Brand Manager

Location: Almaty, Kazakhstan

Reporting to: Marketing Manager Central Asia & Caucasus

JOB MISSION

The Mission of the Brand Manager is to build sustainable brand equity & desirability for their brands, while delivering strong activations in close partnership with local distributor partners. This by helping and guiding distributor partner teams with the brand execution excellence with impactful plans & deliver meaningful and engaging experiences. Every initiative has sharply defined KPIs’ contribution to optimising ROI. Consumer centricity and brand equity is at equal prominence of brand strategies.

Brand planning & strategy / execution

• Co-define with Marketing Manager markets marketing big bets and support markets in the implementation & analysis;
• Lead the brand plans by guiding markets and support them in the implementation;
• Follow up on digital plans and lead/participate in digital projects , support company's & distributor teams on digital campaigns;
• Oversee the roll out of key flagships in the region, creating & implementing guidelines and creating best practices;
• Drive the successful launches of new brands, in close collaboration with Market Managers;
• Be accountable for the development, implementation and control of 360 brand engagement activities based on positioning, brand platform and latest brand guidelines through close collaboration with Market Managers,company's teams, distributors, third party suppliers & agencies;
• Align & control A&P budget on a regular basis via marketing calendar;
• Ensure optimal allocation of ATL & BTL expenditures, and prioritization in line with regional strategies.
• Support and coordinate regional POSM production, monitor & constantly track VAP and POSM stock; ensure optimal allocation and depletion

Collaboration cross departments & externally

• Act as brand champion & ambassador for communication and custodianship of brand strategies/equity internally
• Build and drive community of distributor`s brand marketing teams in coordination with the Regional Marketing team, including leading CAC meetings (content, agenda, organisation) and key briefings (brand plans, Distributor Awards…);
• Provide/deliver clear consumer insights, trends and share best practice (competitor activity, consumer needs, segmentation and value proposition, etc.) to company's teams and to distributor teams;
• Drive regular communication on operational matters: updated brand activation plan/calendar, coordinate visit (organizational part);
• Perform the role of an expertise holder in the field of marketing for the region and guide the company & distributor teams.
• Foster strong cross functional understanding, collaboration and alignment with the sales department as well as distributor team
• Build strong relationships with Trade customers to drive unified executions and support trade commitments
• Be regularly in the trade to maintain relationships and be aware of consumer trends & needs

Lead key Regional Marketing activations / events

• Lead and participate in regional events & projects ( Society, Eurasia Roadshow, etc.) guide and ensure implementations of guidelines / share & implement best practices / brief & collaborate third party suppliers & agencies / follow up and analyze.

Capabilities

• Improve the marketing competencies of the company's and distributor teams by identifying trainings needs and delivering / coordinating necessary trainings (e.g. brand trainings, visits, future commerce, etc.);
• Help improve the visibility of local marketing activations & strategic thinking of distributors by gathering best practices & learnings and sharing with Regional Marketing team

Professional experience & know how

• University professional with a degree within marketing and/ or business
• Minimum 3 years of brand marketing experience
• Management experience a strong plus
• A&P Management – proven track record of disciplined cost control delivering against tangible KPI’s with maximal P&L impact
• Excellent communication skills and understanding of the importance of relationship building and networking
• Knowledge of luxury brand building, building through storytelling, disruptive experiences and excellence in execution
• Analytical, structured, and able to work towards long and short-term goals
• Self-motivated, energetic, agile, proactive and ambitious
• Able to take ownership, spark enthusiasm and work well under pressure
• Strong team player who can work effectively as a part of a multi-functional team
• Able to travel in UZBEKISTAN AND KYRGYZSTAN mainly and sometimes abroad; able to be regularly out in the trade to build relationships and ensure brands represented in line with brand strategies & universe
• Proven experience working closely with sales teams & customers
• Challenger mindset

Languages

• Fluent in English & Russian.