Trade Marketing Specialist Japan

Job Location: ​Tokyo​

Company description

Ferrero is a family-owned company with a truly progressive and global outlook and iconic brands such as Nutella®, Tic Tac®, Ferrero Rocher®, Raffaello®, Kinder Bueno® and Kinder Surprise®. As the love for our brands continues to grow, so too does our global reach. Represented in more than 50 countries, with products sold in more than 170, the Ferrero Group is loved by generations around the world. The secret to our global success? 40,000  dedicated employees who celebrate care and quality to craft a business, careers and brands we are proud of. Join us, and you could be one of them.

Diversity Statement

Ferrero is committed to building a diverse and inclusive culture in which all employees feel welcomed and appreciated and have the same opportunities. We believe all of our people are equally talented in their own way. In nurturing the curiosity and natural abilities of our employees, we provide them, generation after generation, the means to succeed personally and professionally, enabling them to craft their journey at Ferrero. The diversity of our talents is what makes our work environment multicultural, innovative and highly rewarding.

About the Role:

The role is aimed to provide operational support to the Head of Trade Marketing, focusing on accelerating growth in the Japanese market place.  The role ensures that the strategic commercial decisions within the offline channel are implemented in full, and has a specific focus on OOH (Out-of-Home) to drive overall business objectives.

Main Responsibilities:

• Lead the adaptation of Key Visuals into high quality and impactful POSM in alignment with brand propositioning

• Collaborate with local agency for sourcing, design and communication of POSM development

• Manage assigned POSM budget, generating purchase orders (POs), coordinate arrivals and warehouse stock

• Collect local trade and competitors' display activities via periodic market visits, shopper audits, manage competitor activity reports

• Support the identification, initiation and collaboration on local key programs which adds brand value, drive volume and sales

• Coordinate execution of all Channel and Category (C&C) strategies and local sales initiatives to ensure successful deployment in trade

• Share channel inputs into the yearly cascade planning process by identifying the key opportunities (incorporating touchpoints, channel specific learning, competitor analysis and best practice inputs)

• Collaborate with the Commercial Development team to track and review trade execution mechanisms, assessing the efficiency and ROI of the execution mechanisms

• Coordinate communication with the Distributor teams and C&C teams to provide appropriate information and deliverables

• Ensure all functions deliver on the Activity Grid (AG), forward plans (Canvas), on-going regional or local led projects, through creation and ownership of Trade Bulletin

• Conduct operational planning and implementation of trade show activities

• Manage shopper activation planning and in-store execution activities

• Assist in deployment of effective in-store activities to generate strong shelf off-take

• Manage promoters/merchandisers with agency, understand key drivers and drainers and ensure learnings are translate into activation plans

• Assist capability building of Sales team via commercial selling story, development of selling kit, catalogues and results tracking

• Assist in providing customer profit story and selling details for relevant activations

• Influence the business to support sales team development and assist in selling skills build-up

• Provide trade support to sales team for customer business reviews and business development plus joint working projects

• Hold responsibility for relevant reporting and delivering administrative assistance to facilitate functional, team, and office activities

Who we are looking for:

• University degree  in Marketing, Economics, Business Administration or other relevant field

• Experience in Trade Marketing operations, preferably in FMCG or Retail environment

• Strong trade marketing and category fundamentals and project management skillset

• Understanding of the market of Japan, knowledge of different markets and dynamics is preferred

• Experience in managing and coordinating the complete process flow of in-store activities 

• Solid analytical and project management skillset, advanced time management and organizational skills

• Agility and capability of multi-tasking in a fast paced environment, ability to collaborate across functions and with multiple stakeholders

• Excellent interpersonal skills, along with advanced communication and presentation skills

• Responsibility and proactivity, growth mindset, anticipation of issues and proposal of solutions

• Advanced MS office (Excel, PowerPoint) skills, SAP

• Fluency in Japanese and English, written and spoken

How to be successful in the role and at Ferrero:

Consumers, quality and care are at the heart of everything we do. So, to be successful at Ferrero, you’ll need to be just as consumer and product centric as we are - dedicated to crafting brilliant results for consumers around the world. 

We encourage all our people to think creatively to set personal targets and objectives and push new, better ways to work.  Employee contribution and engagement at Ferrero is based on three dimensions:  individual, team and organization that’s why you should have the ability to work independently, proactively and as a team member.  A demonstrable great organizing skill and ability to collaborate at all organizational levels will help you in building your position among stakeholders and achieve team goals.