Zainab talks taking a multinational brand to even greater heights

By Siyanda Hlatshwayo
Category: Business

Being a leader of a major international brand isn’t as pleasant as it looks, it requires extra effort, dedication and commitment that will result in delivering to the expectations of the brand.

Obviously that is achievable, Zainab Mohamed, Category Brand Manager on candy within Mondelez has absolutely done it, rightfully turn the brand’s expectations and deliver to consumers.

Mohamed started her journey over a year ago at Mondelez South Africa as the Category Brand Manager responsible for brands like Halls, Cadbury Eclairs and Endearment, which all are loved and well known brands in the country.

When asked about her role as the Category Brand Manager, she first giggles, obviously it’s a great portfolio and pays very well, I would assume – jokes aside, Zainab tells us about her day-to-day routine in this portfolio.

“It’s a lot more strategic in its nature and I always like to say that as a Brand Manager you’re actually a mini General Manager, and you do have to make sure that you cover all your basics and you make sure everything you do with your branding or the portfolio that you are managing is ticking the business objectives. “At the heart and center of everything, we do focus on our consumers, we make sure that everything we do is is consumer centric and that we’re not compromising the brand’s integrity or what consumers want from us.”, said Zainab with passion.

Before joining the sweets brand giant Mondelez, Zainab began her career in the fast-moving consumer goods industry, before moving to a luxury fragrance brand firm. She told us her greatest enjoyment is at Mondelez, most especially Halls as it is the biggest in her portfolio as she enjoys the pace and energy this consumer category brings.

Whilst Halls has achieved unparalleled success to date as a soothing lozenge for winter coughs, trusted for its product efficacy, the Halls candy is able to offer so much more. The brand is bringing that to the world as a catalyst to establishing a stronger relationship with its consumers.

“For Halls the simple truth is that when you breathe better, you feel better, and mental acuity follows. The powerful cooling sensation of mentho-lyptus opens your airways from your mouth to your head, so you can breathe deeply and therefore feel recharged, recentred and refocussed to seize the moment, at any moment.”, Zainab added.

Plans to reposition the brand came long before we were hit by the COVID19 pandemic lockdown restrictions, which compelled us to rethink our structural positions and the brand Halls had to follow suit as well.

The Halls brand embarked on a mulit-media campaign development aimed at encouraging consumers to reclaim their position, given the mental lethargy now emerging across the world in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown restrictions.

The campaign tagline of “Get Ready with a Halls Cooling Breath” has been localised with #UngapheliUmoya, both embodying Halls unique ability to instantly reinvigorate the body, mind and soul. The campaign saw a partnership with key local influencers to share their stories on how they together with the brand, and consumers and influencers, which showed some short-term market share gains as the result of this campaign.

The brand has exciting campaigns in the next year aimed at growing the consumer base, which will kick-off in the first few months of the brand new year, that would be the next phase of the current #UngapheliUmoya campaign that is doing great.

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