Position/Title: Brand Activation Specialist
Reports To: Trade Marketing Manager
Function: Trade Marketing
Area: South Africa
Number of Reports 1
Overall Responsibility:
- Build and manage all brand activities in trade and ensure the IN-TRADE brand activation plan is aligned to all channels, departments and brand vision.
- Co-ordinate brand activation reporting on different platforms and communicate brand activation insights as well as what works and what is best practise.
- Facilitate Trade Marketing procurement and manage the purchasing process from start to finish.
- Manage the ‘Sales and Execution’ budget and stay within the parameters by doing planning and phasing. Also provide a detailed monthly report on actual spend vs budget including accruals.
- Create custom launch plans for new products in development and track the launch progress and success vs pre- determined business case.
- Field and satisfy ad hoc requests from sales team and leadership.
- Maintain the channel of communication between Brand Marketing, Trade Marketing, Sales Team and Local as well as international brand owners/contact partners.
Focus Area 1 - Building, managing, and tracking of all Brand Activations
- Brand activation plans need to be built with alignment to all channels – considering the brand vision and recent sales analysis, insights as well as opportunities that have been identified.
- Activation mechanics and elements need to be conceptualised and must show proof of concept and ROI.
- A Detailed and granular presentation needs to be submitted to leadership and sales team on a quarterly basis by activity, by brand by channel and by segment.
- Liaise with local and international contract partners to provide any tools they might need, also incorporate their brand visions, and needs into quarterly sales plan.
- All design and visual elements need to be briefed to the brand marketing design team.
- Facilitate copy writing and final proofreads for anything that goes to print.
- Scrutinize and approve all elements for procurement – get clearance from Marketing – then sign off on final proofs.
- Elements need to be procured and planned according to the number of outlets and the budget available.
- After procurement, orders need to be tracked and made sure to arrive on time and in full in region.
- Where applicable: consolidate weekly promoter bookings on 1 sheet and send to promoter company.
- up with promoter company and ensure all runs smoothly.
- Ensure any promotional free stock is booked out and delivered to region in time for activation.
- Fulfil prizes for winners of brand activation competitions:
- Contact competition winners
- List their shipping details
- Pack and ship the prizes
- Track the package and ensure its arrival
Focus Area 2 – Procurement
- Build relationships and liaise with suppliers.
- Conceptualize and facilitate the design of activation elements.
- Negotiate rates and timelines with suppliers.
- Get comparative quotes on a regular basis.
- Plan procurement to stay within budget and time constraints.
- Finalise quotes, raise purchase orders, oversee deliveries in regions, process invoices
- Assist in procurement of events equipment.
- Facilitate the motivation and adding of new vendors.
- Ensure regular inventory counts in regions.
- Facilitate quarterly rewards payouts to winning sales team members, buy frames, get certificates printed, load cash cards for rewards.
Focus Area 3 - Budget and Financials
- Plan and phase monthly spend for financial year within ‘Sales and Execution’ and ‘Sales and Merchandising’ streams.
- Regulate expenditure and plan spending to stay within phasing.
- Investigate purchase orders before approving.
- Ensure financial deadlines are met – accruals, receipting of purchase orders, raising of purchase orders.
- Compile a detailed report for the monthly finance meeting.
- Manage budgets from multiple sources.
- Stay within budget.
Focus Area 4 - New product launches
- Liaise with production and Brand Marketing and gather all details regarding the launch of the new product.
- Facilitate the design and print of any elements for trade, procure and ship in time.
- Gather data regarding the volume target, launch date, launch budget and brand strategy.
- Compile all in a presentation for the sales team and leadership – also include launch KPIs.
- Provide full sales team launch toolkit.
- Use launch KPIs to build a launch tracker and follow progress on a regular basis – report back to the team with results.
- Focus Area 5 - Reporting & Back Office
- Provide detailed reports for all activities and present in weekly sales meeting
- Share best practise wrt execution.
- Build brand activation tasks on Repforce (Sales team app)
- Create and install outlet reach for each activation on Repforce
- Ensure all data is correct and maintain any changes, corrections, or requests from sales team.
- Do 2 weekly updates by extracting data from Repforce, wrangling data, and loading on to a mapping file.
- Ensure mapping file uploads to Qlik (Sales team reporting platform)
- Fix any mistakes and maintain integration of data between platforms – data analysts to assist with coding.
- Maintain all Google documents and keep up to date.
Focus Area 5 - Reporting & Back Office
- Maintain any visibility items on One Drive for the sales force: visual price list, trade presenters, logos, printing material, pack shots etc.
- Align with marketing on a weekly basis regarding Trade Marketing design needs and design schedule.
- Field any requests from the sales team for additional printing material, ad hoc promotions or events, special designs etc.
- Communicate above requests to Marketing, evaluate, approve, and then brief to design.
- Facilitate the procurement of above elements.
- Protect the brand identity and vision and make sure the sales team is aligned.
Requirements of the Role
- Degree in Marketing, administration or similar
- Years Experience: minimum of 4 years’ experience in brand activations, administration, FMCG sales or similar
- Experience in planning and coordinating with multiple stakeholders local and abroad
- Excellent reading, writing and editing. Copywriting is a plus.
- Proficient in Excel and Power point.
- Financial literacy.
Preferred Skills/Competencies
- Great communication skills, interpersonal and social skills
- Multi-tasking and time-management, with the ability to prioritize tasks
- Organized and detail-oriented
- Problem-solving
- Brand and sales savvy
- Creative background – design or marketing will be a bonus
NB: Specific duties/responsibilities will vary from time to time: the above list is intended to indicate the general nature of the post and is not exhaustive. The post holder will be expected to be flexible in supporting the business by undertaking any other responsibilities which are aligned with this job level.
