Comet appoints marketing chief

Comet is promoting its head of grey goods Bob Darke to head of marketing, a position that has remained vacant since April.

Darke fills the gap left by Martin Pugh, who quit the electrical goods retailer to go to Safeway as director of marketing brands, where he reports to the supermarket chain’s top marketer Karen Bray.

Darke, who takes up the role early next year, is currently responsible for grey goods, which includes information technology, telecoms and multimedia products. He will report to commercial director Hugh Harvey, who joined Comet from holding company Kingfisher where he was director of global advertising.

Prior to joining Comet two years ago Darke had worked for Woolworths in a variety of commercial and marketing roles.

Since Harvey’s arrival, Comet’s advertising has focused on real-life scenarios, moving away from purely price-led ads. The electrical retailer is also developing its use of different media, turning to consumer titles on homes and interiors to carry advertising for its range of cookers.

Comet was one of five retailers that recently caved in to concerns that the advertising of interestbearing credit deals as “interest free” was illegal. The Office of Fair Trading welcomed the move, which protects consumers from what it says were misleading ads promoting interest-free offers that often left a balance to be paid.