Marketing Head, Dairy Division-(Africa)

Role Overview

The Marketing Head for the Dairy Division will lead brand strategy, trade marketing, and integrated communications to strengthen the division's market position and accelerate revenue growth. The role requires building strong channel programs, driving consumer engagement, and coordinating with cross functional teams to deliver high impact marketing outcomes across retail, modern trade, and institutional channels.

Responsibilities

Brand and Communication Strategy

- Develop communication frameworks, presentations, briefs, and marketing assets that strengthen the dairy portfolio's brand message and support long term category growth.

- Plan and deploy targeted marketing initiatives including customer segmentation, profiling, and tailored messaging across channels.

- Monitor market trends in the dairy sector and collect feedback from channel partners, consumers, and stakeholders to ensure brand relevance and performance.

- Oversee the annual calendar of brand activities, consumer events, in store activations, and trade programs for all dairy brands.

- Lead digital and traditional communication efforts to enhance visibility and brand perception across geographies.

Trade and Channel Marketing

- Manage the trade spend for the dairy portfolio and allocate the A and P budget across channels, regions, and key accounts.

- Work with sales and P and L owners to optimize channel strategies, maximize ROI, and improve assortment and pack mix by outlet type.

- Measure channel wise market potential to identify priority segments and white spaces.

- Develop and deploy trade and consumer promotions including pricing recommendations, sales projections, POS planning, operational coordination, and visibility execution.

- Standardize promotional mechanics, schemes, and merchandising guidelines for both top end and general trade to ensure consistent brand experience.

- Track competitor activity in the dairy category including pricing, promotions, innovations, and distribution trends.

- Strengthen relationships with distributors, wholesalers, and retailers through structured programs that drive volume and visibility.

- Lead POS allocation and ensure visibility compliance across GT, MT, and institutional channels.

Commercialization and Product Initiatives

- Work with the head office marketing team to commercialize brand plans including pack architecture, pricing ladders, and promotional strategy for dairy SKUs.

- Collaborate with production and supply teams to plan pack formats, range extensions, and merchandising layouts that support category growth.

- Recommend and execute localized promotions and market development activities based on region specific insights.

- Drive product launches and relaunches, ensuring maximum distribution, strong visibility, and targeted communication.

Stakeholder Management and Collaboration

- Coordinate with internal teams including management, production, quality, finance, and sales to ensure alignment on marketing deliverables.

- Work closely with external agencies such as creative, digital, PR, event, and market research partners.

- Maintain strong communication with the group level marketing and media team and share best practices across divisions.

- Represent the organization at trade fairs, industry events, and external forums.

Performance Measurement and Governance

- Define the evaluation matrix for marketing investments and measure key outcomes such as footfall, conversion, promotion success rate, loyalty, and visibility impact.

- Track brand registrations and SKU wise compliance for dairy products.

- Measure campaign effectiveness through analytics, market feedback, and sales uplift.

- Ensure proper documentation, reporting, and MIS for all marketing activities.

Person Specification

Qualifications

- Graduate degree with specialization in Marketing, Trade Marketing, or Marketing Communications.

- MBA preferred.

Experience

- 10 to 15 years of marketing experience in FMCG, preferably dairy.

- Experience in Africa or emerging markets preferred.

Knowledge

- Strong understanding of dairy category dynamics, cold chain challenges, consumer behavior, and regional trade structures.

- Expert knowledge of marketing tools, brand building, digital platforms, and integrated communication.

Skills and Competencies

- Strategic and creative thinker with exposure to multi-channel communication strategies across digital and offline media.

- Demonstrated leadership capability in managing high performing teams.

- Strong relationship management experience across internal and external stakeholders.

- Proficient in website and digital asset management.

- Skilled in campaign measurement, analytics, and ROI tracking.

- Excellent communication skills with the ability to engage with diverse audiences.

- Strong project management and organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities.

- High ownership mindset, detail oriented, self-driven, and proactive in problem solving.

- Strong interpersonal skills and capability to build collaborative, high trust partnerships across teams.

Candidates with prior experience in Dairy Marketing will be prioritized.