Director, Marketing, South Africa Franchise

Job Description Summary:

Director, Marketing - South Africa

The Director, Marketing - South Africa is accountable for end-to-end marketing leadership within the market-driving sustainable brand growth, portfolio leadership, innovation, precision execution, and capability-building across Coca-Cola’s priority brands.

Operating within the integrated OU ↔ Market model, this role blends strategic influence with pragmatic frontline execution-translating global and regional priorities into high-impact local programs that resonate with South African consumers, retail customers, and key partners.

This role demands expertise in consumer insights, commercial acumen, and digital-first approaches to execution, ensuring that marketing is a competitive accelerator for portfolio shaping, pricing strategy, and omnichannel engagement.

Scope & Impact

• Serve as the South Africa market marketing lead-accountable for portfolio strength, brand equity health, consumer engagement, pipeline delivery, and IMX orchestration.

• Lead Annual Business Plan (ABP) and influence Operating Unit Long-Range Plans (LRPs), anchoring strategies in affordability, cultural passion points, sustainability, and digital commerce realities.

• Own local execution for brand and innovation plans, including precision marketing flywheel routines and full-funnel IMX delivery.

• Drive system-wide alignment with bottling partners on capability deployment, joint scorecards, and operational readiness.

Key Responsibilities

1) Brand & Portfolio Leadership

• Translate OU category strategies into South Africa-specific brand plans with clear need-state, occasion, and consumer-job foundations.

• Lead Portfolio & Price Pack Architecture (PPA) to win across channels (Modern Trade, Traditional Trade, Away-From-Home, and Digital Commerce).

• Build cultural relevancy through activations tied to music, gaming, sport, and creator ecosystems aligned to local passion points and seasonal demand cycles.

2) ABP, Innovation & Renovation

• Lead ABP for priority brands to define portfolio choices, allocate investments, and lock innovation launches.

• Deliver End-to-End (E2E) innovation and renovation -from concept and commercialization to On-Time-In-Full (OTIF) market execution.

• Partner with technical and packaging teams to address returnable, affordability, and sustainability requirements critical to the South African context.

3) Consumer & Shopper Insights / Analytics

• Define consumer learning agendas incorporating first-party data, social listening, retail analytics, and brand tracking.

• Convert insights to action via growth hypotheses, agile test-and-learn pilots, and precision targeting strategies.

4) IMX & Precision Marketing

• Orchestrate full IMX across paid, owned, and earned touchpoints to ensure high-quality reach and creative effectiveness.

• Activate Studio X workflows, influencers, and creator networks for agile, mobile-first campaigns.

• Steward brand safety, creative compliance, and labeling governance across all platforms.

5) System & Customer Leadership

• Align with bottler leadership on joint business planning, calendar harmonization, and in-market routines.

• Partner with customers to drive joint value creation (shopper marketing, category leadership, retail media innovation).

• Collaborate with Commercial and RGM teams to drive NSR, margin mix, and optimized promo efficiency.

6) Performance, Governance & Capability Building

• Lead performance tracking dashboards for ABP execution, ROI, and creative quality metrics.

• Institutionalize flywheel operational cadences to accelerate decision-making and continuous improvement.

• Build marketing capability across insights, IMX, performance marketing, experimentation, and commercialization disciplines.

Experience & Critical Requirements

• 12+ years in marketing leadership roles spanning brand strategy, innovation, IMX orchestration, PPA, and commercial partnership.

• Frontline activation experience within complex systems (preferably FMCG in Africa).

• Deep understanding of South African consumer culture, retail landscapes, regulatory frameworks, and affordability-based portfolio design.

• Proven ability to embed digital and data at the core of marketing -from performance marketing to ROI-based investment decisions.

• Track record of leading multifunctional, matrixed teams with strong governance rigor and capability transformation.

• Strong financial literacy and commercial partnership experience with customers and bottlers.

Skills:

Location(s):

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Travel Required:

Relocation Provided:

Job Posting End Date:

Our Purpose and Growth Culture:

We are taking deliberate action to nurture an inclusive culture that is grounded in our company purpose, to refresh the world and make a difference. We act with a growth mindset, take an expansive approach to what’s possible and believe in continuous learning to improve our business and ourselves. We focus on four key behaviors - curious, empowered, inclusive and agile - and value how we work as much as what we achieve. We believe that our culture is one of the reasons our company continues to thrive after 130+ years. Visit Our Purpose and Vision to learn more about these behaviors and how you can bring them to life in your next role at Coca-Cola.