Trade Marketing Manager

Department: Marketing & Creative

Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time

Location: Kenya

Reporting To: Senior Marketing Manager

Description

What you would be expected to do:

• Develop and maintain brand and merchandising standards for Sun King's product presentation across Sun King shops and the wider trade network, covering point-of-sale materials, danglers, standees, product displays, price communication and wall branding.
• Work closely with the creative team to develop visual reference standards for each visibility asset, including examples of effective dangler and standee placement in AHQs, providing Product/Brand Managers with clear implementation guidelines.
• Translate vertical campaign briefs into practical trade and shop-level standards to guide consistent execution.

• Conduct audits of shops and trade points against established standards, assess compliance by shop and vertical, and communicate identified gaps to the relevant Product/Brand Managers.
• Maintain the trade marketing tracker, documenting standards compliance across verticals as part of the marketing operating cadence.

• Review vertical execution plans to ensure alignment with established standards before rollout, and present audit findings and sell-out insights to Product/Brand Managers and Commercial to inform improvement initiatives.
• Review sell-out and product performance data by shop and vertical, identify areas of underperformance and recommend appropriate improvements to Commercial and the relevant Product/Brand Managers.
• Evaluate sell-out growth in activated shops against comparable shops to measure the impact and return on investment of each vertical's activation activities.

• Plan and coordinate Sun King brand visibility at partner retail outlets, markets and trading centres across Kenya.
• Oversee wall branding across the wider trade network, including briefing vendors, approving designs, monitoring installations and ensuring branded walls remain in good condition.
• Monitor other brands' market presence, pricing and promotional activities across the trade network, reporting relevant findings to the Marketing team and Commercial each month.
• Conduct trade immersions and field visits, translating observations into practical improvement plans with clearly assigned owners and timelines.
• Coordinate and manage agencies and vendors overseeing trade branding and activation activities.

• Coordinate the procurement of gazebos and parasols for Energy Officers in line with approved demand forecasts and budget allocations.
• Oversee the distribution of gazebos and parasols to Energy Officers and maintain accurate allocation and tracking records.
• Monitor the condition of visibility assets and coordinate maintenance and replacements to ensure every Energy Officer in the field has access to a serviceable unit.

• Oversee shop branding and the shop refurbishment programme, including vendor quotation reviews and delivery monitoring.
• Monitor and report shop branding expenditure against the approved budget.
• Establish and maintain brand standards for the shop environment, ensuring consistent presentation across locations.

• Prepare a monthly trade marketing performance report for the Head of Marketing, Kenya, covering key performance indicators, including standards compliance by vertical.
• Maintain the trade marketing tracker in line with the marketing operating cadence and procurement framework.
• Coordinate execution activities with Sales, Activation Managers and the Energy Officer network, while working with Commercial to generate and apply sell-out insights.

You would be a strong candidate if you have:

• A degree in Marketing, Business Administration or a related field.
• At least four years of experience in trade marketing, retail marketing or sales-linked marketing, ideally within consumer durables, FMCG, telecommunications or distribution.
• Demonstrated experience using sales data to inform shop-level and trade marketing strategies.
• Experience coordinating agencies, vendors and marketing budgets.
• The ability to develop, interpret and present performance dashboards using data-informed tools, translating findings into practical recommendations.
• The expertise to link marketing activities to sales volumes, margins and customer behaviour.
• Willingness to spend time in shops and trade locations, as well as travel across Kenya.
• The ability to establish trade visibility standards and secure their adoption across Solar, Inverters, EasyCook and Phones Product/Brand Managers, without direct authority over their execution.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to explain standards, plans and expectations clearly to different stakeholders.

What Sun King Offers:

• Professional growth in a dynamic, rapidly expanding, high-social-impact industry
• An open-minded, collaborative culture made up of enthusiastic colleagues who are driven by the challenge of innovation towards profound impact on people and the planet.
• A truly multicultural experience: you will have the chance to work with and learn from people from different geographies, nationalities, and backgrounds.
• Structured, tailored learning and development programs that help you become a better leader, manager, and professional through the Sun Centre for Leadership.