A marketing function built from zero

Illustration: two hands assembling a marketing system, funnel, gears, database and reporting connected into one machine

How do you build a retail group's entire marketing and commercial function from nothing, across four markets, with one external consultant? By installing a framework instead of running campaigns. The World Bank/IFC-XSML programme deployed me from October 2023 to September 2024 as sole external consultant to one of its portfolio companies, a premium beauty retail group operating across Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, with a European e-commerce channel.

The mandate covered the company's full marketing, sales and communication framework: positioning, commercial processes, CRM and measurement, designed and installed end to end. Alongside it, I created the company's marketing and commercial organisation, which did not exist when I arrived, and trained it on the framework. A European e-commerce channel was launched, paid acquisition and logistics included. Twelve weighted workstreams were delivered, from segmentation and loyalty design to NPS implementation and an agency tender.

The result: a marketing and commercial function that did not exist before, and a documented, transferable system, dashboards and playbooks included. The system stayed; the consultant left.

01 · Context

A premium beauty retail group, part of the World Bank/IFC-XSML investment portfolio, with locations across East and Central Africa and a foothold in Europe. The product was strong and the brand loved. But growth was uneven across markets, commercial decisions ran on instinct, and there was no single framework connecting marketing spend to sales. The investor wanted the company to grow on process, not on personality.

The constraint

One consultant. Four markets, three currencies, two continents. Premium retail in Kinshasa and Kampala does not run like premium retail in Brussels: cash-heavy payments, imported stock crossing borders, staff to recruit and train locally, and customers whose loyalty lives in the salon chair, not in an app. Under a development-finance mandate, everything had to be documented, measurable and transferable. No black boxes allowed.

03 · The system

1 · One framework, end to end.

Positioning clarified, then translated into commercial processes: how a lead becomes a client, how a client becomes a regular, what each market reports and when. CRM installed as the backbone, measurement wired into weekly decisions.

2 · A team built to outlast the mandate.

In 2023 the company had six posts on its org chart and no marketing or commercial function at all. That entire function was created through 2024, quarter by quarter: marketing lead, brand advisory, data science, product advisory, then sales management, a country marketing role, merchandising and creative direction. Every process came with training; every tool came with an owner.

3 · E-commerce launched, then challenged.

A new channel into Europe, paid acquisition and logistics included, to sell beyond the physical locations. It took revenue in its first month, and stalled the quarter after: visitors up 92%, revenue down 57%. I put the diagnosis on the table, a conversion and awareness problem rather than a traffic one, recommended pausing paid media rather than renewing it, and redirected acquisition towards influencers and the physical network.

4 · Twelve weighted workstreams, delivered in sequence.

Segmentation, loyalty design, NPS implementation, agency tender and more, one after the other, each closed before the next opened. A framework earns trust by shipping.

5 · Handover, designed in from the start.

Every workstream shipped documented, so the system would hold without me. Dashboards, playbooks, cadences: theirs.

04 · Results

Mandate from October 2023 to September 2024.

European e-commerce channel launched and taking revenue inside its first 30 days, with a five-figure second quarter, then a third quarter down 57% while visitor numbers grew 92%
The company's entire marketing and commercial function created over the mandate, from an org chart that had six posts and no marketing
Company revenue up 58.4% between 2022 and 2024, on a seven-figure base, the mandate covering the final year of that window
Function run on a five-figure annual marketing budget against seven-figure revenue, in a company structurally under its own budget the quarter before I arrived
Twelve weighted workstreams, 84% of the agreed scope delivered, on a mandate that ran longer than planned

05 · What it proves

A consultant who leaves behind a running framework is the opposite of a deck. Two limits: 84% of the agreed scope, on a mandate that ran longer than planned, and an e-commerce channel I launched then recommended pausing a quarter later because traffic was climbing while sales were not. If your board doubts that an external Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) can change the machine, this mandate is the answer.

The paper

The marketing function of a portfolio company, built in twelve weighted workstreams.

A twelve-page method and the working plan. Cut the mandate into weighted workstreams with a proof of delivery each, run them in a fixed order, write every role before hiring, and prepare the handover on day one.

PDF · 12 pagesThe method, built on a World Bank / IFC-XSML mandate, 2023 to 2024. Company anonymised. French edition included.
Excel · 4 tabsThe plan: weighted workstreams, role cards, handover, dashboard. Formulas live.
Who it is forInvestors and boards who fund a marketing function in a portfolio company, and the founder or CEO who has to build it.