- The Associate Manager, Trade Marketing Shavers & Lighters Nigeria leads Trade Marketing activities in the country for the Blade Excellence (Shavers) and Flame for Life (Lighters) categories with a primary focus on accelerating growth in Nigeria through distribution expansion, channel development and execution excellence, particularly within the strategic traditional trade channels, bookstores and modern trade channels.
- The role translates regional and global strategies into locally relevant trade and commercial plans, ensuring strong distributor engagement, execution excellence and alignment with business objectives.
- It identifies and unlocks growth opportunities through customer segmentation, loyalty and engagement programs, and whitespace channel development, while establishing the Trade Marketing fundamentals and route-to-market capabilities required to develop BIC's other categories across the cluster.
- Working closely with Sales, Marketing and distributor partners, the role contributes to increasing market coverage, strengthening brand visibility and building sustainable, profitable growth.
Main Responsibilities / Tasks
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 Indicator / Key Figures
- 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
Candidate Profile: Qualifications / Technical Skills
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.
Professional competencies:
Customer & shopper understanding:
- Understands retail landscape: traditional trade, sub-distributors, modern trade
- Analyzes shopper trends and market insights, translating them into actionable trade initiatives
- Interprets research (Nielsen, consumer studies) and translates into clear actions
- Understands retail landscape: traditional trade, sub-distributors, modern trade
- Analyzes shopper trends and market insights, translating them into actionable trade initiatives
- Interprets research (Nielsen, consumer studies) and translates into clear actions
- Interacts with various levels in a customer organization to discuss opportunities and resolve issues
- Deep knowledge of BIC portfolio and competitive landscape
- Capable of recommending assortment, pricing, and promotional strategies to drive growth
Trade Execution & Campaign Management:
- Plans and executes trade campaigns end-to-end based on the annual Initiative Master Plan
- Monitors ROI and adjusts plans based on performance
Communication & Collaboration:
- Articulates ideas clearly in a written and verbal format
- Shares best practices and escalates risks and opportunities early with proposed solutions
- Presents plans confidently to distributors, customers and sales teams
Project & budget management:
- Manages multiple projects simultaneously with attention to detail
- Meets deadlines and tracks spend vs plan rigorously
Distributor & stakeholder management:
- Builds productive relationships with distributor partners
- Influences without direct authority