When people have electricity, incredible things happen. Placing ‘power’ in the hands of rural customers helps them realise their aspirations and dreams that they never thought could happen. Making this possible in every village is at the heart of everything we do.

Husk is the industry leader in Asia and Africa, operating the largest fleet of community solar microgrids, and offering a range of clean energy services, including power sales, appliance sales and financing, and rural C&I. We provide reliable power to households and businesses, entirely from renewable energy sources – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – at a price they can afford.

We design, build, own and operate the lowest cost hybrid power plant and distribution network in India and Africa. We offer our customers a flexible ‘pay-as-you-go’ energy service, using a smart, scalable digital solution. We provide low-cost energy that matches the growing needs of our customers; for households, community services and productive uses. Our grid-compatible solution can be rolled out quickly and cost effectively to support national electrification plans.

In Nigeria, Husk has 12 microgrids in operation, with the capacity to impact 50,000 people, and is significantly reducing the use of expensive, polluting diesel generation. Husk is poised to grow rapidly over the next four years, and envisions building 500 microgrids in the country during that period as part of its “Nigeria Sunshot” initiative.

Position Objective

Are you a determined and friendly professional with an advanced understanding of human behavior and a desire to help consumers find exactly the right product or service to suit their needs? Are you a stellar communicator and storyteller? Would you like to pioneer new, data-driven marketing strategies that will unlock the vast potential of the rural customers in Nigeria and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa? If so, you might be a great fit for our company. The ideal candidate for this position has a positive attitude, a tireless work ethic and an insatiable appetite for growth.

Husk is seeking an experienced leader for the role of Head of Marketing & Branding in Nigeria. This individual will play an integral role in the creating high-impact Go-to-Market (GTM) strategies for its three business lines (microgrids, energy efficient appliances and C&I), designing creative campaigns, benchmarking performance of all campaigns, effectively utilizing marketing analytics and ultimately driving the initiatives responsible for attracting potential customers as well as retaining existing ones. The candidate is expected to drive sales through effective marketing campaigns, manage and motivate the team under him/her and coordinate and implement all marketing campaigns in the field. The candidate is expected to analyze daily, weekly and monthly results, spot trends and act on them quickly. We are looking for someone who has a solid experience in managing customer relationship and loves to grow customer satisfaction. This position provides the opportunity to join a growing team that is changing the face of rural electrification in many countries in India and Africa, including Nigeria.

Reports to:

Nigeria Country Director, with dotted line to Chief Marketing Officer

Key responsibilities include:

• Design GTM strategies to drive growth of customer base by 10x in 3 years.
• Devise effective traditional and digital marketing plan and engagement process for rural customer base.
• Organize brand promotion and awareness in our communities of operation to meet the aspirations of rural customers.
• Hire a team of marketing associates and help field sales team acquire customers for Husk microgrids and for energy efficient electrical appliances (household and productive use).
• Leverage customer data and focus groups to create relevant insights that can be used to define strategic and targeted marketing activities.
• Communicate with senior management about marketing initiatives and project metrics.
• Build a measurement system for determining the success of each marketing program. Measure and report performance of all campaigns, and assess against goals (ROI and KPIs).
• Leverage Husk strategic partnership with OEMs and other stakeholders (across countries) to build co-branded marketing and branding plan.

Detailed Responsibilities

Overall leadership and management

• Lead overall GTM strategy across entire product and services portfolio that Husk offers to customers in all states of operation.
• Prepare and manage marketing budget for Nigeria.
• Recruit and lead a stellar team of marketing personnel to drive our goal of rapid customer acquisition and ensure retention.
• Ensure the sales and operations team is seamlessly plugged in the marketing activities to ensure ongoing customer acquisition and product/service sales.
• Mentor direct reports to cultivate skills that makes our B2C strategy successful on the ground
• Support the implementation of creative technology solutions for the brand that increase efficiency, reduce spend and increase marketing reach.
• Prepare marketing report by collecting, analyzing and summarizing campaign and sales data.

GTM strategy and managing marketing & brand campaigns

• Manage the execution of marketing plans and programs, both short and medium range, to support sales and revenue objectives.
• Develop B2C electrical appliance sales campaigns to capitalize on festival season and encourage our customers to acquire modern branded appliances like LED TVs, fans, refrigerators and freezers etc.
• Identify weaknesses in existing marketing campaigns and develop pragmatic solutions within budgetary constraints.
• Engage creative agencies to help produce stellar and effective campaign collaterals.
• Identify strategically aligned local partnership opportunities (traditional and non-traditional) and develop local programs (including outlet visibility and activation) to support.

Analytics and generating actionable insights

• Analyze historical data from campaigns and available research reports to build and improve marketing campaigns regularly.
• Use data to inform decision-making for strategy development and adjustments as necessary
• Track platform engagement and effectiveness through appropriate analytical tools

Customer Satisfaction

• Exceeding customer expectation is what Husk aspires to do every day. You will be responsible for developing a customer satisfaction model and tracking satisfaction
• Ensure that customer satisfaction matrix is deployed at multiple tiers

Finance and Budget Management

• Track fluid on-the-go budget spend framework informed by real-time campaign performance analysis that minimizes ineffective spend and maximizes ROI
• Track costs across agencies and technology platform spend
• Track marketing ROI by optimizing content and channel marketing investments
• Test faster and lower cost options for acquiring, engaging and retaining consumers

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree is required;
• MBA (with a Marketing concentration) is strongly preferred

Relevant Experience in years:

• 7+ years of total experience in Consumer Marketing function (B2C) with a preference to the ones who are exposed to retail/fast moving consumer goods industry
• Proven track record of innovative consumer marketing accomplishments/high impact results (based on metrics/ROI)
• Good understanding of consumer insights and primary research concepts and tactics such as home use testing, focus groups, surveys, attitudinal, ethnographic and concept testing.
• Ability to work under pressure and to deadline in an independent capacity. To be a self-starter and self-motivator, working effectively with minimal direction
• Strong in storytelling and have excellent communication skills
• Analytically inclined with ability to run numbers to determine ROI and effectiveness of campaigns
• Passion for rural development; experience in rural markets a plus
• Influential leader. Knows how to build, communicate and defend a position and has a demonstrated ability to engage and influence others—up, down and across—to effectively lead.
• Experience in FMCG/telecom/MFI sector preferred

Location and Travel:

• This role is based in Abuja, Nigeria
• Intermittent travel to rural areas required.

Does this sound like you;

• You are driven to support the delivery of business growth in a new market.
• You have a robust industry network and understand effective client engagement practices.
• You are an effective planner and have a strong orientation to process
• You building strong relationship built on trust, and are a strong verbal communicator
• You pride your communication skills.
• Most importantly, candidate must fit company spirit where people work smart, play hard, have fun and are dedicated to success.