Brand Marketing & Communications Manager at HCS Africa

Job purpose

The Brand Marketing & Communications Manager will be primarily concerned with developing and implementing the Company’s marketing and communications strategy.

The role requires a combination of strong marketing, branding and communication skills. You will lead our marketing functions, helping to drive strong business results – and working towards our goal of becoming the leading brand. You will have primary responsibility for customer acquisition and brand engagement and your main focus will be ensuring that our marketing and communication engagement efforts align for success.

You will be responsible for delivering integrated marketing programmes across our various channels (digital & brick-and-mortar), driving awareness, new customer acquisition, retention and loyalty, brand equity, awareness and engagement. You will be tasked with handling the company's image through marketing campaigns, visual identity, compelling messaging and thoughtful partnerships. You will also oversee the marketing aspects of new product offerings & store openings and will work to ensure that our brand is widely understood both internally and externally.

Key Responsibilities

Revenue Generation & Market Share

• Develop strategic direction and plans with regard to all marketing and communication functions in order to achieve objectives relating to revenue, profitability and market share
• Continuously assess reputational risks and make recommendations based on a thorough analysis of all factors involved Job Description.
•  Oversee Company’s online sales.

Marketing & Communications Strategy

• Develop, execute and analyze the Company’s marketing strategy and plans, including promotions and acquisition campaigns
• Test progressive and innovative ideas to position the brand including original campaign concepts that will help tell the Company story and generate revenue, buzz, and brand love
• Develop, oversee and deliver on ambitious Customer Acquisition & Retention Strategies including Customer Loyalty Programme.
• Ensure both quantitative and qualitative data is effectively used in all marketing and communications decision making.
• Content & Social Media
• Oversee the development and execution of Vivo’s content strategy across our platforms (internal and external) with the aim of building brand awareness and driving community engagement

External Collaboration

• Seek, manage and grow mutually beneficial relationships with key external partners
• Develop partnerships with like-minded and complimentary brands to drive customer acquisition while engaging our target community.

Project & Financial Management

• Manage Company’s annual marketing budget and creatively deploy resources to maximize our impact.
• Establish realistic and meaningful KPIs, ensuring value for money across marketing and communications activities.
• Maintain Marketing to Revenue Ratio.

Leadership / Management

• Provide positive leadership by communicating the company’s vision, mission, goals, objectives and policies to the marketing & communication team, translating them into understandable performance indicators and targets for each individual team member.
• Manage, motivate and measure the performance of the marketing team to ensure KPIs and targets are met, including through clearly assigning duties, and ensuring monthly one-on-ones and quarterly performance reviews are held with each team member,
• Drive succession planning, pre-empting the need for and managing change as necessary.
• Hire and train marketing & communications team staff. Provide individual support to new team members – ensuring a full induction is provided and adequate support given during their learning curve. Develop skills of the teams – identify individual training needs as well as encouraging effective teamwork, giving recognition and praise wherever possible.
• Deal with team performance issues promptly and appropriately, partnering with HR as necessary.

Professional / Academic Background

• At least a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business Administration, or its equivalent.
• At least 10 years’ experience at a management level in a marketing or communications role in a reputable organisation.
• Tech Savvy.
• Demonstrated experience managing and training staff.
• A deep understanding of how to use data to drive decisions.

Essential Skills & Knowledge

• Marketing & Communication – Strong marketing and communication skills in order to give sound advice and counsel. Must be able to lead group-wide transformation initiatives and translate detailed information into clear, concise and accessible messaging. Ability to present reports and information to senior management.
• Commercial Understanding – Strong understanding of the company’s business model in order to provide an independent perspective and to constructively contribute to the overall plans, ensuring that business decisions are grounded in and supported by solid marketing and communications strategies.
• Strategy & Stakeholder Management – You will support strategy development and help enable its execution. This will include analyzing macroeconomic trends, and incorporating both financial and non-financial information, and will need demonstrated skills, knowledge and experience in the design and execution of marketing plans and strategies. You will also be expected to communicate our business strategy and progress to external stakeholders and investors. Strong internal/external stakeholder management skills.
• Accuracy – Ability to perform work accurately and thoroughly.
• Commitment to working with shared leadership and in cross-functional teams.

Essential Attributes

• Decision making: Willingness and ability to make big picture decisions that are in the best interest of the entire company. Ability to appropriately review both quantitative and qualitative data and come to sound conclusions.
• Problem solving: A problem-solving mindset to any challenging situation.
• Working Under Pressure – Ability to deliver against set objectives while operating on some occasions in stressful situations.
• Shared leadership & strong team player: Commitment to working in teams. Proven ability to successfully work in a highly cross-functional matrix environment. Able to gain trust, respect and confidence quickly and effectively.
• Agility: Ability to work in a fast-paced environment and adapt to rapid change, including the ability to deal with shifting priorities.
• Enthusiasm: Energy and determination to achieve results.