Head of Trade Marketing (FMCG)

A leading FMCG organisation in Kuala Lumpur is seeking a Head of Trade Marketing to drive customer and channel marketing across all brands. This pivotal role offers you the opportunity to shape commercial strategies, co-own investment decisions, and lead integrated activation plans that deliver real impact in both traditional and digital retail environments.

What you'll do:

As Head of Trade Marketing (FMCG), you will play a central role in shaping how brands connect with customers across every channel. Your day-to-day responsibilities will involve translating strategic brand objectives into actionable activation plans that resonate at retail level. You will chair key investment reviews to align channel decisions with broader commercial goals, ensuring resources are allocated where they matter most. By building practical marketing plans for launches and promotions, you will help bring brand priorities to life through impactful retailer activations. You will oversee revenue growth management systems integrating pricing, promotion, assortment, and pack architecture and take responsibility for evaluating ROI on all investments. Integrated planning is at the heart of this role; you will lead quarterly activation cycles and monthly reviews with sales teams to monitor performance and address gaps swiftly. Your expertise in digital commerce will enable you to drive omnichannel shopper touchpoints while collaborating closely with creative agencies for campaign execution. Ultimately, your success will be measured by your ability to foster strong relationships with retail partners through joint business planning initiatives that support mutual growth.

• Translate brand and category strategies into clear customer and channel activation plans that move the function from execution support to genuine co-ownership of the commercial agenda.
• Chair the Customer Investment Review to ensure channel investment decisions are aligned with one agreed commercial direction rather than handled in silos.
• Build practical customer marketing plans for product launches, promotions, and campaigns so brand priorities are effectively translated into impactful retailer activations.
• Own pricing, promotion, assortment, and pack architecture as an integrated revenue growth management system instead of treating them as separate budget or promo tracking items.
• Co-own return on investment for customer and channel investments by ensuring proper sign-off on post-activation evaluations before sharing results with senior management.
• Manage customer marketing and trade investment tightly by allocating spend to the right priorities, securing competitive vendor quotations, and tracking ROI rigorously.
• Lead rolling quarterly activation planning including promotional plans, activation briefs, and supply forecasts to ensure seamless execution across all channels.
• Co-own monthly execution reviews with Sales Operations to track live activation performance against plan and close gaps quickly for optimal results.
• Provide customer and channel input into annual commercial planning cycles so plans are grounded in actual customer realities rather than theoretical assumptions.
• Design and execute activation campaigns that drive customer retention, product adoption, cross-sell or upsell opportunities while overseeing in-store promotions against clear standards.

What you bring:

To excel as Head of Trade Marketing in this FMCG organisation based in Kuala Lumpur, you will bring proven experience leading customer or trade marketing teams within complex matrixed structures. Your background should include designing integrated activation strategies that span categories and channels delivering tangible results beyond simple campaign execution. You possess a solid grasp of revenue growth management principles applied holistically across pricing, promotion, assortment, and packaging decisions. Your familiarity with digital commerce platforms enables you to integrate online touchpoints seamlessly alongside traditional retail executions. Cross-functional collaboration comes naturally; you have worked closely with sales operations, brand managers, finance professionals, supply chain experts and understand how each contributes to successful commercial outcomes. Your analytical acumen allows you to interpret market data from sources like Nielsen or Kantar rigorously while constructing insight-led narratives that influence both customers and senior leadership. Budget stewardship is second nature; you apply disciplined ROI tracking throughout all investments. Above all else, your communication style is inclusive building trust-based relationships internally as well as externally through joint business planning initiatives.

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, Business Administration or a related field is required for this position.
• Proven experience in customer or trade marketing within FMCG environments including demonstrated leadership managing teams spanning customer and channel marketing functions.
• Track record designing and executing integrated customer, category, and channel activation strategies not just campaign execution alone with measurable outcomes.
• Working knowledge of revenue growth management principles covering pricing, promotion, assortment, and pack architecture as an interconnected system rather than isolated elements.
• Familiarity with digital commerce fundamentals including e-commerce platforms and retail media integration alongside traditional trade activation methods.
• Experience working cross-functionally with Sales, Brand Marketing, Finance, Supply Chain teams to develop effective commercial strategies that deliver results.
• Strong understanding of retail environments coupled with deep knowledge of shopper behaviour including path-to-purchase frameworks for more precise targeting.
• Analytical skills with fluency in market data sources such as Nielsen or Kantar plus internal dashboards; ability to interpret data accurately for actionable insights.
• Ability to manage budgets responsibly by co-owning ROI calculations and applying auditable sign-off discipline to performance reporting as well as post-activation evaluation processes.
• Excellent communication skills combined with negotiation abilities; interpersonal strengths that foster trust-based relationships across teams and external partners.

What sets this company apart:

This organisation stands out in the FMCG sector for its commitment to collaborative growth leadership and insight-driven decision making. Employees benefit from flexible working opportunities designed to support work-life balance while fostering creativity within high-performing teams. The company places a strong emphasis on nurturing talent through ongoing training opportunities ensuring you remain knowledgeable about industry trends as well as best practices in trade marketing. Supportive leadership encourages open dialogue across departments so ideas can be shared freely without barriers; this communal approach ensures everyone feels connected to the broader mission of delivering value for customers. The culture here is inclusive valuing diverse perspectives from under-represented groups and rewards loyalty through generous pension contributions plus recognition programmes tailored around individual achievements. If you are looking for an environment where your expertise is respected and your contributions make a real difference in shaping commercial outcomes across multiple brands then this is the place for you.

What's next:

If you are ready to take your career in trade marketing to new heights within a leading FMCG organisation then this is your moment, apply now!

Apply today by clicking on the link provided.

Do note that we will only be in touch if your application is shortlisted.

Agensi Pekerjaan Robert Walters Sdn Bhd
Business Registration Number : 729828-T
Licence Number : JTKSM 423C