Beats Electronics had mainly been using mass communication, but with the opening of their first retail store, they will now also be using interpersonal communication.
Their key communication element is through the Internet.Beat Electronics main tool of engaging with the consumer/PR is through Facebook and Twitter, which are now the biggest social networks.
So far they have 834,717 people who 'Like' their Facebook page and are constantly updated with the latest news on Beats products and are able to comment and voice their opinions/concerns/ratings. There is also constant updates on their Twitter page, and consumer questions answered daily.
Beats by Dr.Dre is opening their first store! It opened today November 2 at 12pm in NYC SOHO.
At today's grand opening their will be a custom Beats cake. The first few people who purchase Beats headphones will be receiving VIP access to a private party tonight.
Type of Consumer Product:
Beats headphones can be considered as a shopping product-a product that requires comparison shopping because its usually more expensive than a convenience product and its found in fewer stores.
Their product mix-all products it sells- consist of more than one product line.
A product line is a group of closely relater product items.
Beats has product lines of:
-Over Ear headphones
-In Ear headphones
-Artist Series
-New variety of colors --(Studio headphones)
Adding the new colors can be seen as product line extension-adding additional products to an existing product line in a n order to compete more broadly in the industry.
Branding:
Beats success is mainly because of their branding.
Beats by Dr.Dre has become a brand name through the creator Dr.Dre, who is a world known producer/artist/rapper. The brand mark used is a lower case B, this is easily recognized as the Dr.Dre brand name when people see the mark.
Although Beats Electronic has their trade mark over the product, their is also another brand mark on their products and that is of the Monster Cable Company. Beats Electronics are only a limited liability company and their main partnership is with the Monster Cable Company, so they are co branding.
Packaging: "come in a beautifully designed carrying case withanti-microbial cleaning cloths, a special Monster headphone cable, a mini-stereo to ¼-inch stereo cable adapter, as well as Monster’s iSonitalk, a microphone/headphone adapter for iPhones."
Warranty: As long as your headphones were purchased from an authorized Monster Cable retailer and can provide a copy of the receipt, the warranty is valid from the original purchase date. The receipt validates the manufacturer's warranty, which covers any possible manufacturer defects. It does not cover abuse, lost or stolen product(s).
Beats Electronics does not really use sales promotion for their products. In certain retail locations (like Best Buy) they have point-of-purchase displays, these are displays used to promote their product. These stations let you 'Hear The Difference' for yourself. Here they have their newest headphones and Beats Audio laptops for you to test out.
Besides P-O-P displays, you can find a few other sales promotions. You are only able to find their products at certain percentage discounts through their authorized retailers like Amazon. There you can find some Beats product on discount for 15% and also people selling their used products. Retail stores like Best Buy, also offers the headphones at a discount percentage.
(P-O-P displays that can be found at some retail stores)
Beats by Dr.Dre is not really known for it's advertising. They barely have any commercials, no magazine ads, radio or internet ads. The reasoning is logical, spending on advertising varies by industry. Headphones are not something you see, if ever, constantly advertised . Yet, Beats has managed become a brand name through their creator Dr.Dre, without much advertising.
You can say that the type of advertising used is comparative. Their product has superior quality to other brands and they offer you the quality deserved. Which takes you to their common theme, and that is that beats headphones are headphones that let you, Hear the music the way the artist intended and that Sound Really Matters.
You can find some printed ads at retail stores that use the common theme and a picture of the headphones, with a black background. The main colors Beats uses are Red, Black and White.
One of the few commercials specifically for the headphones, is one not even shown in the US but in Korea. :
Here is another one advertising the HP Touchsmart, but using the same common theme of the company:
Their public relation strategy is through their official website. Here they introduce their new products and existing products. Their newest products are placed to be seen as soon as you enter their website. They also post press/news. Another main source, is also their Facebook page, which is constantly updated with the latest news.
Through their YouTube website, they have videos called Beats By Dr.Dre Presents, and future artist talking about the latest Beats products.
Beats by Dr.Dre does not have their own company retailing store but has franchise partnerships. They used a product and trade name franchising, were the dealer agrees to sell certain products provided by a manufacturer or a wholesaler. Their biggest retailing partnerships are Apple and Best Buy.
They have also taken the road of nonstore retailing by making products available through electronic retailing.
Online retailing is available through their official Beats By Dr.Dre website, as well as their partnerships websites.
Retailing Marketing Strategy:
Having already identified their company's target market as teens and the Generation Y, the location is strategically planned. By having the product in the Apple store, they are able to target teens and career minded people, who are buying iPhones and ipod/itouch. The same goes for having their product in specialty stores like Best Buy that offers variety of electronics.
Beats uses Need Recognition to advertise. They express that regular headphones don't have the quality sound like the Beats by Dr. Dre headphones.
---A marketing managers objective to get customers to recognize an imbalance between their present status and their preferred status.
External stimuli- design, brand name(dr.dre), headphones seen in music videos.
To get the people to see that the headphones are better quality, compare to the headphones they have now...
Internal Information Search-the person recalls information stored in memory.
Beats uses this to their advantage by letting people experience the difference in the quality of the sound. They have their headphones available in display at stores like Best Buy were u can listen to a sample of music with their headphones and with regular headphones. Even if you didn't go to the store to try out the headphones most people will stop and try it, the same way people stop to try the Apple products on display. People would look back and remember the difference and may want to go buy them.
(From personal experience, I tried the headphones a few years ago and will always remember that the sound from the Beats headphones sounded much better.)
External Information: info. from outside environment.
Non marketing controlled information is everywhere thanks to the Internet. There's plenty of blogs that share that Beats is more than just a brand name product , and that actually delivers it's objectives. There's also thousand of videos on YouTube, where people show off and review their new Beats headphones.
Beats also has marketing controlled information, also through YouTube, their own official website and other websites like Facebook. They have a Facebook page where they constantly update it's customers with information on their product, events and pictures.
Culture and social factors influence people to buy Dr.Dre headphones...
Music has become an essential factor of American culture. Music is available at all times and no matter where. Music is on tv, the Internet, mp3 players,iPods, and cell phones. Now all of these are combined into one (smartphone) so music is always with you. It is normal today to see a person walking around listening to music.
People are socially influenced by artist and celebrities that they listen to all the time. Beats recognizes this by not only advertising their headphones through music videos but by showing people that these artist they look up to, have bought these headphones and thus, their fans are influenced to buy them
Beats is also able to target specific people by designing headphones inspired by an artist and making them available to the public. For example, by launching the new JustBeats headphones inspired by Justin Bieber, they are able to target the millions of teenage girls who are fans of him.
