Brand Manager

Role:

Agency 2017 was formed on the backbone of strategic and marketing excellence and value-creation for predominantly real estate and other sectoral players. The Founder is an MBA from the Indian School of Business, with ~ 8 years in advertising, pre-MBA (Creative) at some of Indias top advertising agencies and ~7 years of Marketing, post MBA at the Lodha Group, Indias No. 1 real estate player. For the last 5 years, we have been offering data-backed, strategy-rich, insight-driven Strategy and Marketing solutions for clients based in Mumbai, Bangalore, Gurugram and ancillary locations. The vision is to be a credible Strategy and Marketing organisation with multi-modal operations. Towards this, market, consumer and product understanding will be critical and associated could expect rewarding, challenging and meaningful careers in a fast-paced organisation, with a steep learning curve.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Interacting and collaborating with Sales + Channel + Loyalty and Brand teams to create and thereafter execute Annual Operating Plans + Activation Calendars, review metrics, budgets

2. Formulation of Annual Operating Plans (with Lead, Walk-in, Booking targets), Media plans, ATL/Advertising, Digital and Loyalty calendars and briefs AND thereafter manage output and deployment.

3. Drive monthly and quarterly reviews with ALL teams & Clients to assess need gaps and way forward.

4. Drive business volumes and provide inputs and support to Management. + Drive innovations

Activities:

1. Understanding client business, product USPs, TG/demographics, visit project locations and study

competition.

2. Customer understanding through surveys + market research + flowback in strategy and

communication.

3. Inventory selection + packaging + dates + vertical sound off + end to end media planning ACROSS

Projects. DRIVE targets in sync with Sales, Loyalty/Referral verticals.

4. Understanding pricing across micro-market and devising calls around activations.

5. Developing a cogent calendar for sustenance AND activation sales.

6. Write business proposals to help close new business, attending client presentations and documenting client scope, thus making sure that the sales process has progressed effectively

7. Provide Sales, Channel, Media, Design/Architecture teams well-documented input, support thereby impacting decisions on Product, Pricing and Promotion

8. Ensure Marketing and business strategies are clearly defined, approved by clients.

9. Responsible for staying informed on activities that are being performed on their accounts and being the final sign off on ALL important documentation/deliverables before they go to a client. This includes: budget, project plan, strategy.

10. Prepare month-end overviews of clients current activities plus plans for future development of accounts.

Performance Dimenions:

A) Conceptualization and execution of communication CALENDARS to enable Brand, Sales and verticals to drive business.

1. Innovation + Frequency + Scale + Output (No. of leads generated + Impact of these exercises pegged through brand surveys)

2. Breadth and depth. Deepen existing client relationships and contribute towards expanding the breadth of Agency 2017 portfolio.

B) Development and execution of a high-intensity ATL and BTL campaigns around client brands. + Evangelise Agency 2017 as a brand

1. i) Quality of work | ii) Adherence to timelines | iii) Impact on client business | iv) Innovation and Inputs

2. Quality of ideas towards business expansion + bringing innovative and new thoughts to the table, across client bases.

C) High degree of finesse in end-to-end campaign execution. Engage and deliver creative, media plan adherence with creative, digital and media agencies. (and publications)

1. Quality of output + Cost Management (Adherence to overall budgets)

2. Timeliness

D) Creation to deployment (Start to Stop Management)

1 Project Management ownership. Richness of Conceptualisation to finesse in deployment

2 Feedback from stakeholders (see 1 above)

E) Collaborate with Sales/Marketing/Media/Sales Strategy to conceptualize and formulate the way forward for the brand.

1. Current understanding of issues across functions

2. Generating synergies across functions

Position Summary:

To assist and effectively support brand management daily operations of the brands products to ensure continuing contribution to business volume, share, profit and return on assets objectives.

Key Accountabilities

i) Consumer & customer understanding to identify business opportunities and recommend plans to achieve it

ii) Understanding business volumes, blending TG requirements to derive Brand building/Marketing Plans’ – Concept, Packaging, Product, Communication.

iii) On time delivery of assigned marketing projects with alignment from all internal stakeholders and agency partners

iv) Regular Competition Tracking for communication, trade, pricing related elements to influence brand’s ongoing marketing decisions

v) Lead business analysis and project financials to support and execute marketing business plans

vi) Manage multi-functional project teams to ensure excellence in execution (project plan development, execution, tracking and summarizing results/learning)

Experience, Skills & Knowledge

1. Degree in Business Management in Marketing from Tier 1 institute with 1-3 years’ experience – preferably with exposure to marketing roles.

2. The position requires appreciation and understanding of Marketing, business management and the cross-functional synergies between these disciplines.

3. Strategic and analytical skills: A broad-based strategic thinker with exceptional intellect who is skilled in analyzing/diagnosing brand and portfolio issues and injecting the consumer first thinking into the process.

4. Consumer-rooted Innovation & Thinking: Anticipate, pre-empt, empathise and create. The candidate should have demonstrated skills in innovative strategies and communications and having driven short-term and long-term innovation.

5. Cross-functional navigation acumen: Leading and evolving the marketing capability over time will require consultative and visible leadership. Partnering and working effectively across functional and within the organizational matrix is imperative.

Best-fit behavioral traits:

1. Practical problem-solver: Strategic thinker + DOER.

2. Business sense and judgment: Able to view problems through the lens of practicality.

3. Learning Agility: quickly learn and internalize new ways of working to facilitate a team to deliver their best. Capable of quickly learning new products and technologies.

4. Mature: Authentic, highly collaborative and able to motivate across levels

5. Ambitious, but with a down-to-earth attitude

6. Supreme determination: a can-do attitude, dive deep and deliver.