- The history and the foundation of Beats
- Dr Dre’s skill of targeting the market
- The Ascension of Beats By Dre Products and The Downfall
The co-owner of Beats was Dr Dre and he was the face of the company. The specific push that encouraged him to start Beats was Apple iPods. Apple was making USD$ 400 iPods but with USD $1 eyephones.
On the other hand, he took this as an insult because he could spend much time in the studio mixing and mastering his tracks. Unfortunately, no one could appreciate his work because of the poor sound quality earphones that were sold to the majority.
Dr Dre took this as an opportunity, he joined up with his business partner Jimmy Lovine and built an exclusive pair of headphones. Their first product spiked out, mainly because Dr Dre had many connections with popular people, for instance, before they launched out their new headphones, they sent out 15 pairs to Lebron James the famous Basketball player. This was a solid move because the product ended upon on the heads of the United States Olympic Team of Basket Ball and that was an ultimate exposure.
In the same line, they give out the products to other famous figures like Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, she had earphones made after her and also David Guetta had also a pair of headphones that were made after him. They made sure that they give the product to these celebrities before they get into their tours, shows or vacation trips.
Furthermore, Beats earphones and headphones were not the only products with good sound quality, in other words, the products were not even the best but they were able to target their market effectively. Many people were drawn by the product because seeing their childhood heroes with beats encouraged them to get the product. Through this strong target, marketing Beats managed to gain 70% of the premium headphones market, with headphones that only cost $ 20 to make.
Also, they went on making a deal with HP to integrate Beats audio into laptops. They also established their music subscription services on mobile.
In 2014 beats was bought by Apple and this was the beginning of the end of Beats. Apple bought beats to dissect the product not to use the brand name.
In other words, they bought beats to fill up Apple products. Apple practically pillaged audio engineers, talent, ideas and their tech and they used them to make AirPods, AirPods Pro and AirPods max.
Apple is investing very little in Beats Products because they are shifting the developments to the apple sound products, for instance, the speakers, earphones and headphones.
