The Values of Beats Headphones - Coursework Example

Beat by Dr. Dre affiliation Executive summary The paper talks about the Beats brand of products by Dr. Dre that manufactures Beats headphone. Beats success is a manifestation of great strategies of marketing employed ion marketing that saw the company outshining all the others in the market. The Beats success is attributed to its ability to master the needs of the consumer and target them precisely to their satisfaction. The paper also talks of what the Beats should do to be able to extend its market abroad despite its success in United States. Contents Executive summary 2 Contents 3 Introduction 4 Background 5 Beats by Dr. Dre 5 Bibliography 11 Introduction The different ways through which people have been listening to music has changed tremendously over the past years. Before the era of iPod and smartphone erupting, vinyl records and radio were the main ways through which music was being listened. The next era saw the emergence of cassettes, and then followed by compact discs and more recently; there was the emergence of MP3 players. The media we use to enjoy music with has gone through great evolution, and our needs towards listening to high-quality music have changed with media. People who are enthusiastic about music are expecting a high-quality ball around when coming to music and as a result of this, the trends has undergone changes and this has also resulted to the patterns of purchase. In the past years, report indicated increasing amount of sales of the vinyl records. Earbuds turned to be a way of listening to music ever since the introduction of the iPod. However, most recent, there has been an increase in the use of ear buds as a new way of listening to music. The most popular earbuds are the Beats by Dr. Dre, which has gained popularity in the United States. Due to the great popularity created by the beast it, therefore, has a great opportunity for extending its market globally. Background Unlike the other headphones that were already in existence in the market, Dr. Dre Beats headphones were created for not just the lovers of music, but precisely for a certain type of music lovers. In this case, the hip-hop lovers were mainly targeted. The sound engineering used to make the headphones were tuned using the track of 50 cent. This was enough to define the targeted market, which the product was targeting, and that is the hip-hop community. The deep knowledge that the company has on its customers makes the critical winning difference for the Beats brand from the beginning (RO, 2007. pp. 23-67). Beats by Dr. Dre One way that can be used to measure the values of Beats headphones is through its customer value evaluation. Dre’s Beats are not cheap by any means. Beats offer six different headphones and the headphone that is least expensive is the solos that cost the customer around two hundred dollars inclusive of tax. However, when the form utility of this product is into, one can see that a balance between the values that is given to the value being received is in existence. The producer of hip-hop who was iconic and rapper Dr. Dre made a partnership with a monster manufacturer that was dealing with high-end audio equipment to launch a new brand. This mixed the different parts of design and marketing acumen. This collaboration was successful and resulted to quality, great sounding headsets that had features of noise calling technology that helped to produce a bass and clear treble as well. These new brands of headsets were able to compete with other brands of headphones in the market such as Bose and Sony, today beat brand is by the majority of the market population. Martin (2011) states that the Beats by Dr. Dre headphones were not only designed for sound purposes but also add something extra that made them stand out amidst stiff competition in the market from all the other alternatives that existed. The headphones not only sounded better but “cooler” in appearance. They were specifically designed to be a fashion statement more than just another gadget to be by the consumer compared to the other already existing headphones in the market. The headphones by Dr. Dre were not only for listening to music but also acted as an accessory for the fashion. This clear differentiation of the Beats from other market headphones is their deep knowledge on their targeted customers. What the company knew was that the consumers of their products, who form their market segment, do care much about the looks of their products as they care about the great sounds. This brand of headphone was given an irresistible appeal when the two powerful value propositions were combined. What Beats wanted was to make cool headphones that the market will love to purchase. Beats have been successful selling its brand in America unlike abroad. For it to be success across the borders of the United States into far markets such as European and Asian markets, it had to conduct an internal analysis and external analysis to be a platform for its execution and marketing campaign. Internal analysis was focusing on the organizational capacities were inherent while the external analysis was focusing on the factors that were contextual to the organization. Beats were first introduced in the market in 2009 and has done better to penetrate the market as time goes. Its sales grew from 1.8 billion dollars in 2011 to a remarkable 2.4 billion dollars in 2012. Despite the competition that had been observed to be increasing, Beats have been able to stand its ground and be the market leader. Its Christmas period sales made Beats have forty percent of all the headphones sold in the United States, and this makes it closer to seventy percent premium priced of headphones sold. Its revenues in 2012 rose from two hundred and ninety-eight (298) million to five hundred and nineteen (519) million. There is no existence of doubt that Dr. Dre’s Beats are doing well internally. However, external factors can pose a serious threat when it comes to the economy. It cannot be considered a secret that the economy had dropped and in turn affecting the people as well. With the Beats headphones being high, there is a risk in trying to market in difficult economic times. However, the sale of Beats has been increasing as years goes by according to research. Dr. Dre’s Beats would get most benefits from quantitative research to get themselves be familiar to the foreign markets and the consumers purchasing patterns. As a vital piece of information for a beat, it is finding out which celebrities and artists are the most respected and most popular to get associated with. The company has been able to collaborate with popular artists who offered exclusive sets that were inspired by the artists and other celebrities who have been spotted with the stylish beat headsets. Beat was buying many adverts when it came to marketing its products. The marketing was done in their way. So far, the marketing method and strategy used seems to be working for the company, and its market will be successful if the company sticks with these marketing strategies in the foreign countries. Currently, Beats is the top headphone selling company with its demographic targets ranging from seventeen to thirty-five years of age. High chances are that this statics can also be carried forward to the new markets in Europe and Asia. Beat uses a simple campaign of suing a few big names from the countries that have been selected to endorse the product. This happens along with the use of mass-market channels of messaging to the appropriate consumers who are targeted. The best effective and beneficial means of measuring the marketing campaign effectiveness are by using the calculation if return on investment. Once the Beats establishes itself in the foreign markets and keep on running, it is not only good to calculate the investments returns, but also establishing a system between the management and the customers relationship that will be useful as well. Customer relationship management system report useful to the Beats is the customer metrics. This will be in measuring the satisfaction of the customers, engagement, loyalty and risk for any attrition. This kind of information will prove to be advantageous to the Beats since it will allow the beat to make a choice in regard to a better market segments to target. Through verification of certain criteria, beat has been able to choose the best market segments. To merit the expense, the segment should be available in the marketplace in numbers that are sufficient in a way that is readily identifiable and able to serve profitably. Concerning the external factors that may play a role in affecting the trends of beat sales in foreign markets, beat had to generate new ways of avoiding the risks of the effect of the economic environment. This could be able to determine whether there are chances of good or bad effect on the sales of the product depending on the stage that the economy is going through. Beat has also made itself aware of the trends in Asia as being lack of available data publicly. The information in this areas helped beat knows to what extent the environmental risk can influence the company. According to Garrahan (2013), Beats headphones had successful sales and transcended across a harsh market due to its strategies that have proved to be successful. What the Beats did was to make something simple for the consumers. It did not bother to notify its consumers on the special technology that was used in manufacturing the product nor did it bother about the products design. In addition, in the wake of 2008 recession, the Beats by Dr. Dre headphones launched the electronic market be the consumer that sold for four hundred dollars, and this defied the laws of economics. In the same period, the alternative headphones that existed in the market sold for twenty dollars. The brains that were behind the making of the Beats brand did not position it as another electronic product; if this was the case then Beats would have been reduced to a mere commodity. Rather, Beats were positioned as something more because of the marketing proposition they had developed strategically. For the Beats to work and survive effectively until today they did not just stop in their mission of making music sound, as it should just with the use of headphones, they dug and went even further. They took their beat idea to sound technology into Chrysler 300s, Fiat 500s, Hp computers and Dodge Chargers. This idea of expansion made Beats popularity soars high beyond any other existing alternatives in the market. With the immediate success experienced by Dr. Dre’s beat in the united states, other competitors begun to enter the headphone market to compete with the beat. Despite the competitors presenting with celebrities, they still sell their products in the market at the same price as beat. The competitor’s decision to keep their products in the high-end price range allowed them to compete with the beat without allowing the consumer to have the impression of less value being involved. Despite the stiff competition in the market, beat has been able to grow and maintain its market both locally and internationally (Lautenslager, 2014. pp. 154-381). Conclusion Beats by Dr. Dre came into the music technology market at the right moment when the consumers are starting to see a major transformation begin. Music has come from far, and there are no signs of entrepreneurs in this field slowing down and bringing out something new. Although, over the past years has seen the music industry decline, there are fewer chances for it to go down further since Beats has proven to be successful so far in the music sector. The bar has been raised to the way individuals experience music by Beats not just in the United States, but across borders to other countries as well. If Beats market itself properly across the borders of the United States, it will certainly grow much more in its investments. Beats have only just shown us the beginning on how individuals hear and experience music, if the company continues, they will definitely change the way individually listen to everything else. The success story of Beats, using great strategies in the market, is a true testament to the facts that great products in the market alone sell themselves without being accompanied by great marketing strategies. Bibliography Garrahan, M. (2013). Dr Dre Beats new paths in music. Retrieved from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/70a003d4-5bd7-11e2-bf31- 00144feab49a.html#axzz2NouRQeYr Martin, J.A. (2011). Headphones with Swagger (and lots of Bass). Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/business/Beats-headphones-expand-dr-dres- business-world.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 Lautenslager, A. (2014). Market like you mean it: engage customers, create brand believers, and gain fans for everything you sell. pp. 154- 381 RO, R. (2007). Dr. Dre: the biography. New York, Thunders Mouth Press. pp. 23-67 Read More