Assistant Brand Manager Tea Company – Foods & Refreshment Division

Job description

Assistant Brand Manager Tea Company – Foods & Refreshment Division, Durban / Jhb

BACKGROUND

Overall, Tea is an attractive category with substantial growth potential because it matches up with many consumer trends. For several years, consumers have been choosing tea over other beverages for health and lower sugar. They want to stay hydrated, but don’t want just plain water all the time. They are seeking the benefits of plants for herbal remedies. They are making delicious coffee house-style drinks as treats at home. Now more than ever, consumers are seeking tea for wellness/immunity. And they choose hot and iced teas in the Unilever portfolio because we offer all this with delicious taste at a value through our purposeful, sustainably sourced brands.

After an internal review, Unilever decided the best path forward for the Tea portfolio to achieve its potential is as a stand alone entity. As we move through this journey, we are seeking employees with a passion for exciting entrepreneurial experiences, who want to pursue unique career opportunities and have a desire to be an integral part in building the bright future of this Plant Based Wellness Company.

MAIN JOB PURPOSE:

Drive the profitable, competitive, volume led growth agenda within the Tea business, in line with our Sustainability principles.

Job Scope

· Turning data into insights and actions
· Leading Projects & Activity Requests
· Crafting Strong, purposeful Brands
· Landing integrated brand plans in-year with the cross functional team
· Developing multi-year Integrated Brand Plans, aligned to the category strategy and growth priorities.
· Effectively managing the Brand’s budget, to achieve zero BMI forecast bias, on a monthly basis.

Main Responsibilities:

· Project leadership:
· Lead certain Activity Requests / Projects e.g. variant extensions, new pack size introductions.
· Leading with a LEAN mindset, utilising minimum viable product (MVP) approaches to new product development
· Leading Project Team meetings with relevant teams within the project team.
· Developing Inspiring, relevant communication and integrated brand plans
· Data Reporting and Data into Action:
· Weekly DataOrbis (or equivalent) reporting monthly share deep dives & commentary, and action plans.
· Core of The Core tracking
· Sales & Operations Planning preparation: using available data to make recommendations at a SKU level feeding into BUILD, LOCK meetings.
· In market Activation:
· Develop shopper facing activities with Shopper marketing team
· Develop and lead consumer facing activations
· Budget Management:
· Monthly budget phasing, tracking and management
· Integrated Brand Planning
· Manage and Lead the Full intergrated business plan (IBP) process for Brand including but not limited to:
· Issue and opportunity analysis for brand’s IBP process.
· Crafting the jobs to be done and sizing the opportunities.
· Developing and leading brand lead digital activities aligned to the category and divisional digital & data strategy.
· Supporting the F&R Digital Brand Manager in driving Tea based digital activities.
· Full ownership of the Brand (s) P&L in-year and rolling 24 month forecast, including pricing decisions.
· Leadership of brand-wise NRM & 5S activities to achieve the brand and category growth and profitability agenda.
· Leadership of the Brand-wise Purpose agenda, including defining, validating and executing Brand SAY and Brand DO plans.
· Reconciling and managing media budgeting and planning to achieve media objectives, support the brand and category media strategy.

Key Skills and competencies needed for the role

· Strong levels of growth mindset – a winning, competitive mindset
· Bias for actions and drive – willingness to get things done
· Entrepreneurial Mindset
· Consumer and customer focus – curiosity, ability to uncover relevant insights and translate these into actionable plans
· Rigour and order – ability to identify important issues and works through complex problems in an accurate and in-depth.
· Data driven.
· Passion for all things digital.
· Continuously Curious
· Inspires the energy to win and grow

Minimum Qualifications:

· Relevant Degree or equivalent

Experience needed

· Minimum 2 years of relevant work experience.
· Strong numerical bias.
· Demonstrable P&L understanding.
· Profiency in Microsoft Office Suite including (but not limited to) Excel, Word, Power-point, OneDrive, Power BI, Teams.
· Experience in an FMCG is advantageous

Key Relationships

· Customer Development, Shopper Marketing, Supply Chain, Consumer Market Insights, Research & Development, Digital teams, People Data Centre, and Factory Team.
· Finance Business Partners & Global and Local teams where relevant
· Southern African Team lead by the SEA+FM F&R Central team but supporting key markets of Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, and Future Markets.

NOTE:

Unilever is an equal opportunities employer and committed to diversity and inclusivity in the workplace. We are intentional in employing the best talent that reflect the demographics of our country. We therefore invite applications from all candidates representing diversity of age, sex, disability, sexual orientation, race, religion or belief. When appointing potential candidates, the South African Employment Equity and Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Legislation will be considered.

We are required by law to verify your ability to work lawfully in South Africa. If you are applying as a Foreign National, please note that you may be requested to provide supporting documents supporting this.