The phenomenon that is 'beats by dre' has grown to become the greatest music accessory since the advent of the i pod, but what makes beats by dre so successful? Even in the face of competition from soul by ludacris and
In my opinion, the 3 factors that lead to its gargantuan market success are:
THE BRAND/PRODUCT DESIGN
From its minimalist logo that fits so perfectly on the earcups to the sleek, slender and innovative product design, beats didn’t just raise the bar on design it removed it!!
One thing you must understand is that there are a thousand and one headphones out there that all look the same . They pioneered this look that has now been copied by smaller challenger brands and competitors, they sat through rigorous processes with tons of prototype designs and finally found the diamond.
They made them comfortable to wear and despite the bulky size, they found a way to compact them for easy transportation, complete with a sexy carry case. (I know how annoying it is to want to pack your head phones in your laptop bag and have them bulge out.)
I can’t categorically say beats pioneered this but they damn sure made it popular.
Finally they packaged it with heartfelt sentiment from the man behind the name, and unique and stylish profile images of the headphones.Something I don’t think has ever been done.
The flag ship product are the head phones but did you know they had earphones as well and not to mention some of the most innovatively designed speakers, such as the aptly named pill, which for all intents and purposes, looks just like, well…a pill and, as they said, “its just what the ‘dr’ ordered”. Witty isn't it?
The engaging yet simple colour palette of BLACK AND RED, supported by white and basically all the shades of grey (no pun intended) known to man, makes for a very sophisticated look and feel most especially experienced on the official website. The layout of the site is simple with a white background and hi-res images of the products so you can take it all in, not to mention the pictures and videos of celebrities that effectively market the headphones along with the simple yet catchy “b” campaign to promote its ‘show your colour” contest. (I especially like the b triumphant with TI – befittingly epic)
The truth remains that beats was perfectly branded. It’s not trying too hard, or being to minimalist, it’s just exquisite in an effortless manner with design solutions that still have me scratching my head.
THE PRODUCT QUALITY
Now I’m no audio engineer or sound designer, but truth be told beats delivers on sound quality. I know there are better options out there that are known for their unapproachable quality but beats delivers. I know there are the b and o’s and the nakamichi’s and the bose’s that pioneered high quality sound but still, beats delivers. I won’t bore you with technical mumbo-jumbo, you have google for that, but, the point is, unlike a good number of failed celebrity endorsed brands (planet Hollywood/Sylvester stallone, early 90’s stuff for you kids out there), beats did not skimp on quality just ‘cause they had Dr.Dre’s name on the packaging, they made sure they delivered quality that could compete if not outdo the ‘chairmen’ of the sound industry.
See here for technical review.
THE MARKETING
Now this is key to the success of any consumer product. No matter how good the branding or how good the product, without the right marketing its doomed to fail. In this regard, beats excelled. The story starts from the studio of the Dr. Himself, tired of having his fans listen to his audio masterpieces on wack earphones and not "hearing all the music”, he decided to make his very own headphones for his ardent listeners to “hear what the artists hear, and listen to the music the way they should: the way he does".
Great brand story, but, truth be told he wanted to make sneakers originally and on one fateful day while strolling on the beach (so cliché) with Interscope Records chief Jimmy Iovine, Mr.Iovine suggested they “Forget sneakers,” and “Sell speakers!”. So now the stage was set, next step? Celebrity models. What better way to market your headphones than get Lady Gaga (ewww!) Justin Bieber ( ewww again!!) and LeBron James (egbon!) to wear them, and have your logo appear in their music videos and t.v. interviews. What follows is a frenzy of fans and even more celebrities from dwayne “the rock” Johnson to TI and P.Diddy geared up in these things. That catapulted the product from a mere audio accessory to a fashion accessory that can now be spotted on people anywhere from Lisbon to Lagos. Just take a look at their facebook page to see what I'm saying.
The real ‘killer’ came in the recently concluded summer Olympic games, where a ‘collection point’ was set up by beats to give out, not sell, GIVE OUT headphones to invited athletes.
This strategy was able to meander through the overtly stringent marketing and publicity guidelines for the Olympics and not cost beats the $100 million paid by the major sponsors (all 11 of them) but still give beats the same if not more brand exposure because who else is the camera going to be on, other than the athletes.
Even though Olympic sponsor Panasonic stepped in to ban athletes from wearing them later on it didn’t stop beats’ sales figures from increasing by a whooping 116 per cent shortly after the start of the games.
Aside from these they also have strong alliances with leading brands such as hp, htc and Chrysler (beats audio). All boosting the brand even more on a corporate scale.
So there you have it the formula for success if you have a product to sell, but in case you’re still not convinced, here are a couple of numbers:
Beats captured 53 percent of the $1 billion headphone market in 2011, according to market researcher NPD Group, despite the fact that it is the highest priced ($210-$500 or N32 000 –N75 000) among most of the consumer headphones notably the 2 rivals earlier mentioned.
Dr. Dre and Mr. Iovine sold 51 per cent of their Beats Electronics company to the Taiwanese technology company HTC for a whopping $309m ($110m entered the Dr.’s pocket).
Nuff said, Bless.
If you’d like to see what appears to be a detailed marketing plan for beats go here.
If you’d like to see what the competition looks like, go here and here.
If you’d like to see a now muscular Dr.dre throwing a paint ball on some kid wearing his headphones go here.
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