Scope of Responsibilities
This position will be in charge of the Twinings and Ovaltine brands, working under the SEADM Team (Southeast Asia Developing Market) in Category and Trade Marketing Planning, scaling from a regional perspective down to local implementation and execution.
Shopper, Retailer and Market Understanding
- Understands in-store shopper behavior, shopping patterns and purchase decision tree
- Understands the Shopper Journey (what's happening before, during and after purchase)
- Identifies new retail trends and understands the cross-channel shoppers: e-commerce, proxy stores, category killers
- Builds strong case to advocate the importance of our categories (growth, profit, image, penetration, loyalty, spendings)
- Understands retailer performance, opportunities, KPIs and anchor all our plans around that
- Analyse market trends, consumer behaviors and competitor activities to identify opportunities for category expansion.
- Translate and integrate various shopper insights and data sources including retail audits, sales data and relevant qualitative and quantitative research to develop a strategic category action plan.
Understand and optimize key commercial drivers to build category profitability and company's P&L
- Understands the importance of each driver on the category to focus on what makes the difference.
- Assortment: Drives Range review process internally. Prioritize objectives by customer, consumer needs & segmentation, align with in-market team for legal compliance. Implement analysis and develop assortment strategy required for category review and evaluation.
- Promotion Optimization: Builds Financial & Shopper Knowledge to guide our promotional strategy and optimizes our promotional investments in a way that fits shoppers / ABF / Retailers expectations and business requirements. Postmortem on trade investments and programs for future enhancement.
- CRM & Digital: Identify key activities to leverage digital tools boost awareness, drive traffic, increase purchase trial, strengthen consumer retention and brand affinity.
- Merchandising: Space Analysis / Store Layout, Category Merchandising principles, Secondary Placement, Point of Sales Material efficiency, Shelf GROI, Cross Merchandising and Sales Promotor effectiveness.
- NPD: Track and monitor NPD launch in key customers with Category Management deployment. Capture key success and improvement from consumer's feedback, shopper insight.
Effectively translate Category Management project outputs into tangible market execution
- Ensure the insights and plans developed in aligned Category Actions are successfully implemented in the market through in-store activation and promotions that align with category objectives, grow market share, and drive sales growth.
- Collaborate with in-market Marketing team in development and execution of POSM, in-store displays / media and establish merchandising guidelines to boost visibility, trial, and brand affinity.
- Partnering with distributor's salesman in collaborating with project Category Management s retailers to optimize product placement and promotional efforts.
Collaboration and communication:
- Coordinate and develop the Cycle Planning calendar which align between trade partner's sales promo and activation plans with Brand Marketing and utilizing customer & market insight to achieve defined long-term business objectives for Ovaltine in the country.
- Work closely with distributor's sales team to develop category development plan with the key customers in all channels.
- 5) Performance Analysis:
- Analyze sales data, market share, and key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate the success of category and trade marketing efforts.
- Utilize insights to refine strategies and drive continuous improvement in category management and trade activation.
Qualification
Education & Experience
- Bachelor's or master's degree in business or related fields.
- Minimum of 5 years of experience in Category Management, Trade Activation/Marketing or Sales within the Consumer Goods Industry or Retail sector, including at least 3 years in a managerial role.
- Proven experience in managing Category Management projects within the FMCG sector, collaborating effectively with retailers.
Technical Competencies
- The ideal candidate will possess strong analytical skills and derive actionable insights.
- Strategic Thinking: Ability to develop and implement effective category and trade marketing strategies.
- Computer Literacy: Microsoft Office (Words, Excel, PowerPoint)
- Strong presentation skills with good communication both Thai & English
- Preference for experience in using planogram / Space Management analytic tools
- Project management experience is a plus.
Other Competencies
- Strong Leadership and Interpersonal skills ability to develop relationships and influence internal and external key stakeholders
- A self-starter, able to take initiative to identify, implement and share best practice, continue seeking opportunities to improvement, find innovative approach to address the challenges and engage others to support changes.
- Results-Oriented: Focus on achieving targets and driving business growth.
