Recruitment: Apply For Coca-Cola HBC Recruitment 2026

• Lead the end-to-end premium category strategy, including brand roles, portfolio architecture, occasion mapping, and whitespace identification.
• Analyse category, consumer, and competitive dynamics to inform strategic choices.
• Partner with Africa Category & Portfolio Teams to translate Africa  frameworks into locally relevant strategies.
• Develop long-term business strategies that drive category penetration, premiumization, and value share growth.

Brand Stewardship & Marketing Excellence

• Serve as category owner for all Premium brands—ensuring strong positioning, clear brand guardrails, and annual brand plans.
• Partner with Integrated Marketing Experience and Design teams to deliver impactful campaigns, creative assets, and integrated experiences.
• Ensure brand storytelling reflects consumer needs, cultural relevance, and category drivers (e.g., health & wellness, hydration, naturalness).
• Lead annual business planning (ABP) inputs for the Premium category.

Innovation Pipeline & Category Futureproofing

• Lead end to end innovation—from consumer insights, concept development, and R&D collaboration to launch activation.
• Ensure innovations align with category trends such as functional benefits, low/no sugar, hydration, performance, etc.
• Partner with Frontline Marketing, R&D, Supply Chain, Commercial, and Finance to deliver scalable and profitable innovations.
• Oversee innovation governance, stage gates, and pipeline prioritization for Premium.

Commercial & Bottler Partnership

• Act as the key marketing interface with bottler partners for Premium business planning and execution.
• Support revenue growth management (RGM) initiatives including pack-price architecture, channel strategies, and promotional effectiveness.
• Partner with Customer & Commercial teams to ensure superior marketplace execution across MT, TT, On-Premise, and e-commerce.
• Lead cross-functional alignment to ensure brand availability, visibility, and distribution priorities are met.

Insights, Analytics & Performance Management

• Leverage consumer, shopper, and market insights to inform decisions and drive portfolio optimization.
• Monitor category performance, brand health, competitive threats, and business KPIs.
• Use data, forecasting, and analytics to guide strategic interventions and course corrections.
• Lead routines with Africa Insights and Category teams to maintain one version of the truth.

Capability Building & Marketing Orchestration

• Support the development of category expertise and Premium capability across Franchise teams and bottlers.
• Lead category-specific training and knowledge sharing on trends, consumer needs, and brand strategy.
• Drive consistent ways of working through tools, frameworks, planning rhythms, and IMX integration.
• Ensure high-quality marketing orchestration across functions (IMX, Commercial, RGM, Supply Chain, Insights).

Qualifications and Requirements:

• 7+ years of experience in marketing, category management, portfolio strategy, or innovation roles.
• Experience working in beverage, FMCG, categories preferred.
• Strong understanding of brand-building, insights, and category strategy development.
• Experience managing cross-functional teams and influencing senior stakeholders.
• Excellent analytical skills with comfort using category and retail data sources.
• Proven ability to work in complex, multi-country or Franchise environments.

Success Measures

• Sustainable category growth in volume, value share, and profitability.
• Strong brand equity and improved brand affinity across Premium brands.
• Successful launch and scaling of high-impact innovation.
• Strong execution of premium strategy across markets and retailers.
• Improved alignment between Franchise, Africa, and bottler teams.
• Robust, insight-driven strategies that futureproof the Premium portfolio.

Deadline: Not Specified

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