Steering the affairs of a corporate organization when it comes to branding is a daunting task and as such needs a person who is collaborative, adaptable, creative, customer centric, great at communication, analytical and inquisitive; qualities which Nana Yaa Owusu – Ansah graciously embodies. It is no surprise to see her driving the Unilever Ghana brand effortlessly in her role as Beauty and Personal Care Marketing Director.
Nana Yaa is indeed breaking new frontiers at Unilever with her distinctive marketing strategies and has proven to be a strong female leader with traits of intelligence and Vision as she continues to drive market growth for brands at scale by deploying leading-edge consumer-focused marketing strategies.
Appointed in 2017, as the Beauty and Personal Care Marketing Director for Unilever Ghana & Nigeria, the beauty and personal care unit of the FMCG giant has been a key driver of Unilever’s growth, experiencing significant portfolio expansion in the skincare, skin cleanse, and oral health subcategories; as key products such as Pepsodent and Geisha have maintained their market dominance.
The launch of Pepsodent Herbal and its Charcoal variant in 2020 along with a diverse range of Geisha Soap products on the Ghanaian market have been critical to driving the market share growth.
In spite of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, preceded by some challenging financial results for the business in 2018 and 2019, Unilever Ghana showed strong leadership by resolving to focus on delivering strong, strategically planned products and outstanding consumer services.
The manufacturing giant led the way in driving activities with the Global Handwashing Day in Ghana and Nigeria. Its World Oral Health Day activations in partnership with the Ghana Dental Association has been winning the topmost recognition globally across Unilever’s markets for four consecutive years since 2017, with Nana Owusu Ansah as the anchor.
Prior to her appointment as Marketing director, she was the Head of Marketing for Africa’s Emerging Markets with responsibility for 24 markets including Angola, Cameroon, DRC, Mauritius, Gabon and Southern African markets.
Nana Yaa joined the leadership team as a seasoned marketer with over 18 years work experience across Sub Saharan Africa. Over the years, she has passionately transformed the people she worked with, and has been very successful at building high-performing teams.
With a passion for building talent for growth and developing operationally effective and innovative teams, Nana Yaa has successfully set a new ambition and energy for Unilever’s Beauty and Personal Care in West Africa, with strong prospects of consistent market growth and dominance for the household brands.
Nana Yaa is entrepreneurial oriented with a decade of experience in delivering relevant marketing and management solutions in FMCG that is evident in remarkable business results.
She also has multi country and category experience in various positions including Personal Care Category Manager for Unilever Ghana and Skin Cleansing Category Manager for Unilever West Africa.
In July 2021, Nana Yaa was at the 2021 Marketing World Awards where she was adjudged as the industry personality of the year.
In July 2022 as well, she was adjudged as the Marketing Industry Personality of the Year as well as Africa Top 50 Marketing & Communications Leader at the MWA 2022 held in Accra where she received accolades in recognition of her sterling performances towards the marketing industry.
Nana Yaa is a business leader with work experience in cross-functional roles within Unilever.
She holds a Bachelor of Education in Psychology from the University of Cape Coast, a Post Graduate Diploma in Business and Marketing Strategy from EduQual and a Master’s degree in Marketing and Innovation from the London School of Marketing, UK.
Nana Yaa Owusu-Ansah is a married woman who has lovely kids.
Due to her creative nature, she loves to build brands at all times. However, on the contrary, if she is not doing that, she loves to spend time with her kids or coaching young, corporate mothers to navigate the work and family life responsibility.
She is a Member of the Executive Women Network of Ghana as well as the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana.
By: Diella Teku/Marketingworld
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