The Marketing Lead is responsible for providing guidance to the Marketing Team by evaluating and developing omni-channel marketing strategies, coordinating brand-building efforts to increase awareness and improve the positioning of all COTY brands to eventually gain market share and achieve both revenue and profitability targets. This role is a pivotal one for the Singapore Team and the incumbent needs to be a strong and empathetic leader, highly collaborative, working closely with key stakeholders, both internal and external.
RESPONSIBILITIES
1. Distribution & Pricing Strategy
· Acts as the guardian of all COTY brands and adhere strictly to our global distribution strategy and competitor adjacency guidelines, protecting the positioning of our brands in the local market to maintain brand equity
· Adhere strictly to new door opening process, starting with obtaining CCO Office approval to working closely with both Global Trade and Global Merchandising Teams from start till end to ensure successful executions
· Ensure that our yearly pricing strategy is competitive and defend when necessary, while monitoring market trends and taking into consideration both external and internal benchmarks to set the right prices for all our products and services, especially for core pillars
2. A&P Budget and P&L Management
· Work closely with the Country Head and Commercial Lead on annual 3-year business plans, ensuring a bottom-up build towards A&P budgets for all brands to achieve both net revenue and retail sales targets
· Manage marketing spends to ensure that they drive the maximum impact and achieve our desired ROI, while remaining compliant with company polices
· Be sharp and highly adaptable when it comes to monthly and quarterly A&P budget landings and be ready to streamline or cut budgets due to business situations or when there is a direct mandate from the Leadership Team
3. New Launches, Repushes & Forecasting
· Guide the team in sizing new product launches accurately, in accordance with Commercial Excellence guidelines and business priorities
· Oversee forecasting of both core pillars and new product launches to ensure optimum weight of business is maintained to drive strategic growth of both product categories and franchises
· Be agile and quick to pre-empt or react to both market and sales trends, executing immediate changes in rolling forecasts to ensure we do not under-forecast and miss out on opportunities, or over-forecast and end up with high excess and obsolete stock inventory
4. 360° Omni Marketing Plans & Brand Building
Media/Digital
· Guide the team and appointed agency to develop plans which are in line with our global media strategy and fashion house license requirements while keeping business priorities, audience profiles and KPIs in mind
· Focus on driving plans which are minimally USD 100,000 investment per campaign to drive greater impact and results
PRIM
· Guide the team and appointed agencies on both short-tail and long-tail PRIM strategies and plans for our priority brands – short-tail impact is necessary for social listening rankings, but long-tail sustenance is crucial for brand longevity
· Ensure strong and distinctive tribes are built for priority brands and maintain collaborative relationships with all key opinion leaders to build long-standing communities of brand ambassadors
· Key focus to be put on social advocacy and user-generated content with key opinion consumers to drive authenticity
CRM
· Embark on crucial first steps to rolling out both official communications programmes (Phase I) and loyalty programmes (Phase II) for priority brands
· Be highly resilient when dealing with various internal and external stakeholders and red tapes during the pre-launch process; work hand-in-hand with ISEA CRM Lead to iron out issues and clear obstacles as we navigate through the complexities with Global CRM, IT and Security Teams
Trade Marketing & Consumer Eventing
· Keep brand desirability and consumers’ tastes and preferences top of mind when it comes to developing trade marketing plans in accordance with channel strategy to drive purchase conversion
· Ensure retail activations are talk-of-town trendsetters, with best-in-class retailtainment and gifting mechanics to achieve sales targets
· Traffic drivers, sampling and new customer recruitment are mandatory for all retail activations
Store Design & Visual Merchandising
· Lead the team on both permanent merchandising (new door openings or renovations, planogram changeovers, etc.) and temporary merchandising (trade/consumer podium activations) projects, ensure global guidelines are met and fashion house approvals are obtained before every execution
· Guide the team for CAPEX budget topics and ensure all fixed assets are properly capitalized for P&L management
· Ensure accurate and timely retro-planning is in place for every major permanent merchandising project in order to meet targeted opening dates
· Ensure all temporary merchandising projects are cost-efficient and profitable
· Navigate through any intricacies and manage any crisis which may arise with both internal teams and external stakeholders such as landlords (malls), retailers and contractors, etc.
5. Stakeholder Management
· Collaborate with the Commercial Lead in the development of strong relationships with key landlords and retailers across all channels and conduct high level negotiations together to deliver successful outcomes and results
· Liaise and network with the broader organisation regionally and globally to develop and drive co-marketing plans together and leverage on best practices – this includes Regional Teams (Asia & ISEA), Global Trade Teams, Global Merchandising Teams, Global Communication Teams and Global Digital Teams
6. People Leadership
· Recruit (when needed), develop, retain and rotate top talents within the organization
· Mentor individuals towards the fulfilment of both personal and business objectives; drive all short, medium and long-term career planning and succession planning conversations including development plans for individuals
· Identify key personnels who are able to assume broader responsibilities and be an advocate for them when it comes to advancement opportunities
· Inspire by setting an example and being a good role model; instil confidence and motivate teammates to deliver their KPIs and set a high standard of performance
Promote a high level of team camaraderie and engagement amongst teammates, ensuring a laser-sharp focus on common goals so that successes are celebrated together, and the team is strongly united to navigate setbacks and find solutions together
REQUIREMENTS
· Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management and/or Marketing (or any related/equivalent discipline)
· Minimally 10 years of relevant Marketing and/or Brand Management experience in Beauty or FMCG industry
· Minimally 5 years of People Management experience and/or has led a team of at least 3 to 5 direct reports
· A strong leader who is able to lead with empathy and recognizes the importance of mentorship
· Has outstanding communication and presentation skills, understands the importance of maintaining utmost decorum in formal and public settings
· Is resilient and agile, able to take on new challenges and adapt to changes
· Has a sharp analytical mind, good in problem-solving
· Has a collaborative mindset and is a team player
· Possesses excellent organizational and timeline management
· Possesses an in-depth knowledge of the Singapore domestic market, preferably someone who already has cemented strong relationships with the key industry players