WHAT DOES AN ASSISTANT BRAND MANAGER DO?
The Assistant Brand Manager supports the crafting of marketing strategies and their seamless execution, playing a pivotal role in launching new products and engaging stakeholders for alignment. Energizes brand growth through strategic advertising, promotions, and keen market insights, while fostering strong relationships with key accounts for effective brand plan implementation. Guides budget management, evaluates promotional impacts and drives continuous marketing enhancement through performance analysis and stakeholder coordination.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Assistant Brand Manager
1. Assistant Brand Manager Duties
- Communication Leadership: Lead communication in new product development projects, led with consumer insights.
- Integrated Marketing: Develop integrated global consumer communications plans and drive the creation of assets such as advertising, YouTube, and other social content.
- Data Analysis: Analyze data and share insights on products, brand and category performance, and marketing impact.
- Go-to-Market Strategy: Assist with the creation of a go-to-market template to deliver global marketing to the regional level.
- Marketing Support: Support marketing asset development and rollout in partnership with internal Agency, PR, Legal, and Brand Writing teams.
- Trend Identification: Identify category and consumer trends that can unlock growth via new product experiences and marketing opportunities.
- Brand Communication: Provide timely and consistent communication of brand activity and key information to internal business partners.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with cross-functional teams including regional or global marketing, design and development, packaging, engineering, demand planning, and costing on all phases of product development.
- Financial Planning: Maintain and update brand financial plans.
- Meeting Preparation: Prepare for and participate in monthly Sales, Marketing, and Education meetings.
- Social Media Strategy: Collaborate with the social media team to create content for the respective brand.
- E-Commerce Campaigns: Create E-commerce brand campaigns to support growth on E-commerce channels.
2. Assistant Brand Manager Details
- Strategic Development: Develop the direction and strategy of brands to support top-line and bottom-line growth
- Vision and Positioning: Develop a brand vision, positioning and architecture roadmap relevant to the market
- Marketing Strategy: Formulate marketing strategy in new category/new market development encompassing brands’ market and competitive analysis, size of the opportunity, consumer acceptance, business model and marketing mix
- Innovation Management: Drive product innovation/renovation projects for future growth in existing and new segments by continuously scanning the environment for untapped opportunities based on market intelligence and consumer insights
- Digital Management: Assist in managing and developing web and social media platforms
- Product Development: Assist in the NPD and innovation of new products and packaging
- Marketing Support: Support the marketing team on all aspects of executing a marketing plan
- Event and Trade Activation: Event management and trade activations, POS and key projects
- Collateral Development: Develop marketing collateral and oversee image library and trade/sales material
- Market Analysis: Category, brand and competitor analysis and reporting
- Advertising and PR Assistance: Assist in managing advertising and PR plans/strategies
3. Assistant Brand Manager Responsibilities
- Market Analysis: Identify key battlefield, target consumer, and clear strategy for the Oakley brand in China, especially for sports marketing.
- Strategic Planning: Develop and execute annual marketing plan and key brand projects to achieve both brand and business targets, such as Team China, Owns the Mountain, and ISPO projects.
- Global Coordination: Communicate with the global marketing team to ensure a good understanding of the global campaign concept, creative guidelines, assets, usage rights, and to be the core player to leverage the global assets for local needs and cascade the information to the sales team.
- Product Storytelling: Understand the products, work closely with product and training teams to adapt the rich and convincing product storytelling content for local wholesale customers’ education.
- Sponsorship Management: Evaluate and initiate sponsorship for key races/events/athletes to enhance both brand professionalism and awareness among the right target audience.
- Influencer Engagement: Develop and maintain the sports marketing seeding pool, including athletes and vertical KOLs, develop and execute the seeding plan to gain back assets for B2B communication.
- Reporting: Brand level report update including business review, budget, campaign calendar, product feedback, etc.
- In-store Branding: Closely work with the trade marketing team to ensure good in-store brand exposure for Oakley by leveraging marketing assets, including windows, and lightboxes, for both permanent and seasonal merchandising tools.
- Market Intelligence: Monitor the market trend and conduct competitor intelligence.
- Tactical Support: Work with the team to provide support and implement brand-level marketing tactics such as Optical Fair, Roadshow, etc.
4. Assistant Brand Manager Job Summary
- Marketing Strategy Development: Support the development of marketing objectives, strategies and plans and ensure successful execution.
- Product Innovation Participation: Participate in end-to-end new product innovation, support project teams and align key stakeholders.
- Advertising and Promotion Support: Contribute to local advertising and promotion program in support of existing and new products.
- Market Analysis: Analyze consumers and market trends to develop and support innovation and activations.
- Customer and Sales Engagement: Maintain contact with key account customers and sales force to execute brand plans, follow up promotion efforts, and address retailer needs.
- Promotion Evaluation: Evaluate the effectiveness of promotion and advertising programs and suggest improvements.
- Budget Management Assistance: Assist Brand Manager in the management of advertising and promotion budgets and new product set-up.
- Budget Optimization: Manage budgets for areas of control, and optimize and adapt.
- KPI Setting and Performance Measurement: Set clear KPIs and measure all activity performance, making recommendations for continuous improvement.
- Marketing Team Coordination: Responsible for coordination of activity within the marketing team (for example, collating feedback).
- Innovation and Growth Support: Actively support all new innovation and growth opportunities in the region.
- Marketing Performance Contribution: Contribution to marketing performance commentary (verbal, written, presentation formats).
5. Assistant Brand Manager Accountabilities
- Consumer Insight: Know the consumer deeply - Understands consumers and assists in the development and updating of consumer portrait, consumer engagement funnel for her/his brand.
- Brand Vision: Inspire with Brand Vision and Essence - Knowledge and application of Brand Essence.
- Product Experience: Delight with Product Experience - Assist in managing the 60/40+ basket, packaging, NHW dashboard, services, and CSV related to her/his brand.
- Shopper Engagement: Win with Shoppers - Understand shopper behavior and in-store environment (including trade pricing), contributes to category/channel/customer promotions.
- Innovation Leadership: Innovate Bigger Bolder Better Winning Actions - Ensure consumer centricity, understand Innovation levers, execute Innovation/Renovation.
- Operational Excellence: Plan and Execute Flawlessly - Contribute to development and execute strong, functionally aligned brand and ICP plan. Track and monitor the performance and brand health. Understand the business impact of PFME and TTS investment of her/his brand.
- Brand Experience Creation: Create Engaging Brand Experiences - Assist in the development process of creating Ownable Brand Propositions and Big Ideas.
- Financial Literacy: Financial and Business Acumen - P&L understanding.
6. Assistant Brand Manager Functions
- Strategic Planning: Support line manager in developing the overall strategic portfolio and brand plan which drives the brand’s volume, profit, and share objectives, as well as building brand equity.
- Competitive Monitoring: Monitor competitive activities, brand health, and brand share.
- Brand Analysis: Develop analysis, implications, and recommendations for the respective brands.
- Research Management: Work with in-house and external research agencies to manage research projects execution. Cascade the learnings to advertising agency, bottlers, and within the internal system.
- Connection Planning: Work closely with the connection planning team and agency to develop an effective connection plan to bring creative idea to life.
- Media Investment Analysis: Monitor competitive media spending and make analysis and recommendation on respective brand media investment.
- Innovative Execution Support: Support Line Manager to drive innovative connection ideas and execution.
- Commercialization Leadership: Manage and lead the commercialization process for new product/packaging launches via working closely with related functions and advertising agencies.
- Research Project Execution: Work with research team to execute all research projects and utilize the key findings to refine and optimize product formulation and packaging ideas.
- Marketing Material Development: Lead the development of marketing materials i.e., POSM, and channel activation tools, to support the launch.
- Market Launch Monitoring: Monitor new product launches in the market result and develop fact-based analysis and conclusions.