Brand Manager – Innovation at Diageo | April 2024

Application deadline: 19h April

About us

From Arthur Guinness to Johnnie Walker, our business was founded on people of great character, and in 250 years, nothing’s changed. We’re the world’s leading premium alcohol company. Our brands are industry icons. And our success is thanks to the strength of our people, in every role. It’s why we trust them with our legacy. And it’s why we reward them with the career-defining opportunities that they deserve. Our ambition is to create the best performing, most trusted and respected Consumer Products Company in the world. To achieve these, we need the world’s very best people. Feel inspired? Then this may be the opportunity for you.

SBL was incorporated in 1988 as Associated Breweries Limited and changed its name to Serengeti Breweries Limited in 2002 and commenced commercial operations in 1996 with one brewery in Dar es Salaam. The company was acquired by EABL in October 2010 and has three breweries located in Dar es Salaam, Mwanza and Moshi.

SBL flagship brand is Serengeti Premium Lager. Other brand portfolios include Guinness and Plisner.  Headquartered in Dar es Salaam, SBL is also the distributor of several global Diageo international renowned spirit brands such as Johnnie Walker®, Smirnoff Vodka®, Bailey’s Irish Cream ®, Richot®, Bond 7 Whiskey® and Gilbeys Gin®.

Scope of the role

To deliver breakthrough business performance on the brand category while building the equity and future value of the category. To develop a brand strategy that supports delivery of the marketing strategy and that ensures that the brand is firmly established among the most aspirational category in Tanzania.

Purpose of the role
This is an extraordinary opportunity to work in innovations and shape the future of SBL, one of the leading organizations in Tanzania. You will embrace this challenge & demonstrate a burning passion for creative, innovative thinking balanced with a black-belt in launch execution. A key part of this role is to ensure the use of creative excellence, disciplined project leadership and management in crafting new opportunities and brands from multiple start points.

Leadership Responsibilities and Decision-Making Rights
The role will require the incumbent to develop broad cross functional working relationships across commercial, business support and supply community interfaces. Furthermore, this role will need to develop strong relationships with the Global Brand Team and Regional team. The role also requires strong team leadership to deliver brilliant execution through agency partners for both above-the-line and below-the-line work to deliver the innovations in an accessible way that meets consumer needs and is profitable to the business.

Top Accountabilities
1. Product Innovation: Through a natural instinct of what consumers want, lead the development of Concepts, Design & Communications for both new brand launches as well as brand extensions on existing brands. Complete this through the GATE process, influencing & inspiring the organisation behind your vision.

2. Brand Strategy: Development of the brand strategy in alignment with the marketing strategy as well as the annual Pricing Strategy. Develop and implement insight-based activities, strong creative campaigns and communication channel strategies for the brand ensuring optimal investment of A&P resources to deliver business results for the brand.

2. Project management: Leading the development of multi-innovation projects at once, you will be an expert in project management & mastering a range of project management tools will deliver all projects on time & within budget.

3. World-Class Execution Launches: Working in partnership with the Supply brand change managers and Commercialization Managers to develop and commercialize the product innovation. Will require clear setting the execution standards and goals for launches, delivering & executing full consumer & commercial launches flawlessly, to time & to budget. This will include new brand launches as well as rolling out proven innovations from other markets.

4. Influencing & Inspiring; It is critical that you can effectively influence & inspire the cross-functional project team to deliver the Ambition. This means genuine relationships, tough conversations when needed & above all to be a Master of inspiring the business to the opportunity the innovation has for the business in the future.

5. Performance management: Through a strong understating of the business and understanding the relative commercial levers required to deliver the performance ambitions you will consistently measure and intervene to make sure all projects deliver to target. Timely escalations and course correction based on judgement from the performance tracking.

Key Relationships: Marketing team, Technical and brand change team, Finance team, Consumer research team, Sales and commercial team, Procurement team, Corporate Affairs team, Supply chain team, Quality and Brand assurance team, 3rd party agencies.

Qualifications and experience required.

• You have Bachelor’s degree with 5+ years of consumer marketing, innovation or commercial experience & have a proven track record of amazing results.
• You will demonstrate meticulous project management, strong marketing judgement & commercial grounding to ensure delivery of plans.
• You will have strong entrepreneurial flair to both identify new opportunities & navigate your project challenges through the complex business landscape.
• A great communicator, you build strong interpersonal networks within the business & have the ability to manage stakeholders in a clear concise manner.
• You are comfortable managing complexity with a demonstrated track record of managing an agenda of multiple priorities & stakeholders, juggling multiple projects & complex project timeline.
• You demonstrate drive, delivery & determination. Resilience is key! The ideal candidate be result oriented with a track record of consistently delivering strong performance.
• Line management & leadership. Leading, inspiring & coaching cross functional team members and 3rd party agencies.
• Qualifications: Educated to Graduate level in a related field. CIM qualification is an added advantage. Brand management knowledge. Proficient computer ski. Strategic thinking and analytical skills.