Raji G

reporting to Vice President, Business Unit.
Job Responsibilities:
Responsible to build the strategy and to develop & implement commercial plans and programs needed to increase market share, sustain and strengthen market leadership:

•Develop Strategy & plans in line with corporate objectives to build consumer preferences & drive volumes.
•Prepare and execute annual marketing and promotion calendar.
•Manage Direct Marketing Expenses within the approved limits & Provide periodic reports on marketing budgets.
•Provide strategies and plans in developing new marketing tools to enhance brand image, sales leads and contribute to top line & bottom line.
•Drive customer engagement through brand activations - ATL & BTL plans.
•Develop digital and social media strategy and direction & implement along with agencies.
•Manage E-commerce strategy and plans including development of Mobile APP and loyalty program to meet dynamic consumer needs.
•Handling Exhibitions and trade shows participation.
•Market Mapping, Analysis and reporting of Market shares.
•Monitor and report on effectiveness of marketing communications.
•Analyze market trends and recommend changes to marketing and business development strategies based on analysis and feedback. Support demand planning and Target setting.
•Manage PNL and Pricing structure. Manages NPD pricing based on competitive pricing data and profitability analysis.
•Leading New Product Development initiation and market study analysis involving sales and cross functional teams.
•Working closely with design agencies and manage new product launch / relaunch.
•Gather and analyze customer insight and share it effectively with relevant cross functional teams to support the business.
•Market opportunities evaluation to develop Proposals for Business integration.

•Ambience Management through evaluation of design parameters of the distribution centers.
•Develop strategy and manage distributor channel.
•New Market development - MENA.

Key Achievements:
•Transforming a commodity B2B business to the most valued brand in the animal feed category in the region.
•Contributed effectively for remarkable improvement on profitability vs. past contributions and global standards for a business worth > 600 million.
•Winner of “Business Excellence Award”

Key Projects:
•E-commerce and Loyalty Programme
•New Product Development
•Develop New Distribution centers
•Consumer Education Program

reporting to
Commercial Director.

Job Responsibilities:

•Fully responsible for development & execution of Business strategy and Commercial Plan.
•Creates and proposes strategies per channel to achieve defined business objectives, implementing action plans in alignment with the sales force.
•Works closely with the customers to provide category and outlets insights to drive performance.
•Develops promotional materials and maintains contacts with the key accounts and clients, in order to supervise all promotional activities, being responsible for the execution, performance of the programs designed and measures its impact.
•Driving long-term and short-term growth business Plans inclusive of positioning, existing business growth acceleration and NPD Roadmap.
•NPD Projects: Working closely with the Formulation Managers, identify and develop new product categories and programs, and launch them. Drive category growth via active execution of 6Ps marketing mix.
•Marketing Projects: Manages retail & digital projects from strategy till implementation.
•Manages and monitors the marketing budgets, investments and initiatives for execution.
•Leads the efforts to leverage the brand positioning and company’s superiority through customers and participating in events.
•Evaluate pricing trends, and participate in the development of pricing strategies.
•Own and drive cost-squeeze projects, to achieve a set annual target.
Key Achievements:
•Conducted Market Mapping; a comprehensive and realistic market audit capturing all industrial feed market outlets, that includes the data on universe, coverage, availability and pricing analysis.
•Launch of “Agrivita Feed Solutions”
•Winner of “IDEA Annual Award”
Projects:
•Animal Feed Brand Launch
•Social Media for B2B and B2C

U.A.E. for

Trademarketing Function:
•Monitoring of key a/c. specific promotion plan to meet customer’s need & maximize sales.
•Organize specific blitz activities to improve numeric and weighted distribution to gain volume & value share and sustain share of shelf.
•Created Sales Activity Plan along with allocation of consumer promotions and priorities of the month by trade channel to offer full back up support to channel teams.
•Provided channel teams with necessary brand / sku level analysis to assist them plan effective sales strategies & create customer plan for top end.
•Organized and successfully executed the launch meetings for the channel, logistics and commercial teams to ensure 100% implementation and clear understanding.
Category Support:
•Co-ordinated market activities between third party Agency Principals, Unilever Arabia and Channel Teams. Besides Unilever some key principals included; Friesland Middle East, Energizer, SC Johnson Co., Hindustan Lever Ltd., Hero Foods, Coro Foods, Quaker Oats, Kimberly Clark, Flower Basket Matches & Emirates Macaroni.

•Fully responsible for raising Activity Proposals for various brand development activities, Consumer Promotions, Above the line and Below the line plans and to obtain necessary approval from various principals and Unilever Arabia.
•Evaluated promotional spent with commercial category team for each activity.

Brand Activation:
•Successfully organized product launch / relaunch as per brand strategy
•Participated in major events by sponsoring / co-sponsoring to directly reach shoppers and promote the products to build up brand loyalty and create top of the mind awareness.
•POS management including sourcing of premium & designing of Point of Sale material from reputed advertising agencies.
•Motivated channel teams as per business requirement and ensured that they deliver professional performance in market activities to ensure customer satisfaction.
•Developed excellent direct consumer contact through Sales Promotion Companies by in-store activities / sampling in social functions i.e. clubs and sports events etc.
•Sponsored musical and social ladies events to link the brands based on its characteristics and create a household name for some of the food brands including formal presentations.
•Planning and execution of theme promotions & sales promotions, in conjunction with the approved activity plans.
•Tracked progress on new innovations distribution and volume vs. targets periodically to feedback all channel teams and take corrective actions.

Co-ordination Functions:
•Executed Mass Consumer Contact and compiled regional reports for evaluation.
•Planned and supervised promotional activities including sourcing of packaging material, creating mock-up and co-packing as per plans.
•Successfully organized various in-house activities to motivate colleagues through celebrating the success and actively participated with the team.
Key Achievements:
•Contributed passionately for 8% growth in turnover during 2003 vs. 2002 by rigorous implementation of plans.