Beats Electronics©: Branding Assignment Report
Beats
Electronics©
BRANDING ASS IGNMENT
REPORT
Team 15:
Aljereau Marten (455774) Archontia Fefekou( 457456)  Harry Kermode(449866) Miriam Erne(451235)
Venetia Fili (452193)
Beats Electronics©: Branding Assignment Report
Table of Contents
Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................... 1
Brand Category Strength .................................................................................................................................. 2
Consumer Brand Experience ............................................................................................................................ 2
Brand concept.................................................................................................................................................. 3
Brand signaling ................................................................................................................................................. 3
Brand attitude................................................................................................................................................... 3
Brand Positioning .................................................................................................................................................. 4
Brand Elements ..................................................................................................................................................... 5
Brand endorser fit ................................................................................................................................................. 7
Brand alliance ....................................................................................................................................................... 8
Conclusion............................................................................................................................................................. 9
Reference list ...................................................................................................................................................... 10
Beats Electronics©: Branding Assignment Report
Introduction
Beats© is a company that is primarily focusing on stylized headphones and audio accessories. Since the
establishment of Beats© in 2008 (Beats©, 2016) it has grown to become the biggest provider of portable audio
equipment in the world, with annual sales of more than $1 billion (Neate, 2013).It could be argued this rapid
rise through the industry was facilitated through the firm's excellent brand management and marketing
expertise. The following report will discuss these ideas further.
As we are focused on the object center engagement, all the answers below are related to this particular
engagement.
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Beats Electronics©: Branding Assignment Report
Consumer-psychology model
Brand Category Strength
After conducting a field test of the popularity of the headphone brands, the common answer given by
respondents was the Beats© headphone brand. Thus, it is evident that consumers can easily recall the brand
(which means that they have a strong brand awareness and recognition). Sales can be an indicator of
popularity, and since they have the highest amount of sales in comparison to other brands, means that they
are indeed strongly linked to the category.
Consumer Brand Experience
Beats© headphones have a unique and exclusive design with bright colors and
unique shape. They are fashionable and are easy for consumers to recognize.
Beats© offers consumers Headphone customization, thus allowing them to
create a headphone designed to their preferences and therefore distinguishes
Beats© from its competitors.
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Beats Electronics©: Branding Assignment Report
Brand concept
Beats© headphones rely mostly on a symbolic relationship with the consumer.
With their design, shape, sound and popularity they satisfy the lifestyle and
luxury needs of the consumer. “ Styled for comfort. Inspired by sound “ is one
of Beat’s slogans.
Brand signaling
In general, consumers expect a high quality when facing a high priced product.
In Beats© case the high price is more related to the name “Beats by Dr. Dre”, thus consumers value the brand
over the quality and therefore are willing to pay a premium price.
Brand attitude
In comparison to other brands, consumers value the brand image much more than the products functionality
Attitudes for Beats© could be fashion, luxurious, stylish, because the brand product can be identified with
these attitudes. In comparison to Bose which is more focused on functionality. Beats© and Bose both are in
the same category.
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Beats Electronics©: Branding Assignment Report
Brand Positioning
Consumers buy headsets to listen to music and voices. The minimum requirements, in this case, is playback
music. however, in the last years the following features also got more and more important and are PoPs in the
headphones category: Wireless, Noise-Cancelling, Noise Isolation, Battery Life Wireless, Design, On-Ear
Controls, Detachable Cable, Microphone, Sensitivity ("The Headphones Market”) as well as the quality of low, mid- and high-tones, pressure on the ears, nomadism of the headphones, the weight and the size of the
earphones (Specout, 2016). In comparison to similar products, Beats© often score below the others regarding
quality. There must be some specific brand related attributes and or capabilities that distinguish Beats© from
their competitors.
The two main reasons behind the brands’ popularity among consumers are its design and the feeling of prestige
associated with the brand. Beats© are perceived as a fashion accessory and are mainly bought for that reason
(Peattie, 2012), (Philips, 2014) and ("The Headphones Market”).
This can also be seen in the following graph:
The PoDs of Beats© are their product design, lifestyle and the feeling of belongingness. To maintain these
PoDs Beats© should continuously be up to date with fashion trends and current design preferences.
The brand ambassadors try to market the headphone as the best in its category, but it’s well known among
consumers that beats headphones do not have the best technical attributes among functionality focused
brands. If they were to improve their brand in this aspect they would outperform their competitors as they
already provide a superior design (Tesseras, 2016).
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Beats Electronics©: Branding Assignment Report
Brand Elements
Memorability
Brand name
Logo
Packaging
As defined by Oxford
dictionary a beat is “the
main accent or rhythmic
unit in music or poetry” and
the name of the company
therefore related directly to
music
The logo is memorable
because everyone it is just
one letter “b,” the design of
the logo is not complex.
Yes, because the
brand name and
logo is memorable
and the packaging
consists both of
them.
Moreover,
the color is always
consistent
(black
and red)
Yes, it meaningful
because it shows
that
it
is
a
headphone.
Meaningfulness The name Beats© is also The logo is memorable
meaningful, because you
can connect the word
“beats” to music and you
need the gadget to listen to
music like a headphone.
Likability
Due to the popularity of the
brand, it would most likely
score high on likeability
Adaptability
The name Beats© should be
adaptable in the future,
because the meaning of the
word itself will not be
different in 10 years. We
assume that as long as
electronic music will be
popular, the word “beats”
will be popular as well.
The name Beats© can easily
be transferred to other
music-related
products,
such
as
musical
instruments, speakers, and
so on. When transferring
Beats© to other geographic
and cultural countries the
name itself may need to be
adapted since it is an English
word.
Transferability
because it is simple and it
represents the first capital
“b” of the name Beats©.
Moreover, the logo is
connected to a headphone,
since
viewing
the
headphone from the side, it
looks like a head (red circle)
wearing a headphone
(white headphone).
The latest logo design trend
is flat icons and Beats©
follows this trend.
It is adaptable because it is
easy to redefine
The logo Beats© can easily
be transferred to other
music related products
Yes it is likable
because the inside is
simply designed and
when opening up it
feels
like
unwrapping a gift
Yes, you can simply
change the design of
a package to fit
current trends
Yes, you can simply
pack other Beats©
products the same
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Beats Electronics©: Branding Assignment Report
Protect ability
The name Beats© is a
common word, so it cannot
be legally protected to
decrease the threat of
infringement.
Can easily be copied, for
example when changing
the shape of the letter “b.”
No, you cannot
protect a design of a
package.
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Beats Electronics©: Branding Assignment Report
Brand endorser fit
Beats©, as a primarily aspirational brand, utilized a large number of diverse and popular endorsers to promote
itself (Edwards, 2012). Up to now, these endorsers have fallen into two distinct categories, musicians, and
athletes. When choosing these endorsers, it is evident Beats© considered both of the essential characteristics
of attractiveness and expertise (Kamins, 1990) which has resulted in a positive but more importantly credible
message (Clow and Baack 2007). In the case of musicians the expertise argument is easy to make. By nature of
their profession, musicians presumably hold a high level of proficiency in the area of sound and audio design.
This gives weight to the discussion of the headphones technical prowess as purely a piece of hardware.
Musicians are also a strong fit when it comes to selling Beats© as a fashion accessory; this is because the
company has selected ones with large followings, who are respected and have a positive image. When this is
taken into account, these endorsers have a high level of attractiveness.
It could be argued the use of athletes as endorsers are not a brilliant fit due to their lack of perceived expertise
in the area of audio quality (attractiveness, for athletes, is just as high as musicians for mostly the same
reasons). However, the advertisements that feature athletes cleverly rephrase this issue. This is most apparent
in Beats© “game before the game” series in which famous sports stars mentally prepare themselves for their
chosen
activity
while
listening
to
music
through
their
Beats©
headphones
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_i3Lcjli84). This means although Neymar is not an expert in the quality
of audio produced by his headphones, he is a specialist when it comes to football. It is heavily implied Neymar's
expertise in football is at least partly a result of his excellent pre-match preparation of which his headphones
play a vital role. The line of reasoning follows: Neymar is an expert footballer. Therefore he must be an expert
in himself and in knowing what makes him perform, Neymar has the budget and incentives to maximize his
performance fully. Therefore Neymar is choosing to listen to Beats© headphones because they are the best
at making him perform. Through this logic, it can be argued the use of athletes be also an excellent fit for
Beats© because, like musicians, they have high levels of attractiveness and expertise.
In our opinion, as an area of improvement, Beats© could easily pivot into actors and actresses using a similar
formula to that of athletes. In example by focusing on the preparation phase before a performance. For an
actor, this would resemble achieving the correct mindset or emotion for a scene while using music delivered
by Beats© headphones. As a possible limitation, Beats© as a brand tends to focus on upbeat, positive and
beat-heavy pop music (https://play.spotify.com/user/irisis/playlist/03T0l8dJ27Z4uZ6FbwFsLd). This could only
be applied to fast paced movie scenes featuring some form of action; this, therefore, limits endorser
possibilities to actors taking part in these scenes. Possible candidates would include any actors working in
Marvels superhero cinematic universe including Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Downey Jr., Tom Hiddleston, Hugh
Jackman and Scarlett Johansson.
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Beats Electronics©: Branding Assignment Report
Brand alliance
Regardless of the popular opinion of Beats headphones not having the best technical qualities, in comparison
to other popular brands, they still are one of the most popular headphone brands out there. A manner of
improving brand awareness is by exposure, which can easily be attained by a brand alliance between two or
more companies (Salah & Mohamed, 2013). A brand alliance between Beats and an airline brand would be
quite beneficial for their exposure as they would acquire access to a new market segment.
The Emirates Airlines are currently the highest ranking airline in the world (Skyrax, 2016), and one of the factors
which contribute to their success is their prioritization of in-flight entertainment. They claim that the in-flight
entertainment system is for many a vital factor, especially for long flights. According to their standards, the
qualities of an in-flight headphone to maximize experience are, good sound quality, noise reduction, and it
should be comfortable (class, 2015). Beats© headphones possess all of the headphone qualities required by
Emirates airline to provide high-quality in-flight entertainment. Thus an alliance to enhance their brands can
be easily established.
By joining forces with the airline, they would be able to provide the headphone brand with exposure to a
different segment of the market. In addition to the previously mentioned, the alliance would also reinforce
trust for the brands among consumers as both brands are at the top of their category (Upamannyu, Gulati, &
Mathur, 2014). The appearance of these two brands together in a working alliance would have a positive
impact on the consumer perception of their brands (Hao, 2015).
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Beats Electronics©: Branding Assignment Report
Conclusion
Taking into consideration all the above, Beats by Dr. Dre is a remarkable brand with excellent reputation and
sales so far. With its unique design, it is already distinguished from its competitors. Moreover, it has created
strong associations with its consumers (reliability, uniqueness, superiority) and as a result, they are found to
be dedicated and staunch to the brand.
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Beats Electronics©: Branding Assignment Report
Reference list
Beats© by dr. dre. (2016). Beats© Solo 3 Wireless. Retrieved September 19, 2016, from http://uk.Beats©
bydre.com/headphones/browse-headphones/wirelessheadphones/MNEN2.html?icid=internal_HomePage_na_GNS_UK_na_RoseGoldSolo3WLTout
Beats© by dr. dre. (2016). People aren't hearing all the music. Retrieved September 19, 2016, from
http://uk.Beats© bydre.com/aboutus
Berman, J. (2016, March 21). Trying to Beat Beats© in the Headphone Category Remains a Challenge.
Retrieved September 19, 2016, from http://hometheaterreview.com/trying-to-beat-Beats© -in-the
headphone-category-remains-a-challenge/
class, B. (2015, may 20). Retrieved from Business Class: http://www.businessclass.co.uk/
Clow, K. E., and Baack, D. E. (2007), Integrated Advertising, Promotion, and Marketing Communications (3rd
ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Edwards, C. (2012) Beats©
electronics is breaking
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-01-12/Beats©
(Accessed: 17 September 2016).
up with monster. Available at:
-electronics-is-breaking-up-with-monster
Hao, A. W. ( 2015). Reexamination of Brand Alliance Evaluation Model: The Effects of the Overall Fit between
Partner Brands on Consumer Brand Alliance Evaluation. Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, vol. 19 No. 1.
how To Create A Global Brand Like Beats by Dr. Dre. (n.d.). Retrieved September 20, 2016, from
http://www.naijapreneur.com/beats-by-dr-dre-marketing-strategies/
Kamins, M.A. (1990) ‘An investigation into the “Match-up” hypothesis in celebrity advertising: When beauty
may be only skin deep’, Journal of Advertising, 19(1), pp. 4–13. doi: 10.1080/00913367.1990.10673175.
Neate,
R.
(2013,
September
29).
Retrieved
September
19,
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/sep/27/dr-dre-Beats© -1bn-carlyle-sale
2016,
from
Peattie, M. (2012, May 5). Why are Dre Beats© headphones so popular? Retrieved September 18, 2016, from
https://www.quora.com/Why-are-Dre-Beats© -headphones-so-popular
Philips, T., Jnr. (2014). 5 Beats© by Dr. Dre Marketing Strategies for Entrepreneurs. Retrieved September 18,
2016, from http://www.naijapreneur.com/Beats© -by-dr-dre-marketing-strategies/
Specout.
(2016).
Compare
Headphones.
Retrieved
September
18,
2016,
from
http://headphones.specout.com/compare/6307-6563-6690-7419/Sennheiser-Momentum-2-0-Wireless-vsParrot-Zik-3-vs-Beats© -by-Dre-Solo-2-Wireless-vs-Bose-QuietComfort-35
Salah, E., & Mohamed, Y. (2013). Brand Alliance, a strategy to enter new markets and a tool for positioning.
Journal of Knowledge Management, Economics and information technology, 62-68.
Skyrax.
(2016).
http://www.worldairlineawards.com/.
http://www.worldairlineawards.com/awards/world_airline_rating.html
Retrieved
from
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Beats Electronics©: Branding Assignment Report
SONOS LOGO BRINGS THE BEAT. (2015, January 31). Retrieved September 20, 2016, from
https://bus265joshuablum.wordpress.com/2015/01/31/3-4-sonos-lego-brings-the-beat/
Tesseras,
L.
(2016,
January
14).
Retrieved
September
18,
2016,
from
https://www.marketingweek.com/2016/01/14/Beats©
-cmo-on-dr-dre-apple-and-unconventionalmarketing/
The Headphones Market. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2016, from https://brandsaudit.wordpress.com/theheadphones-market/
The Beats’ Motto: “Sound matters”. (n.d.). Retrieved September
https://skemaheadphonebrandsaudit.wordpress.com/beats-vs-bose/beats/
20,
2016,
from
Upamannyu, N. K., Gulati, C., & Mathur, G. (2014). EFFECT OF BRAND TRUST, BRAND IMAGE ON CUSTOMER
BRAND LOYALTY IN FMCG SECTOR AT GWALIOR REGION. ScholarsWorld, Vol II , 85-93.
Warc.
(2015,
August
6).
Retrieved
September
18,
2016,
http://www.warc.com/LatestNews/News/Influencers_are_key_for_Beats© _by_Dre.news?ID=35188
from
Why Fancy Headphones Got So Incredibly Popular. (2014, May 29). Retrieved September 19,2016,from
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/29/popular-headphones_n_5360641.html
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