Positioning Beats Dr Dre Headphones

Anyone who is exposed to rap or pop music has noticed Beats headphones by Monster Cable Inc. This new brand has managed to offset the other well-known manufacturers of headphones by creating lust for this product. Beats by Dr. Dre is a brand that people want to own. These headphones are differentiated by their brand name as well as their high-quality sound. If it weren't for the merge of these two attributes Beats would have a hard time competing against the others established manufacturers3. They also use Apple as a main distributor to create a technologically forward, cool and modern image in the mind of customers. Furthermore, studies have proven that music enthusiasts often emulate the artists they like and are likely to buy the products they wear or represent. Beats Electronics takes advantage of this understanding of the consumer and used this knowledge as their defined competitive advantage. In fact, celebrity endorsements and product placement in the music industry and partnerships with athletes is this company’s biggest asset (See Product Placement for Current Market, Appendix C). Beats Headphones has a personalized artist range with contributions from Justin Bieber with JustBeats, LeBron James with PowerBeats, and Lady Gaga with HeartBeats to name just a few of them. Star power is critical to the brand's success4. This positions Beats as fashionable and luxurious, and brings high-quality sound the consumer knows and trusts.

In order to better comprehend how to market our product, we need to have an in-depth understanding of our customer. Briefly, our customer is in an older age group. The current market for Beats by Dr. Dre Headphones targets a mostly teen-aged market. A market survey done by the NDP group shows that, on average, consumers said they bought a new pair of headphones every 14 months, but teenagers reported buying new headphones more often than any other group of consumers. Forty-one percent of 13-17 year olds bought new