Niloufer Afzal, MBA, CM
Verified Expert in Marketing
Marketing Expert
Toronto, ON, Canada
Toptal member since August 15, 2024
Niloufer is an expert brand architect in the CPG, pharma, retail, financial services, and manufacturing industries. A digitally fluent marketer and innovation expert, she drives top- and bottom-line growth through unique brand strategies, effective advertising, on-trend innovation, and disruptive omnichannel strategies. Niloufer's experience spans North America, Europe, and Asia, working with leading brands like Reckitt, Philips, Kraft Heinz, GSK, Tetra Pak, Nestle, Walmart, and Bayer.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Brand Positioning
- Brand Strategy
- Consumer Insights
- Digital Marketing
- Market Segmentation
- Media Planning
- Omnichannel Marketing
- eCommerce
Work Experience
Lead Consultant | Strategy and Innovation
G2G Impact Group
- Developed the advertising KPI framework and playbook for a Fortune 100 client and implemented it across three markets and five brands, aligning and onboarding the media and advertising agencies.
- Designed and implemented an agile marketing test-and-learn model with strategically resourced cross-functional scrum squads to drive business impact at scale, leading to adoption across the US, EU, and China.
- Facilitated the creation of omnichannel strategies for a large retailer in North America, optimizing media planning and spending based on consumer journey research and clearly articulating moments of truth.
- Headed omnichannel development for a healthcare company, launching a digital pharmacy based on consumer digital journey research that clearly articulated the moments of truth.
- Directed the website restructuring of a large not-for-profit organization to represent their DEI vision, where inclusivity also covered disabilities like vision and hearing.
- Saved inventory holding costs by leading a large retailer's marketing planning and optimization project, leveraging predictive analytics and trends mapping to define shopper patterns and seasonal demand spaces.
- Elevated the corporate brand and created shared ownership of business goals across functions by designing and delivering a voice of the employee research for a health insurance company.
- Identified white spaces and potential growth opportunities for a large North American airline through a future-proofing project by first defining high-value customer segments and shifts in post-pandemic travel behavior.
- Led the end-to-end innovation strategy for a pet food business, spanning process audits, articulating the fuzzy front end, shrinking the product development cycle, and developing a launch blueprint.
- Led research projects for clients and focused on segmentation, price pack architecture, sales glide path, marketing mix modeling, pricing and promotions modeling, concept testing, etc.
Senior Marketing and Innovation Lead
Groupe SEB
- Increased net sales by over 22% and operating income by 4+ points by designing and delivering the strategic transformation of the Kitchen Electrics portfolio, leading net revenue optimization across customers.
- Delivered a gross margin improvement of 16+ points across the Kitchen Electrics portfolio by leading multi-brand white space mapping and new product development within key segments.
- Created the brand architecture for Lagostina Electrics, focusing on channel management to drive retailer differentiation.
Senior Brands and Trade Marketing Lead
Smucker Foods of Canada
- Achieved over 3% growth in operating income in year one after leading the creation of a 5-year business roadmap, crafting the business vision, governing strategies, and plans.
- Obtained a 10% incremental net sales value by revitalizing the channel mix to add branded e-shops and e-tailers like Amazon, PetSmart, and Shopify.
- Created an always-on innovation mindset within the organization, building a 3-year innovation pipeline that grew topline sales by over 6% within dog treats while boosting profitability by over 5%.
- Delivered margin accretive omnichannel strategies through customer resource management and trade spend optimization.
- Led the creation of a central unifying idea for each brand to anchor creative development across all consumer touchpoints—TV, radio, print, in-store, digital, social, experiential, and influencer campaigns—effectively managing agency relations.
Senior Marketing Manager
Philips
- Gained 10+ share points by overseeing the systems and process integration, harmonizing pricing, and transitioning the customer base.
- Grew profits by over 2% after maximizing portfolio profitability by driving topline sales and optimizing marketing and trade spending.
- Launched five SKUs to increase the share of the shelf at retail by over 5%, supported by media and CRM initiatives.
- Delivered trade marketing effectiveness by balancing short- and long-term business goals, step-changing trade spending across key retail partners, and delivering mutual value and profitable growth.
- Led the new product development process for the epilators' range of beauty devices.
Trade Marketing National Accounts Lead
RB
- Developed a cross-category shopper conversion model, creating new key promotional periods that drove more than 6% growth.
- Boosted category growth by over 5% and brand growth by over 9% by initiating the distribution and placement strategy for dish detergents.
- Built a customer portfolio strategy to maximize resources and investment and boost customer profitability by 13%.
- Led the go-to-market (GTM) strategy and execution for Clearasil and Veet, the skincare brands.
Marketing Manager
Tetra Pak
- Grew profitability by over 7% by identifying the highest-impact investment areas and managing portfolio margins.
- Delivered 5% category and brand growth by repositioning Tetra Pak as an environmentally conscious company.
- Launched Tetra Pak in three new categories—coconut water, wines, and smoothies—creating multimillion-dollar new segments in North America.
Account Manager
NielsenIQ
- Created business performance dashboards to help clients plan and evaluate key metrics.
- Delivered consumer and shopper analytics to support GTM plans and optimize customer strategies.
- Exceeded the budget target by over 7% in 2004 and over 6% in 2005.
Project History
Beauty Brand | Marketing Mix Effectiveness Case Study
Achieved a sales benefit of over 15% by identifying the effectiveness of each marketing lever and optimizing spend across channels, enabling us to refocus spending on high-value alternatives.
A global beauty brand was changing its positioning and GTM strategy in the US. To successfully execute rebranding, the business needed to anchor its growth agenda in a deep understanding of the current marketing mix and its impact on sales.
SOLUTION
We conducted a marketing mix modeling analysis by curating and leveraging various data sources, including media plans, sales trends, pricing, distribution, and innovation trends across channels such as media, consumer promotions, and trade promotions.
Digital Streaming Services Brand | Personalization at Scale
Supercharged the brand by creating a community of passionate and loyal customers in a highly commoditized sector.
From the outset, our vision for a digital services client was to outpace its competition through fresh innovation—breaking out of sector norms to redefine customer expectations. We ideated and delivered a personalized, memorable digital strategy that now leads the industry.
SOLUTION
• Created a personalized concierge service, leveraging digital tools to serve customers on their own terms.
• Built a full Creative Content Studio that creates, manages, and distributes hundreds of campaigns yearly in near real time.
• Applied insight over instinct and used data science to review performance and customer research to boost innovation.
• Focused on a business case that would give a four-fold return over three years.
• Designed a pioneering, premium, and memorable customer experience across the web, app, and partners.
• Crafted and implemented a multi-platform content strategy to drive sales and differentiate the brand from its competitors.
• Adopted a data-driven approach to the brand's social ads to reach advertising goals and get the best return on ad spend.
Car Rental Company | Defining Brand Portfolio Strategy
Delivered a well-articulated brand portfolio strategy and playbook rooted in the business case, consumer, and customer—earning double-digit revenue growth for the brands a month after the price swap, with an annual impact of $100 million.
A tier 1 car rental company with sluggish growth invited us to revive their bare innovation pipeline. They needed to move beyond the traditional equity play while staying within the integrity of the brand. The innovation and insights team partnered with us to explore and unlock new opportunities.
SOLUTION
I identified the purchase drivers for both the consumer and business and captured all major brands' perceptions. While the research confirmed many ongoing hypotheses, a massive but risky opportunity emerged. The opportunity was the power of the market-leading brand within their portfolio. Customer ratings were passionate, and there was every indication that they would pay more for the leading brand's experience. The current pricing had the leading brand at entry level, with the second brand priced higher. The research recommendation was to implement a "price swap" with confidence in the leading brand's equity and customers' value orientation for the second brand.
Education
Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Marketing and International Business
University of Karachi - Karachi, Pakistan
Certifications
Certified Culturepreneur Coach
Waterstone Culture Institute
Coaching for High Performance
Queen's University
Chartered Marketer
Canadian Marketing Association
Portfolio Management
Tetra Pak University
Project Management for Innovation
Tetra Pak University
Skills
Core
Brand Strategy, Marketing, Digital Marketing, Omnichannel Marketing, Branding, Brand Marketing, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), Digital Marketing Strategy, Google Ads, Lead Generation, Marketing Strategy, Market Research & Analysis, Social Media, Audience Targeting, Marketing Mix, Shopper Marketing, AI Marketing, Customer Segmentation
Platforms & Tools
Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Instagram Ads, HubSpot, Adobe Marketing Cloud, HubSpot Marketing Hub
Business Models
Integrated Marketing Communications Planning
Other
Planning, Customer Insights, Consumer Insights, Analytics, eCommerce, Research, Market Segmentation, Brand Positioning, Brand Architecture, D2C Branding Strategy, Mentorship & Coaching, Growth Marketing, Pricing, Quantitative Research, Qualitative Research, Product Strategy, Data, Media, Media Planning, UX Research, UX Design, Culture Management, Organizational Strategy, Change Management, Project Management, Portfolio Management, Strategic Planning, Digital Media, Trade Marketing, Innovation, Innovation Management, Innovation Strategy, Digital Innovation, Big Data, Category Management, Sustainability Strategy, Web UX, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Personalization, Pricing Models, Pricing Strategy, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Competitive Analysis
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