Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organisation:
Support the short- and mid-term objectives for the category and driving the category across all KPIs.
Implement global strategies in a locally relevant way, considering different consumer needs and distribution channels.
Key Functional Responsibilities:
- Support and drive the long-term strategic direction of the Football and Motorsports category, ensuring alignment with broader business goals and regional market needs.
- Own the SEA and country-level range selection, ensuring alignment with the multi-seasonal category strategy.
- Lead product-level segmentation, including DTC & Membership exclusives and channel-specific products.
- Manage article phasing (RID/RED) to ensure timely product introductions across SEA markets, aligned with local strategies.
- Participate in in-season trading activities, monitor sell-out performance, and collaborate with channels to optimize results.
- Perform category analysis including sell-thru, forecasting, pricing corridor & segmentation compliance, etc.
- Support article pricing strategies that support both country-specific pricing and overarching financial objectives.
- Build and submit seasonal financial forecasts with Demand Planning, integrating insights from countries and channels to meet forecasting milestones.
- Support pricing and promotional strategies, including markdowns and clearance plans, in line with EM guidance and market dynamics.
- Support the creation of products to drive locally relevant activations and partnerships, collaborating closely with Brand Activation and SPOMA teams.
- Support the development of teamwear development for federations, clubs, and grassroots teams, collaborating closely with the SPOMA team.
- Participate and support sample ordering milestones, ensuring the needs of internal and external stakeholders are met.
- Develop and implement multi-channel go-to-market (GTM) plans for key concepts, driving successful product launches across SEA markets.
- Provide local consumer, market, and competitor insights to the EM hub, contributing to the broader category strategy development.
- Participate in in-season trading activities, monitoring sell-out performance and collaborating with channels to optimize results.
- Ensure range management systems (HL/MDC) are kept up to date with accurate country and cluster information to ensure smooth operational execution.
- Support Manager in Pre- & In-season tasks such as data collection, workshop planning, sample management, reporting and special projects.
- Support broader brand team with GTM process.
KPI’s:
- Net Sales, Gross Margin (GIM%)
- Category Sell-out
- Market share
- Range size, efficiency, and overlap management
- Go-To-Market execution (Sell-in to campaign launch)
Key Relationships:
- EM Hub Business Unit
- SEA Brand Activation & SPOMA teams
- SEA Channel teams
- SEA Finance/ Demand Planning, Purchasing, SCM, Business Development
- Country Marketing & Channel teams
Knowledge, Skills & Experience:
- Strong passion for sports and ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams to align on strategies and ensure successful execution
- Strong cross-functional marketing experience in sport or fashion/lifestyle categories, ideally in the sporting goods industry.
- Strong analytical skills with the ability to make fact-based recommendations and decisions.
- Strong commercial acumen with the ability to derive strategic insights from data and drive high-performance results in category management.
- Proven ability in merchandising, category management, brand management, sales, and finance, with a focus on achieving KPIs.
- Strong consumer focus, balancing brand and commercial goals, with advanced proficiency in MS Office, especially PowerPoint and Excel
- Excellent interpersonal and collaboration skills, managing cross-functional teams effectively.
- Commercial acumen and keen interest in a broad range of sports.
- Proactive problem-solver with high attention to detail and a background in both market-level and above-market organizations.
Requisite Education & Minimum Qualifications:
- 3-5 years of experience in Merchandising / Category Management/ Marketing or Sales preferred.
- University degree in Business or equivalent professional experience, ideally in Sales and/or Marketing
- Industry experience in Sports/ Fashion/ FMCG preferred
- Previous experience in working in a global matrix organization preferred
- Fluent in English