Description
Job Purpose
The Lubricants Brand Manager plays a vital role in driving the growth of our lubricants business.
This position collaborates closely with internal stakeholders to maintain brand relevance and ensure that all initiatives align with the brand promise while achieving financial objectives.

Key Responsibilities
• Lead the development and execution of the lubricants marketing plan in alignment with the overall sales and marketing strategy.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams at local and regional level to ensure that all brand initiatives resonate with consumers and meet business targets.
• Drive profitable growth by implementing effective marketing activities that support the lubricants brand.
• Conduct pricing analysis, oversee product life cycle management, and assist with tender business cases, utilizing advanced data analytical skills to effectively apply analytical techniques and enhance data utilization
This role is essential for advancing our growth agenda and maximizing the profitability of the lubricant’s portfolio.


Dimensions
• Area of focus: Marketing : Lubricants (Including Plm & Pricing) Commercial B2B
• Annual targeted volume
• Annual targeted Net Proceeds
• Annual targeted C3 Margin
• Annual SP&A budget
• Brand kip’s


Principal Accountabilities
Insights & Research
• Conduct Market/Competitor and brand research/analysis that feed into marketing plans and strategies.
• Leverage consumer insights to develop brand and product positioning.
• Produces competitive analysis materials comparing product with its key competitors.
• Engage with the organization (e.g Sales, Distribution, Supply Chain, Logistics etc) to address customer feedback
• Develop insights and implications from the research, share and interpret those learnings and recommendations with the related audience
• Working closely with distribution partners and Marketing Research companies to obtain relevant information, including the development and implementation of brand audit studies and focus groups.
• Provide continuous feed of suspects into the SPANCOP pipeline.


Marketing Plan
• Marketing Strategy Development: Lead the creation of a comprehensive marketing strategy that aligns with defined business objectives, ensuring it addresses both brand and category insights.
• Translating Business Goals: Utilize in-depth knowledge of the business and brand marketing theories to transform overarching business unit objectives into actionable strategies for brand portfolios and channel-specific growth.
• Channel Strategy Oversight: Develop effective channel strategies offline and online to minimize conflicts and optimize performance across different sectors.
• Annual Marketing Plan Implementation: Design and execute the annual lubricants marketing plan in harmony with the business plan and broader marketing strategy, ensuring seamless coordination with various lines of business. Collaborate closely with the central Lubes Marketing Planning Manager and oversee the SP&A budget effectively.
• Objective Setting and Tracking: Establish clear marketing objectives, including sales and profit targets, brand performance indicators, and consumer satisfaction metrics, while ensuring consistent follow-up on implementation.
• Performance Analysis: Conduct thorough preand post-analysis for key marketing initiatives and campaigns; monitor and assess the effectiveness of marketing strategies through performance tracking.
• Project and Campaign Management: Oversee daily marketing operations, including project management, creative development, and cross-functional coordination for campaign execution, while managing both the existing product line and new product introductions.
• Long-term Business Planning: Contribute to the company’s long-term strategic planning by identifying potential business opportunities, new markets, and strategic partners.
• Collaborative Execution: Implement marketing plans by effectively engaging with internal teams and external suppliers to ensure timely delivery and adherence to budget constraints.
• Presentation Preparation: Prepare and participate in key presentations, articulating marketing strategies and performance outcomes to stakeholders.


Brand & CVP’s
• Maintains brand integrity across product lines, advertising, and all other internal and external communication as it pertains to assigned brand.
• Develops and manages the Brand platform to include a definition of the brand vision, promise and value proposition as well as positioning, personality, voice, tone and manner, behaviors.
• Be the most knowledgeable resource in the company as it relates to the brands and champion the brand throughout the organization, with partners and external agencies.
• Manage brand guidelines to ensure all vendors and internal audiences follow them and update them as necessary.
• Assist in monitoring brand health metrics and support the development of new brand tracking across businesses.
• Adapt centrally defined CVP’s and lead the implementation of the adequate CVP per sector and per channel, leveraging the unique properties of the related sector/ channel
• Ensure all local sales staff are armed with all the marketing and sales tools required to support the sector/channel CVP’s and are fully trained and prepared to deliver these to customers.
• Track performance of implementation of initiatives / campaigns vs KPIs.


PLM
• Leadership of Marketing Lifecycle: Take charge of the complete marketing lifecycle for assigned brands, guiding strategies from conception through to market introduction and beyond.
• Comprehensive Planning: Develop and implement marketing objectives and detailed schedules for all phases of product introduction, including the creation of sales materials, Channel presentations, and other essential collateral to ensure successful market entry.
• Portfolio Ownership: Serve as the key stakeholder for the product portfolio, managing stock-keeping units (SKUs) effectively. This includes optimizing the portfolio to ensure each SKU is strategically positioned, competitively priced, and delivers maximum profit margins.
• Continuous Improvement: Proactively manage the product portfolio, regularly assess and refine portfolio performance, leading optimization, leveraging market insights and consumer feedback to enhance SKU offerings and drive sustained growth and profitability. ensure the correct positioning, pricing and margin for each SKU.


Messaging
• Professional use of market communications including the economic use of Market Research, Strategic Planning, Advertising, Media, Sales promotions, Event Marketing, PR, Branded signage, Sponsorships and Database Marketing.
• Tight interaction with Corporate Communications Manager in directing and managing advertising agencies and media/Digital agencies for the OU
• Ensures correct application/implementation of Brand & Communications guidelines/policies


Financials
• Monitoring and analyzing business performance compared to business goals (awareness, share of markets, consumer diagnostics, profitability, etc.) and the competition.
• Assist with financial projections and budgeting process.
• Manage budgets and financials related to marketing campaigns.
• Provides suggestions for budget rearrangement, re-allocation of funds or price adjustment to protect/optimize our profitability
• Be the owner of pricing management in the relevant brands
Pricing
• Lead the development of clear pricing strategies and approaches with the coordination of the central pricing team.
• Develop the pricing price list and discount policy in line with the pricing strategy and MOA, ensure implementation and trigger/manage reviews
• Ensure brand maps for key SKU’s are updated regularly and provide recommendations
• Monitor pricing performance for key SKU’s, including cost trends, provide guidance to sales for pricing positioning and review mechanism for B2B customers


Key Challenges
• The incumbent will be responsible for driving forward the business in the OU Structure and will need to work very closely with other Sales, Financial, Technical, Operations and Marketing colleagues.
• New Business Opportunities, both in sectors and geographies
• Will need to work effectively with Local staff and with Pan African Marketers, Technical and other functions
• Manage the diversity of indirect channels and implement Marketing programs to improve the profitability of the business
• Optimal integration of Global/Local OEMs Partnerships outcomes
• Ability to prioritize the digital marketing activities that are most relevant to our brand as well as supporting overall marketing and business strategies
• Ability to federate conflictual visions by providing strategic and professional leadership and using considerable experience in influencing key stakeholders
• In Addition to office work, the position Requires field work across retail stations, B2C and B2B channel nationwide
• Ensure continuous focus on the external environment, drive challenge and innovation. Ensure alignment with the central lubes marketing team and with the retail local team. Maximize efficient delivery of the initiatives
• Ensuring maximum use of centrally developed materials and identified good practices from other Ous


Job Knowledge, Skills & Experiences
• Marketing professional likely to have more than 5 years of experience including sales and marketing roles with strong brand management and analytical skills. Experience in Lubricants, while not essential is an advantage
• Good understanding of Retail, B2C and/or B2B markets.
• Ability to draw insights from data and communicate them in a compelling way to a « lay » audience
• Excellent project management and thought leadership skills; strong collaboration/teamwork skills; a problem solver with results-orientation
• The candidate is expected to possess excellent communication skills with good commercial instinct and customer orientation
• Strong analytical abilities, math skills, data management, understanding how to measure performance, project pricing, calculate ROI, and sharing learning on an ongoing basis
• Strong project management skills
• Strong presentation and writing skills
• Must have a style that promotes respect, transparency, credibility and trust throughout the organization.
• Must be a business leader and a calculated risk taker.
• Demonstrate the ability to think both analytically and creatively.
• Results oriented and self-motivated.
• Digital and social advertising knowledge is an advantage


Competencies
• Strategy
• Generating Insights and analytics
• Strategic Marketing definition & Planning
Customer value Proposition Development
• CVP Development – Brand
• CVP Development – Product/Service Portfolio
• CVP Development – Pricing
• CVP Development – Promotions
• CVP Development – Channel/Sector Management
Effective Messaging
• Loyalty Programs
• Delivering Customer Excellence in the Market onsite/online
• Customer Focus & Interpersonal Skills


Execution
• Communications (written & oral) & Languages (fluent in English)
• Influence and Persuasion
• Stakeholder engagement
Team working
• Delivers Results Through Others
Application, Data analysis & Technical Architecture
• Data management, excel, data mapping, data exploitation
Business Processes
• Incident & Problem Management
• Risk Management & Brand reputation