Operator & Trade Marketeer

Unilever is currently hiring for  Operator and Trade Marketer

Reports to: Marketing Lead

Scope: Local

Location: JHB / Durban

Terms & Conditions: Full time

With 3.4 billion people in over 190 countries using our products every day, Unilever is a business that makes a real impact on the world. Work on brands that are loved and improve the lives of our consumers and the communities around us. We are driven by our purpose: to make sustainable living commonplace, and it is our belief that doing business the right way drives superior performance. At the heart of what we do is our people – we believe that when our people work with purpose, we will create a better business and a better world. 

At Unilever, your career will be a unique journey, grounded in our inclusive, collaborative, and flexible working environment. We don’t believe in the ‘one size fits all’ approach and instead we will equip you with the tools you need to shape your own future.

CATEGORY/FUNCTION INTRODUCTION

Unilever Food Solutions is the dedicated Foodservice (B2B) part of the Unilever Nutrition business. It’s valued at approximately €2.5bn+ and leads the dynamic Food Service market across its categories and has ambitious growth objectives, marketing a range of professional food and beverage products and services to operators across 22 Multi Country Organizations (MCOs) in 72 countries.  

We are at the heart of carving out brand and culinary experiences out-of-home with iconic brands like Hellmann's, Robertsons, Knorr Professional, Fine Foods and Cart D’Or. Unilever Food Solutions is a business created by Chefs for Chefs, and is committed to providing innovative and high-quality professional food ingredients and value-added services like menu trend inspiration, recipe ideation, and culinary training.

If you thrive on challenge and want to be part of a progressive, ambitious and fast-paced team which embraces the “Digital First” (digital transformation to fuel growth through data driven and technology enabled Go-to-Market (GtM) capabilities) mindset to get closer to our customers, leverage insights, and are eager to stay on top of a fast-evolving market needs, then this is the role for you! Our ambition is to reach to 3 million+ operators by 2025 via an online & off-line contact strategy. The focus of UFS marketing and sales is to engage with chefs & customers through an integrated communication system via visits by sales representatives and digital touchpoints like the UFS.com website / Webshop, segmented & personalized campaigns and UFS apps. The new roles of marketing & Customer Development teams are more integrated in the digital ecosystem and are vital for a great operator & customer experience.  

JOB PURPOSE

Unilever is the place where you can bring your purpose to life with the work that you do – creating a better business and a better world.  If you have a passion for people and solving problems, then this role is just for you!

WHAT WILL YOUR MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES BE

Operator and Trade Marketing acts as the liaison between Marketing, Operators, and Trade Partners. Operators are Independent Restaurants, Hotels, Chains (Full service and Quick Service Restaurants), Deli’s and Caterers, while Trade Partners are distributors, wholesalers and Cash and Carry’s that sell our products to those Operators.

You will be tasked with bridging the gap between our Global and Local strategies with operators and our distributors by activating different Marketing plans and platforms. You will engage with a range of different internal and external teams, while interfacing closely with our CD (Customer Development) Sales team by creating full year plans to drive reach and penetration of our portfolio.

• Trade partner support: This role will oversee execution and full year strategy and support for our eComm business, buying groups, redistributors, and a majority of our Tier 1-2 distributors. There is tremendous room for growth by using an analytical, creative, strategic mindset accompanied with the ambition to uncover unseen opportunities.

• Digital Content: Our website consists of several components (written content, images, specs, allergens & nutritional information) that you need to feed to our customers and their web shops. You will be responsible for regular monitoring and maintenance, ensuring all content is complete and updated for our entire portfolio and innovation items. In addition, you will work with Trade partners to make sure we are meeting their content needs and trouble shoot with internal technical teams as issues arise. This responsibility requires great project management and organizational skills and the ability to work well cross functionally.

• Top product and innovation support & readiness: Our trusted product portfolio healthily drives our business. You will be tasked with creating trade support materials such as Selling Guides for trade partner reps, trainings, assisting with trade show and other event execution, along with overall asset creation to be deployed via Marketing programs with our customers.

• Operator support: Responsible for attracting operators by creating and delivering valuable content and experiences tailored to them. You will form connections that customers are looking for to solves their problems and help UFS be the best solution provider.

• Generating insights: it is crucial to gather market data and insights to improve our operator end-to-end experience and action your learnings to drive different growth strategies that are in line with business goals and objectives

Responsibilities:

• Lead marketing initiatives for our core target audience and operator groups

• Drive business objectives and execute plans in digital, trade, and with operators

• Deliver KPIs including conversion rate, digital engagement, reach, penetration, NIV and turn over

• Track KPI’s/OKR’s, consolidate learning, and take corrective measures when needed

• Collaborate with different cross functions to drive growth both online and offline through campaigns, promotions, activations and creative content

• Drive the full operator lifecycle journeys through multiple omnichannel touchpoints

• Successfully launch new products and innovations in the market to deliver ambition

• Utilize Unilever systems and processes

• Montor financial performance, and forecast budgets

Skills:

• Deep understanding of sales/marketing funnels, operator lifecycle & marketing automation journeys

• Thorough knowledge of customer buying journeys and the ability to filter all business decisions through the eyes of our customer

• Ability to create (creative and persuasive) content across a variety of online & offline channels

• Performance measurement & analysis both online & offline

• Project management & process management in similar FMCG functions

• A digital expert in traffic generation, lead management, content marketing/inbound marketing, conversion optimization, SEO, marketing automation & social media marketing, and digital demand creation

• Agency management

Additional skills:

• Marketo

• Google analytics

• SEO

• Power BI

• Microsoft

What You'll Need To Succeed:

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing or related field

• 5 years’ experience Marketing in the FMCG Foodservice industry

• Proven track record in Marketing & Sales in the Foodservice Industry

• Trade and customer marketing

• Managing Social media accounts

• You have a great attention to detail, comfortable with data & strong project management skills

• You are agile, resilient, and driven to find insights and collaborative solutions

• You are curious, unconventional, courageous, and willing to think outside the box

• Strong negotiation skills

Leadership

• You are energized by delivering fantastic results. You are an example to others – both your results and your resilience. You are constantly on the lookout for better ways to do things, engaging and collaborating with others along the way.

• As an individual you are the one responsible for your own wellbeing and delivering high standards of work. You must also focus on the Consumer and what they need. You are humble and have your head up, looking around to interpret evidence and data smartly, spot issues and opportunities to make things better.

• Critical SOL (Standards of Leadership) Behaviors (Minimum vs Preferrence)

  • PASSION FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE: Takes personal responsibility and accountability for execution and results. Has an owner’s mindset, using data and insight to make decisions.

  • PERSONAL MASTERY: Sets high standards for themselves. Actively builds own wellbeing and resilience.

  • CONSUMER LOVE: Whatever their role, always looks for better ways to serve consumers. Invests time inside and outside to understand the needs of consumers.

  • PURPOSE & SERVICE: Has humility, understanding that leadership is service to others, inside and outside Unilever.

  • AGILITY: Explores the world around them, continually learning and developing their skills.

Unilever embraces diversity and encourages applicates from all walks of life! This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing development of all employees regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity. 

Unilever is an organisation committed to equity, inclusion and diversity to drive our business results and create a better future, every day, for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business. At Unilever we are interested in every individual bringing their ‘Whole Self’ to work and this includes you! Thus if you require any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of your application so that we can support you through your recruitment journey.