March 16, 2018
A dweek magazine has named Iranian-American Taj Alavi as one of its 10 Brand Genius award winners, recognizing strong skills in marketing.
Alavi joined Instagram about two years ago as the firm’s first head of brand marketing. And in those two years, Instagram has become widely known all across the world. In fact, it is generally considered the second most widely used social medium in Iran, after Telegram.
Instagram is primarily a photo sharing service. The company is only seven years old—but that makes it something of a senior citizen in the tech world. It is now owned by Facebook.
Alavi came to Instagram with experience working for such brands as Clorox, Neutrogena and Intuit.
Her career spans nearly two decades. At Neutrogena she led product marketing and helped establish Neutrogena as one of the top three suncare brands in the US. At Clorox, she managed the flagship bleach brand and led innovation for the nearly $1 billion laundry business. At Intuit she led the breakthrough Intuit Small Business Big Game program, spotlighting small business success and producing the first ad for one small business on the Super Bowl.
At Instagram, a primary goal for her is to keep rival Snapchat at bay.
She holds a master’s degree from Boston University and resides in California with her husband, two kids, rescue puppy and recently adopted chickens.
