Trade Marketing & Distribution Manager
Gulbahar Tobacco International Fze · Dubai, Dubai, AE ·
- Category
- Marketing
- Experience
- 8+ years
What You Will Do:
Route-to-Market:
Assess, design, and implement Route-to-Market (RTM) strategies tailored to each market’s regulatory, commercial, and logistical context
Analyse and optimize existing distributor setups, suggesting alternative coverage models when needed
Identify white space and design commercial approaches to expand GTI’s availability and reach
Can conduct trade audits to validate distributor execution and provide structured feedback
Trade Marketing & Visibility:
- Build and deploy GTI’s Trade Marketing Toolkit across priority markets covering product visibility, shelf standards, and brand guidelines.
- Collaborate with distributors and internal teams to align on channel-specific execution plans, including merchandising, POSM deployment, and campaign activations.
- Conduct regular in-field audits to monitor compliance with GTI’s merchandising and planogram guidelines..
- Define visibility metrics per channel and track them against target execution KPIs.
Pricing, Trade Support & Commercial Control:
- Design and manage price structures that captures the value chain while respecting trade margins and tax frameworks
- Monitor price compliance across markets and flag deviation risks
- Develop, roll out, and evaluate trade support programs (e.g., incentive schemes, rebates, activations) in collaboration with Distributors.
- Support annual distributor negotiations and define execution clauses for new partnerships.
Distribution KPIs & Performance Tracking:
Define and track in-market distribution KPIs, including:
- Product availability
- Visibility standards.
- Route-to-market coverage.
- Trade support schemes and deployment.
- Stock coverage & freshness.
- Build reporting templates with support from the Demand Analyst to review monthly performance per market/distributor.
- Monitor competitor presence, pricing, and activities using structured retail intelligence and distributor feedback.
Forecasting Support & Cross-functional Collaboration:
- Collaborate with the Demand Planning Analyst to feed market-level intelligence and performance insights into forecast assumptions
- Contribute to the Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) cycle by validating distributor pipeline, promotional plans, and field realities
- Align with Supply Chain, Sales, and Finance to maintain visibility across execution, inventory, and cost management
- Participate in the development of new market entry plans, advising on trade set-up, coverage potential, and resource needs
Required Skills to Be Successful:
- Deep understanding of trade marketing execution and distribution frameworks, ideally across multiple emerging markets and the duty-free channel.
- Strong commercial acumen with experience designing pricing structures and managing trade spend.
- Proven ability to develop and enforce price compliance and execution standards.
- Capable of building KPIs and measuring trade performance through dashboards and field insights.
- Hands-on approach with the ability to work across structured and unstructured distributor environments.
- Excellent communication, negotiation, and relationship-building skillsl
What Equips You For The Role:
- 8+ years of experience in Trade Marketing, Distribution Management, or RTM execution in the Tobacco Industry.
- Strong track record of working with distributors and end-market
- Bachelor’s degree in marketing, Business, or Commercial Management
- Fluent in English; additional languages are a plus