Marketing Lead Foods & Refreshment Kenya at Unilever

Business Context and Main Purpose of the Job

East Africa is a multi-country organisation (MCO) comprising of Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda as onshore entities but also servicing of Tanzania, Rwanda and Djibouti. The role of Marketing Lead F&R Kenya has the responsibility of developing and implementing the brand strategy for the Kenya for the Foods & Refreshment division which is currently the fastest growing and most profitable division in country.

• The role has overall responsibility for co-creating the country’s Brand Marketing Plan for the division.
• Building business partnerships with regional category/brand team as well as Channel Category Development, Finance and Supply Chain – leading the cross functional Country Category Business Teams (CCBTs) in strategic and tactical decision making to build, develop and drive Foods & Refreshments brands across Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania.
• Monitoring brand performance and implementing relevant solutions in true agile fashion.
• Sit on the EA F&R Leadership Team and play an active role in creating, cascading and implementing business strategy for the country.

Main Accountabilities

• Leads and inspires multi-functional teams to create national Brand Marketing Plans which build the brands in key channels, considering Channel Category plans and moves the brand equity towards the global vision.
• Leads the development and execution of launch and re-launch plans using funds efficiently to achieve measurable objectives.
• Design and model solutions for consumer innovation and experience, identifying brand development opportunities in new markets and future markets.
• Lead for market- and customer-knowledge driven input into innovation platform projects and brand planning to ensure requirements of the category will be met in the future
• Champion the consumer needs and brand purpose within the overall business including leading in the deployment of communication content in the local market at all relevant consumer and shopper touch points.
• Achieve brand share and profitable NPS/profit growth targets by leading the marketing and cross functional teams in the translation of brand & marketing plans into market-implementation and customer plans (with potential for tailor-made activities)
• Drives performance evaluation of national support activities and in-store implementation against measurable objectives and relentlessly seeks ways to improve effectiveness of investments.
• Lead the development of a share-growth-oriented marketing & category plan that seizes opportunities in product renovation, pricing strategy, competitor activities, customer/channel (e.g. convenience format, discounter) specific needs.

Direct Reports

• Category Manager Savoury
• Brand Manager Savoury
• UFLP trainees (as required)

Key Interfaces

• East Africa leadership team
• Country Leadership Teams
• General Management, Customer Development, Finance, Supply Chain, HR, Legal, IT and Communications
• Regional/Global Platform teams

Key Skills

• Category Building
• Brand Development
• Brand Marketing Planning

Relevant Experience

• 9+ years experience with at least three roles at WL2 in Brand Building, Brand Development, Channel Category Development or Account Management
• Proven experience in developing and implementing effective and integrated Brand Marketing Plan.
• Proven project and budget management experience