“After depending upon the natural enthusiasm of its devoted retail store fans for 13 years, Apple has hired a former Nike executive to head a six-person digital marketing team that will build communities, manage email marketing and spotlight the stores’ event and program content,” Gary Allen reports for ifoAppleStore. “The new hire dovetails with rumors that Apple will soon market wearable technology, and with a new openness demonstrated by CEO Tim Cook during last June’s Worldwide Developer Conference.”
“According to various sources, Musa Tariq assumed the position of Digital Marketing Director for the retail stores this week, and will report to Angela Ahrendts, Sr. VP retail/on-line stores,” Allen reports. “Tariq previously worked at Nike in a similar role and was credited with bringing all of the company’s digital marketing in-house. Before that he worked with Ahrendts at Burberry and successfully helped develop that company’s first digital marketing initiatives.”
“Apple has been historically and notoriously detached from the world of social media,” Allen reports. “Tim Cook is a recent exception to Apple’s disregard for social media. But his Twitter account debuted only last September after he visited the Palo Alto retail store. So far he’s posted 82 Tweets, mostly repeats of company press releases. Ahrendts also has a Twitter account, but just one of her 82 Tweets is devoted to the company, the grand opening of the Omotesando (Tokyo) retail store in June.”
Read more in the full article here.