Senior Brand Manager Gum, MEA

Job Description

Job Purpose:

A brand and portfolio custodian with responsibility and accountability for designing & executing the Middle East and Africa Gum strategy and marketing activities on our priority brands that are designed to achieve specific brand objectives, including NSV, share and consumer recruitment targets in alignment with the global framework.

The Senior Brand Manager must have the experience, expertise and skillset to develop the overall brand strategy and execute the comms / media plan, optimum activity calendar, while ensuring excellence in execution on ground.

Own & manage the Brand

• Analyze the category and the brand performance and identify whitespace opportunities to play in for accelerate growth.
• Set the brand’s short & long term strategy to deliver quality growth & grow penetration.
• Create & Develop local market brand marketing plan and activity calendar
• Manage budget and resources effectively to deliver marketing/activity calendar
• Connect with cross functional teams to support creation of an integrated business plan that ensures delivery of key Gum initiatives in market including product launches, brand launches and ongoing support of our strategic blockbusters
• Collaborate with SRM team to define whitespace price points by channel and recommendations on price/pack architecture as appropriate
• Champion recruitment and penetration by collaborating with Global portfolio, Sales, Perfect Store and Category teams to ensure relentless focus on executional excellence and visibility drives across all touchpoints, including championing world class front end strategy.
  
  

Develop & Plan Innovations

• Develop & manage a 3Y innovation pipeline that delivers on the brand vision & Strategy.
• Balance between Developing locally relevant innovation from local factories and launching global innovations that are relevant to the market
  
  

Deliver market relevant brand content

• Demonstrate strong knowledge of cultural relevance, creative judgment and storytelling skills to help bring the brand purpose to life in a culturally relevant and emotionally resonant way.
• Collaborate closely with creative agencies, the content team and internal stakeholders to shape powerful campaign ideas and breakthrough executions across touchpoints.
• Support & work in collaboration with the media manager to set the local media strategy for Gum, including digital/social media, leading a continual effort to maximize reach and increase ROI on media spend
  
  

Manage & deliver projects & activities

Co-Leads with the activity management team a cross functional ATG team to collect all inputs required to deliver a 3-year-end activity plan including media plans, NPIs, BPI’s consumer promotions, and other national activities

Education & Professional Qualifications

Bachelor Degree in a relevant field, Master’s is a plus

• 8+ years of experience in Brand Management, preferably within a Multinational Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) company.
• Proven track record of owning and growing large-scale brands, with strong strategic, commercial, and analytical acumen.
• Hands-on experience developing and executing full-funnel marketing plans, including media, in-store, and digital activations.
• Strong experience managing cross-functional teams and working within complex matrix organizations.
• Demonstrated strength in creative development — from shaping insight-led briefs to delivering bold, distinctive campaigns in partnership with agencies.
• Experience working across innovation pipelines and product development cycles, ideally balancing both global and local innovation streams.
• Regional experience in the Middle East & Africa is a plus with key focus on GCC.