Associate Manager, Stationery, Trade Marketing

Trade Marketing Strategy & Planning:

• Build and implement annual Trade Marketing plans by category, channel and customer, aligned with cluster growth objectives and the stationeries acceleration priority in Nigeria
• Translate global and regional brand strategies into locally relevant trade initiatives that drive penetration, distribution, visibility and demand growth
• Adapt plans to Nigerian market specificities: traditional trade dominance, wholesalers, sub-distributors and emerging channels
• Identify growth opportunities to recruit new consumers and increase category penetration: assortment recommendations, visibility programs and channel activation.

Distributor Management & Capability building:

• Act as the distributor's primary counterpart for all Marketing matters (activation plans, POSM, merchandising, trade programs), in coordination with the Business Development Manager, who owns the commercial relationship
• Build strong relationships and ensure alignment on priorities, execution standards and business objectives
• Build distributor marketing and merchandising capabilities through training and best-practice.

In-store Execution Excellence:

• Define and deploy merchandising and visibility guidelines across channels; ensure best-in-class execution of trade initiatives (POSM, activations, promotions)
• Monitor execution quality, improve shopper conversion at POS, take corrective actions where needed.

Budget & Performance Management:

• Manage Trade Marketing budgets with optimal allocation of resources, tracking ROI and continuously improving trade spend efficiency and execution effectiveness
• Track performance of trade initiatives through relevant KPIs and recommend corrective actions.

Cross-functional Collaboration:

• Monitor and analyze market, customer, competitor and shopper data (incl. Nielsen where available) to generate actionable insights
• Work closely with Marketing, Sales and Supply teams to ensure alignment of plans and priorities
• Share market insights, consumer and customer understanding, execution feedback and best practices with regional teams.

Price Monitoring and Market Intelligence Gathering:

• Conduct regular store visits, market walks, distributor check to capture competitor shelf price, promo price and trade offers.
• Share ad-hoc, monthly value chain analysis by channel and competitive activities reports with local management team
• Translate data into what we should do in trade.

Key Performance Indicators

• Sales Growth in line with company’s Rolling Forecast for the region
• Volume & Value Market Share as per targets (when tracked)
• Numeric and Weighted Distribution across priority channels
• On time In Full Marketing plans executions, with results and ROI as per plan, and in compliance with brand standards
• Spend within approved budget with phasing respected quarterly
• In-store execution quality and activation effectiveness with measurable uplift from plans.

Qualifications and Experience

• Education: University Degree in Marketing, Business, Engineering or equivalent
• Experience: Min 5 years of trade marketing experience in an FMCG company.
• Experience in multi-market or distributor-led environment including Egypt is a strong asset
• Languages: Fluent in English, written and spoken.
• Tools: Proficient in MS Office, intermediate/advanced Excel and PowerPoint
• Finance/RGM: Exposure to merchandising, animation and POSM agencies / suppliers. Familiarity with Revenue Growth Management principles, and prior experience in sales or account management with agencies is also valuable.