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Research Outline

Prepared for Chris M. | Delivered August 14, 2020

Apple Marketing Department Structure

Goals

Build a detailed overview of Apple's most up-to-date marketing department organizational structure (marketing groups, names and titles, areas of responsibility, etc.), and identify potential points of interest in the system. For each product/marketing group identified, the industry it relates to, Apple's stance on it, pain points, and organizational gaps will be identified, as available. This information will be used to create relevant, unique, and specific messaging points that are intended to capture the attention of and resonate with Apple marketing leaders who are not familiar with Filter.

Early Findings

Apple's Overall Organizational Structure

  • As an entire business, Apple employees a hierarchical organization structure, which means there are multiple departments, all of which report to the CEO, Tim Cook.
  • Aside from that, Apple also has a Board of Directors, which includes seven members, one of which is the CEO.
  • With the current organizational structure, Apple departments communicate significantly with one another for ideas and input, and VPs are in charge with much of the decision-making.

Marketing Heads

  •  Philip W. Schiller is the Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing, and he reports directly to Apple's CEO, Tim Cook.
  •  Tor Myhren is the VP of Marketing Communications, and he reports directly to Apple's CEO, Tim Cook.

Apple's Marketing Structure

  • Apple employs a product-based group strategy to come up with new products, which essentially means they focus on customer needs, perceptions, and values to create products for consumers.
  • Top leaders in each department, including the marketing division, are capable of making big decisions for the business without reporting to or getting approval from the CEO.
  • This setup encourages the product-based group marketing structure to ensure it is easy to control and provides the greatest opportunities for input and creativity.
  • Unfortunately, those at lower levels in the hierarchy do not have as much of an opportunity to partake in decision-making, so large changes or decisions can take time to be made.