ABOUT
My expertise, as a Brand Growth Strategist, is to work together with my clients to identify, prioritize & maximize their best growth opportunities: building on the business’s intrinsic, differentiated strengths, and deprioritizing the distraction of the “nice to have’s”.
My marketing experience spans both international & local brands: from sophisticated First World consumers, to the savvy, deeply brand loyal middle- & lower-income consumers in Developing Markets, across a spectrum of geographies & cultures:
- Assistant Brand Manager (South Africa)
- Secondment to Philippines
- Snr Brand Manager (South Africa)
(South Africa)
- Marketing Manager: Brand Development (South Africa)
- Marketing Lead:
Sub-Saharan Africa
Associate Director
The first 17 years of my career provided me with a depth of experience & insight into the richness and complexities of brand management, in both the FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) & services industries:
My years working at global FMCGs provided me with a rich, classical marketing foundation:
- UNILEVER SOUTH AFRICA: where I was promoted to the role of Senior Brand Manager of the SUNLIGHT Masterbrand (the biggest brand in the South African business at the time); and where I was seconded for a year to work in the UNILEVER PHILIPPINES business.
- KIMBERLY CLARK SUB SAHARAN AFRICA: where I started as the Brand Development Marketing Manager for HUGGIES & KOTEX in South Africa; and then served as the Marketing Lead for West, East & Central Africa, with specific focus on Nigeria & Kenya.
My years as Marketing Manager at ADCORP HOLDINGS SOUTH AFRICA complemented my FMCG product-based experience with a deep insight into the nuances of the services industry, and the vital role that the employees play in ensuring your business provides a differentiated, enticing, on-brand experience.
In 2015 I moved into the world of consulting: applying my years of experience as the brand custodian, to now advise & assist brand owners in identifying, prioritizing and maximizing their best growth opportunities.
My journey started off at KANTAR CONSULTING SOUTH AFRICA (part of the global WPP Group), as the Brand Strategy Associate Director, and has culminated in my becoming Managing Director of HELEN ALEXANDER CONSULTING.
In my years as a consulting Brand Growth Strategist, I have been privileged to work across a wide spectrum of brands, and a variety of industries:
Including, among others, FMCG, banking, telecommunications, logistics, sustainability management & tech startups – both as an independent Marketing Consultant, and as part of a multi-disciplinary Creative Agency team – all of which has provided me with a rich portfolio of experience from which to draw with each new client.
Some of the brands which I have worked on / consulted to:
The Helen Alexander experience
Every strategic solution I design is tailor-made collaboratively with your team. I will coach you and your team with tools designed to upskill your strategic abilities and my solutions are delivered virtually / in person, based on your team’s culture.
Tailor-Made
I create a unique solution for each client, in response to their distinctive business & brand needs, developed from my portfolio of strategic offerings
Collaborative
I work closely with you to define your core business / brand need. From this I create a user-centric strategic framework, which we then flesh out together. Finally, we co-create an action plan, to bring the strategy to life
Coaching & Upskilling
I am passionate about people development, and will develop tools & be available to coach your team on how to bring our strategic plan into your daily operations. For my agency clients, these tools will serve as a creative springboard for your client solutions
Virtual / In Person
Based on your business culture & needs, I can lead the process virtually (as I did when I led my own pan-African team), or in person: from stakeholder interviews, to multi-participant strategic workshops