Strategy Lead, India

Apple

About The Position

Marketing Communications (Marcom) is Apple’s creatively led global team responsible for consumer-facing marketing and the development and execution of communications across media and platforms. Marcom India plans, localizes, conceptualizes and implements communications for Apple products and services across Localization, Advertising, Partner Retail Experience and Communications, Interactive/Digital, Video & Motion Graphics, and Direct. The Strategy Lead for India serves as the market’s strategic engine, shaping how Apple tells its brand and product stories in India and driving initiatives across the customer journey through Apple-owned and partner touchpoints. The role works closely with the India Marcom Lead and teams across Marcom, Product Marketing, PR, Retail, Sales and Channel. It also partners with the Worldwide Strategy team in Cupertino, bringing market insight and inspiration to creative teams and translating that insight into clear, actionable briefs for agency partners and internal teams. The role develops market and customer insight, identifies business and brand opportunities, leads annual and quarterly marketing planning, and creates holistic campaign strategies across digital, social, retail, partner platforms and interactive experiences. It leads strategic planning for product launches and other initiatives, defines objectives and measurement, guides creative development, and establishes frameworks and KPIs to evaluate effectiveness. The Strategy Lead also provides cultural and competitive intelligence, facilitates strategic workshops, presents data-backed recommendations to senior stakeholders, and influences cross-functional teams and external partners without direct reporting lines. The position calls for a self-motivated, flexible leader with strong analytical, strategic and communication skills.

Requirements

15+ years of strategic planning or strategic delivery in marketing at a leading creative, social or integrated agency, brand consultancy, business consultancy, or client-side brand team.
Experience across business and brand strategy, consumer research, insight synthesis and integrated communications planning.
Good working knowledge of retail environments, e-commerce and social platforms.
Business-level fluency in written and spoken English.
Strong analytical skills, including the ability to combine sales, business, behavioral and media data and identify patterns.
Deep knowledge of India’s digital, social and commerce ecosystem, including social-first and content-driven initiatives.
Strong knowledge of India’s device sales channels, especially smartphones, including carriers, e-commerce and quick-commerce platforms, large-format and multi-brand retailers, and third-party stores.
Experience leading full-funnel go-to-market strategy for brand, marketing and customer experience campaigns across digital, e-commerce and physical retail.
Proven ability to independently write clear, inspiring creative briefs that translate complex business objectives into high-quality creative work.
Experience leading strategic conversations with creatives, agency partners and internal teams across disciplines.
Experience turning complex information into simple, compelling narratives for different stakeholders.
Proven ability to build relationships, reach consensus and influence senior cross-functional teams and external partners.
Expertise in consumer electronics and technology.
Proven ability to advocate for a strategy and carry it through a large cross-functional organization.
Strong commercial instincts and experience identifying and solving business problems through research.
Strong cultural awareness and genuine curiosity about pop culture, design and innovation.
Highly collaborative, entrepreneurial approach, including willingness to challenge conventions and consider different perspectives.
Exceptional writing, visual storytelling and Keynote presentation skills, and active fluency with AI productivity tools and workflows.
Several years of living and working in India.

Nice To Haves

Proficiency in Hindi or other Indian languages.

Responsibilities

Build insight into Apple’s business in India, the consumer technology category, competitors, audiences and changing customer relationships with Apple products.
Map and analyze shopper mindsets and customer journeys across Apple Store online, Apple Retail, e-commerce, carriers, retailers and financial partners.
Represent the customer by synthesizing internal data, third-party sources, and primary and secondary research into an actionable view of market opportunities.
Maintain an informed perspective on cultural, social, political and marketplace factors affecting Apple product adoption in India.
Identify strategic whitespace and frame opportunities that grow Apple’s business and increase the brand’s cultural relevance throughout the year.
Lead annual and quarterly India marketing plans with Marcom, Product Marketing and PR, aligning market analysis and priorities with worldwide objectives.
Create a prioritized plan across Apple-owned and partner touchpoints that sets the scope of work for the year.
Design holistic, multi-touchpoint campaign strategies spanning digital, social, physical and online retail, partner platforms and interactive experiences.
Guide the channel strategist using knowledge of partners’ business priorities, platform ecosystems and customer behavior.
Lead strategic planning for product launches, locally originated initiatives and sustained experiences, including framing objectives, writing initiative and creative briefs, and setting measurement metrics.
Translate cultural currents and consumer insights into creative briefs, and guide partner agencies through creative development.
Set measurement frameworks and KPIs to assess campaign effectiveness, optimize channel performance and inform future planning.
Guide the cross-functional marketing team in coordination with the Marcom Lead and Brand and Channel, PR, Corporate Communications and Product Marketing leads.
Provide India Marketing and Worldwide teams with regular market and cultural intelligence, competitive reviews and market snapshots.
Design and run strategic workshops and deliver persuasive, data-backed presentations that align perspectives and influence senior stakeholders.
Lead, influence and inspire cross-functional teams and external partners without direct reporting lines.
Build best-in-class strategy cases and frameworks in India for sharing and scaling across the wider Marcom and Strategy network.