- To facilitate research and data analysis to enable the development and implementation of successful category management strategies.

- To lead the Category Management team in evaluating our categories, to ensure we understanding the consumer behaviour within each of these categories and across the different geographical areas we supply, and provide insights into our competitor activities.

- To facilitate the sharing of category management knowledge with the sales teams and assist in developing and implementing successful sales and promotional activities that increase our sales and share of the category.

- To lead the Category Management team in assisting the Sales team in deploying successful sales strategies to our key customers and distributors, and tailoring sales solutions that support our category management strategy and goals.

- To be aware of customer service levels, CPMUs and assist in ensuring the company consistently achieves its targets.

- In conjunction with the Sales team meet with our major customer and distributors as required, and attain customer feedback and insights into the market.

Market Research:

- Conduct market research to determine market requirements for existing and future products, potential brand stretch within the category, changes in consumer behaviour and other developments and opportunities within the market.

- Evaluating customer research, market conditions, competitor data and implement changes to the marketing plan as required.

- Report on the overall brand health by analysing customer trends, current market conditions and competitor information.

Advertising and Promotional Activity:

- To oversee all marketing, advertising and promotional staff, activities to maximise their effectiveness whilst ensuring that they remain within budget.

- Manage the development and updating of promotional materials; inventorying stock; placing orders; verifying receipt in line with brand identity and positioning across various markets depending on the requirements from sales and distribution team.

- Ensure marketing and advertising campaigns are effectively implemented.

- Preparing marketing and advertising strategies, plans, and objectives; planning and organising promotional presentations.

- Ensure regular meetings and communication occurs between the sales and marketing teams to ensure there is synergy between marketing and sales teams, that event opportunities are identified and utilised, and the marketing team briefs the sales team about upcoming advertising and promotional activity.

NPD:

- To develop and implement NPD strategies that support or brand development and target resources accordingly.

- To manage enterprise-level sales opportunities, and sponsor and ensure project teams for developing and launching new profitable product categories across the markets are effective and deliver on time and to budget.

Cost:

- To manage the marketing budgets.

- To manage the sales promotions and category management budgets.

- To assess the benefits attained from marketing expenditure and the return on investments.

People Leadership & Development:

- Lead, develop, inspire and motivate direct reports to attain sales targets, and drive an upward improvements in the team’s skills and performance.

- Build effective team and cross functional team working relationships, particularly with the Business Development Manager and sales teams.

- Adopt a modern inclusive engaging leadership style, and create a supportive working environment where employees feel involved and believe they can offer input and improvements.

- Conduct annual performance reviews in line with Company policy and other regular performance review meetings with members of their teams regarding performance expectations, standards, attendance etc., ensuring their wider teams capabilities and performance are constantly improving.

- Ensure the team are regularly briefed, feedback is sought and employee contributions are maximised.

- Responsible for improving the team’s performance and capabilities, and delivering the team’s training and development plans.

- Responsible for the team’s standards of behaviour and all disciplinary, grievance and capability matters.

- Recruit and develop talent and team members ensuring employee contributions are maximised and develop a talent pool for succession planning.

Health & Safety:

- Lead and inspire the team in establishing a safety first culture.

- Ensure the team are communicated to regarding the Company’s Health and Safety standards and how we expect our employees to behave and carry out their jobs in a safe manner at all times.

- Support all safety initiatives and lead the team in achieving and exceeding Health & Safety targets.

The company reserves the right to require the role holder to undertake additional or other duties and responsibilities from time to time to meet the needs of the business.

Role Parameters:

Financial Responsibility:

- Marketing Budget of 2 m OMR

Travel Requirements:

- This role will be based in Muscat but the job holder will be required to travel to the Company’s markets as required by the business, and will include travelling to India and Saudi Arabia at least 3 time per year.

Hours of Work:

- The role holder will normally work normal office hours, (8.00 am to 5.30 pm Sunday to Thursday) although will be expected to work such hours as required to ensure the responsibilities of this role are fulfilled.

- In addition, the role holder may be required to travel and work during evenings and weekends.

Essential Experience & Qualifications / Training:

- Previous experience of managing and developing brands.

- Previous experience in driving sales growth through category product planning and the implementation of strategic marketing plans.

- Experience of fast moving consumer environments, for example FMCG

- Successful experience on launching new products and developing markets.

- Previous experience in designing and implementing marketing plans, presenting these to senior managers and directors, and communicating these to staff outside the marketing environment, for example sales and other managers.

- Experience of managing similar sized budgets and delivering market growth.

- Professionally qualified with a vocational qualification in marketing and/or category management.

- Be a graduate, preferably in business or managements studies.

Knowledge & Skills:

- The ability to lead, manage and develop a team of Brand and Category managers.

- Analytical, and must have a drive to understand our consumer behaviour within our categories, whilst grasping our strategic vision and goals and be capable of successfully implementing our strategies.

- The ability to communicate ideas and data in a succinct and coherent manner and to non-marketing personnel.

- The ability to lead, coach and develop a team.

- Be flexible and adaptable

Key Measures (KRA):

KPIs:

- Market Share.

- Development and implementation of a market plans and successful category management strategies.

- Development of customer relations with key customers and the attainment of category captain status.

- The successful launch and establishment of new products in the market.

- People leadership and development and talent pool development

Changes to this Role:

- The Company reserves the right to update and reasonably change this job description, and the role holder will be expected to undertake all duties and responsibilities associated with this role and in line with the Company’s requirements and direction and use all their capabilities.