Trade Marketing Expert

To develop channel marketing programs for sales growth and revenue enhancement. Trade Marketing is marketing that targets distributors, wholesalers, and retailers with the goal of increasing opportunities for end-users to purchase products including:

• Ensuring top-notch product visibility in the stores in terms of location choices, planogram customisation per account/store, deployment of respective POSM/POP per SKU
• Market enhancement through excellence of execution via creating displays units/shop-in-shop in retailers’ showrooms and shops (modern and traditional sales channels) and own brand-stores
• Tracking/monitoring activities and launches by competitors and their performance
• Leads on-ground activation along the year to support sales figures
• Owns the process of opening brand-stores (own and dealer-operated)
• Manages all related aspects to regular promotions from determining quantities to ensuring nation-wide deployment
• Analyses the results of the activity versus objectives set generating lessons learnt and improvement opportunities

Commercial strategy

• Understands consumer journey across different touchpoints
• Aligns category strategy, key messages and critical activities with brands
• Develops channel marketing programs for sales growth and revenue enhancement
• Works with marketing team to plan and conduct campaigns, trade shows and other promotional events.
• Well-versed in sales contracts with channel customers ensuring agreements are executed
• Evaluates existing marketing programs and recommend changes for improvements,
• Works with team in executing marketing plan to support product positioning and branding initiatives.
• Stays up-to-date on market trends, industry standards and competitors
• Informs management on potential competitive threats and proposes responses
• Performs business reviews and provide improvements
• Monitors and manages expenses within allotted marketing budget.
• Provides excellent customer services to ensure customer satisfaction and problem resolution
• Identifies and quantifies growth potentials & limitations (scenario analysis)
• Calculates ROI of these activities, where appropriate
• Define budget requirements
• Discusses and agrees upon assortments for category per channel
• Analyzes channel specific opportunities (e.g. identify assortment gaps and opportunities)

Activity planning & budgeting

• Aligns sell-out support (new product launches and active assortment)
• Adapts communication in-line with strategy and consumer insights
• Owns and monitors trade budget to ensure marketing activities are implemented
• Defines the annual trade marketing plan (rolling 12 months)
• Executes consistent marketing strategy incl. channel segmentation and in store/shopper marketing activities
• Supports channel and product optimisation
• Collaborates with marketing, sales and channel/account management to define and deliver tools and programs that are effective, sustainable, scalable and measurable.
• Leads partner-related launch efforts for products, services and platforms.

Customer negotiations

• Participates at major account negotiations and supports sell-in argumentation
• Prepares category specific part for sell-in presentations by providing account specific sell-in arguments (e.g. assortment proposal, locations, display units)
• Arranges for product samples, as required

Implementation support & tracking

• Monitors and steers stock availability of products
• Reviews effectiveness & efficiency of category activities
• Reviews budget utilisation
• Stays up-to-date target achievements (market share, turnover, profitability)
• Ensures and communicates success of category in terms of sell-out and take adequate actions, with other stakeholders as required
• Identify & share category specific best-practices
• Management of quality issues
• Effectively manage a support team to achieve stated objectives, as required.

Education

• Bachelor’s Degree (Masters preferable)
• Commercial/analytical education/brand communication/advertising

Experience

• Minimum of 5 years of experience in either sales or marketing (product or brand management ) in consumer goods/electronics or FMCG industry
• Proven ability to manage a brand/category holistically
• Experienced in generating consumer/shopper insights and leveraging them to improve brand/category KPIs sustainable
• Demonstrated practice to build up local brand/category development plans (incl. target and strategy setting as well as campaigns and activities)
• Execution of campaigns and activities in close collaboration with sales functions and trade marketing
• Experiences in managing brand/category P&L and allocating budget to activities (ROI)

Specific knowledge

• Ability to leverage the synthesis between marketing and sales
• Ability to convince & enthuse other stakeholders in supporting category initiatives
• First experiences in planning, structuring and leading negotiations with retailers
• Industry/product knowledge (preferably)
• Versatile language skills (preferably English)
• General business skills, e.g. computer skills
• Excellent leadership/communication skills