Roger Fingas
Apple is hunting for a new director of Global Marketing Operations at its Beats division, according to a job listing posted on Thursday, a rare high-level opening at the company.
"This position holds overall responsibility for the Global Marketing Operations for Beats by Dr. Dre," the listing states. The director is expected to oversee planning, resources, and expansion, lead a team of operations managers, and ensure "good alignment and strong communication" between Beats and Apple itself.
Candidates are required to have at least 15 years of experience in managing operations for a creative agency or department, including time in an international role, and also familiarity with directly managing teams of 8 to 10 people or more.
Apple often looks toward internal candidates for such a role, and actively recruits from other companies. It's unknown if Apple has pursued those tactics for this position.
Apple bought Beats for $3 billion in 2014. Although speakers and headphones are Beats's most lucrative products, Apple is believed to be rebranding and revamping Beats Music, a so-far marginal on-demand streaming service.
Nine Inch Nails founder Trent Reznor is believed to be in charge of the project. Just recently, Apple was said to have poached four producers from BBC Radio 1 for the new service, which could be announced as soon as Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 8.
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18 Comments
It could be that Apple feels Beats needs to keep its own brand cachet, rather than becoming too Apple-ish, and thus they would seek an outside candidate.
Guess I'll have to go apply. My middle aged white guy vibe is just what a brand like Beats needs.
[quote name="TheWhiteFalcon" url="/t/186081/apple-begins-hunt-for-director-of-global-marketing-operations-at-beats#post_2718603"]It could be that Apple feels Beats needs to keep its own brand cachet, rather than becoming too Apple-ish, and thus they would seek an outside candidate.[/quote] I don't care how Apple wants to market beats, but if they are going to curate the brand, I wish they would step into the engineering of the hardware and make it more Apple-like. as Beats was widely perceived as mostly style and little substance by critics. If they are going to charge premiums on the product like Apple does, they need to deliver the goods.
[quote name="sog35" url="/t/186081/apple-begins-hunt-for-director-of-global-marketing-operations-at-beats#post_2718658"] WRONG. Beats are very good quality headphones. Stop living in 2012. Beats has the best combination of style and performance for its market. [/quote]I regularly read headphone group tests from a number of respected audio publications. The last about a week and a half ago. And while Beats headphones have improved they are still always at the bottom of the list when it comes to sound quality.
Right. If Apple hadn't bought Beats, people around here would likely be in agreement with the reviewers. But now that Apple owns it, they're nothing less than the best money can buy at any price.