Customer Marketing and Portfolio Lead - East Africa

Syngenta Group is one of the world’s leading sustainable agriculture innovation companies, with roots going back more than 250 years. Our 53,000 people across more than 100 countries strive every day to transform agriculture through tailor-made solutions for the benefit of farmers, society and our planet – making us the world’s most local agricultural technology and innovation partner.

Syngenta Group is committed to operating at the highest standards of ethics and integrity. This is a commitment that we are making to investors, customers, society and employees. Syngenta Group is also committed to maintaining a workplace environment free from discrimination and Harassment.

Role Purpose

• Develop GTM strategies for Targeted Customers / Distributors, prioritizing campaigns & resource allocation, defining marketing communication strategy, and developing on field Customer Intimacy Strategy.
• Establish a sound market intelligence platform as base for Marketing and Commercial Plans to drive fact-based business decisions.
• Develop and ensure execution of the product strategy and tactics that maximize overall profitability of The Category Portfolio across the 5-year planning period & beyond.
• Active Product Lifecycle Management (PLCM) of existing portfolio and New Product Introductions (NPI), providing direction and coordinating activities across functions including Development, Supply, Customer Marketing, Finance and Sales to maximize profitable product life.
• Ensure the development and execution of effective brand plans, ensure effective briefing of the sales and CPD team on brand strategies and direction as key input to the campaign planning process; get buy-in from sales team
• Contribute in territory / country operation and governance processes when required (S&OP, iPlan, Portfolio Development Cycle (PDC), and Portfolio Leadership Team (PLT)

ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Campaign Management: Develop GTM strategies for Targeted Customers / Distributors, prioritizing campaigns & resource allocation, defining marketing communication strategy, and developing on field Customer Intimacy Strategy• Maximize the value of our Customers/Distributors ensuring the alignment of marketing activities with the BA’s overall strategy
• Identify and address the needs of our main Customers/Distributors in our key crops and ensure on field development and implementation of a Customer Intimacy strategy
• Ensure Marketing Campaigns implementation and differentiation to support BA’s 5YPL delivery
• Establish E2E Campaign Management processes incl. Campaign evaluation, key learnings and best practice sharing to maximize middle and long-term profitability of our CP solutions
• Create opportunities for Cross-Functional collaboration across the BA by involving and influencing Sales Teams and CPD in the maximization of Customer Engagement
• Become the interface between CPD, Regulatory and Portfolio Teams to ensure alignment of marketing actions and activities with our BA overall marketing strategy
• Develop and implement key marketing actions for strategic partners in collaboration with Country Head.

• Market Intelligence: Establish a sound market intelligence platform as base for Marketing and Commercial Plans to drive fact-based business decisions• Build market knowledge by creating a network between Commercial, Crop Protection Development (CPD) & Regulatory for a continuous collection of market, competition and other stakeholders’ insights if relevant to our business
• Understand the market trends with regards to Portfolio evolution of competitors and new players
• Drive growers/distributors segmentation across East Africa to enable targeted marketing initiatives and activities and map influencers and key stakeholders according to their importance to our business
• Support the continuous improvement in Key Account Management leveraging market intelligence
• Research competitors financials, marketing, pricing & sales tactics

• Portfolio Management• Monitor market intelligence, bringing actionable customer insight into portfolio strategy and marketing plan
• Develop and drive implementation of product strategies (NPI and PLCM) including market and customer segmentation, product positioning, pricing and go-to-market plans through creation of Brand Plans and management of the end to end process  in commercial launches
• Effectively brief the Campaign team to ensure the creation of a clear marketing communications strategy for the portfolio (e.g., media mix, budget allocation across services, etc.)
• Manage product life cycle (including phase out) and product-related issues by coordinating with CPD and cPLT and rPLT.
• Develop and execute product pricing strategy (value, transactional, commercial offers)

Knowledge & Capabilities 

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, Business Administration, Agribusiness, Agronomy or related field;
• Strong understanding of the agriculture industry, including market trends and consumer behaviour in East Africa
• Principles of brand management and marketing
• A broad knowledge of Syngenta’s RTM structure, product portfolio, systems, and business processes

Experience

• Minimum of 5 to 7  years of experience campaign management and product development.
• Proven track record of developing and executing successful marketing campaigns in the Telcom, FMCG and Agriculture industries
• Track record in portfolio management and product launches
• Experience leading in a multi-function organization
• Strong written and oral communication and presentation skills
• Excellent analytical skills with the ability to interpret data and translate insights into actionable strategies

Critical technical, professional and personal capabilities

• Experience in portfolio and brand development and management
• Experience in campaign development and management
• Understand market dynamics and competitive environment in agriculture industry and translate it into strategy
• Designs effective product life cycle management strategy and brand strategy
• Applies effective grower, channel and influencer segmentation
• Develops/delivers innovative, customer-driven offers
• Delivers distinctive value proposition to customer
• Strong presentation, communication and interpersonal skills
• Ability to interact and build relationships effectively, at all business levels, internally and externally
• Project management
• Leadership and motivation
• Analytical ability

Location: Kenya