Assistant Brand Manager: Brand & Innovations

At KFC, we pride ourselves on being original. We even named our recipe after it. But for us, the answer to the question is simple. Be You. Everyone at KFC is different. Unique. It’s what makes us special - Our people, The Originals. And we welcome you to join us. Bring your individuality to the table. Bring your grit and energy. Bring your spirit. Your story. Your drive and your passion. Bring it. Every piece of you. Even the parts you don’t like. Because we value our people no matter what. We’ll feed your potential and we’ll support you; to be your best self, to make a difference, and have fun. Together, we can be part of something truly extraordinary. All you have to do, is Bring it.
The Brand & Innovation Assistant Brand Manager supports the Senior Brand Managers and Brand Managers in delivering KFC South Africa's brand and innovation strategy through the planning, coordination and execution of customer-led brand, innovation and product initiatives. Working closely with cross-functional teams, agencies and key stakeholders, the role helps co-ordinate and deliver high-quality campaigns and activities that strengthen brand equity, influence customer behavior and contribute to commercial growth.

Responsibilities:

Brand Strategy and Planning Support
•Support the Senior Brand Managers and Brand Managers in translating KFC South Africa’s brand and innovation strategy into clear campaign, product, value and customer plans and support in execution of these plans.
•Apply KFC’s brand positioning, audience understanding and distinctive brand codes consistently across assigned work.
•Support annual and window planning by gathering consumer insights, competitor activity, cultural trends and business performance learnings.
•Support the development of clear, insight-led briefs for agencies and internal teams.
•Contribute ideas and recommendations that strengthen customer relevance, brand equity and commercial performance.
•Build understanding of the role different products, occasions and customer segments play within the broader KFC portfolio.
•Support coordination and execution of brand collaborations and sponsorship activities, working with internal teams and external partners to ensure activity is on-brand, customer-relevant and delivered effectively.

Integrated Campaign and Content Execution
•Support the end-to-end delivery of assigned integrated campaigns and marketing initiatives, from briefing through development, production, launch and post-campaign review.
•Coordinate campaign timelines, creative development, approvals, production and asset delivery to ensure work is on-brief, on-brand and on-time.
•Support execution across relevant customer touchpoints including restaurant, digital, social, media, CRM, delivery, activation and other channels.
•Work closely with creative, media, digital, PR, social and other agency partners and external partners to ensure consistent campaign execution.
•Review campaign assets for accuracy, brand consistency, customer relevance and channel suitability before approval by the appropriate Senior Brand Manager or Brand Manager.
•Help ensure restaurant and operational teams receive clear, accurate and practical campaign information and toolkits.

Product & Innovation Support
•Support the development and launch of menu innovation, limited-time offers, platforms and promotional activity.
•Coordinate inputs required across Marketing, Operations, Finance, Supply Chain, Food Innovation, Digital and other functions to support launch readiness.
•Support product and proposition development through customer insight, competitor understanding and commercial analysis.
•Assist with product tests, customer feedback and test-and-learn activity.
•Track implementation and performance of assigned launches and identify opportunities for improvement.
•Build understanding of how pricing, product mix, value perception and promotional mechanics influence customer behavior and commercial performance.

Consumer, Cultural and Performance Insight
•Gather and synthesize consumer, category, competitor, social and cultural information to support marketing decisions.
•Stay close to South African food, youth, entertainment, digital and cultural trends that may create opportunities or risks for KFC.
•Support consumer research projects, research briefs and interpretation of findings.
•Monitor competitor campaigns, pricing, promotions, innovation and customer propositions.
•Turn available data, research and customer feedback into clear observations and practical recommendations.
•Bring a strong customer perspective into campaign and product discussions.

Performance & Commercial Understanding
•Track performance of assigned campaigns and initiatives against agreed brand and commercial KPIs.
•Support post-campaign reviews and identify key learnings and recommended actions.
•Build fluency in key marketing and commercial measures including sales, transactions, ticket, product mix, margin, brand health, reach, engagement, conversion and ROI.
•Use dashboards and available business data to identify performance trends, opportunities and areas requiring attention.
•Support budget tracking, purchase orders and campaign financial administration.
•Develop understanding of how marketing activity contributes to both short-term commercial performance and long-term brand health.

Agency & Cross-Functional Coordination
•Manage day-to-day workflow with assigned agency partners under the direction of the Senior Brand Manager or Brand Manager.
•Coordinate inputs and deliverables across Marketing, Operations, Finance, Supply Chain, Legal, Digital, Technology, Insights and other relevant teams.
•Maintain clear campaign timelines, action trackers, decisions and next steps.
•Proactively identify execution risks, dependencies or delays and escalate them early.
•Build strong working relationships across internal teams and agency and external partners.
•Contribute to a collaborative, high-performance Marketing team culture through ownership, curiosity, reliability and a

Education:
•Bachelor’s degree in marketing, Business Management, Communications or a related field.
•Postgraduate qualification advantageous but not required.

Experience:
•Approximately 2 to 3 years' relevant marketing or brand experience, ideally within FMCG, QSR, retail, consumer goods or another fast-paced consumer environment.
•Exposure to the development and execution of integrated marketing campaigns.
•Experience supporting a campaign, product launch, promotion or innovation from brief through to execution.
•Exposure to digital and social marketing and content development.
•Comfortable working with basic commercial data, dashboards, presentations, budgets and trackers.
•Experience working with agencies and multiple internal stakeholders advantageous.
•Exposure to consumer research and insight development advantageous.

Capabilities & Skills:
•Customer orientation: Understands customer needs and can bring the customer perspective into marketing decisions.
•Brand understanding: Good understanding of brand positioning, distinctive assets and consistent brand execution.
•Creative judgement: Able to assess whether work responds to the brief, feels relevant to the customer and is appropriate for the channel.
•Commercial curiosity: Developing understanding of how marketing decisions affect sales, transactions, margin, product mix and brand performance.
•Analytical thinking: Comfortable interpreting data, research and customer feedback and turning these into practical observations.
•Digital & social fluency: Good understanding of major digital and social platforms and how customers engage with brands across them.
•Project management: Strong organisational skills with the ability to coordinate multiple timelines, stakeholders and deliverables.
•Agency coordination: Able to work effectively with creative, media and specialist agency partners.
•Communication: Clear written, verbal and presentation skills.
•Cultural curiosity: Strong interest in South African consumers, culture, food, entertainment and emerging trends.
•Learning agility: Curious, receptive to feedback and able to learn quickly from both successes and failures.
•Execution discipline: Strong attention to detail, follow-through and personal accountability.
•Collaboration: Builds constructive relationships and works effectively across functions.
•Bias for action: Takes initiative, solves problems and keeps work moving.