Phala Miller, Ashton Forti, Tanner Bates,

Whitney Allen, Anthony Wojas, and Zach Harris

Group 2
ADVR 3100-003

1. I dentify the new product
We belong to the company Beats Electronics. The music producer Jimmy Lovine and the
famous rapper Dr Dre created the company in 2006. In 2008, Beats by Dr Dre headphones and
earphones were manufactured and distributed under the license Monster Cable Products.
The success was immediate and progressive. In 2009 the market share of headphones
Beats by Dr Dre was 9%, and in 2010 it reached 26.8% market share. Our brand peak in 2012,
Beats Electronics had 51% of market share of headphones estimated at over one billion dollars.
During the summer of 2011, HTC bought a 51% stake in the company for $ 300 million.
HTC became the majority shareholder. The five year contract between Monster and Beats has
not been renewed. This separation is due to a financial disagreement. Monster will therefore have
to compete with its older products, which accounted for 60% of its turnover.
Today Beats Brand is always the leader in terms of headphones and earphones, and the
main goal is to offer high quality musical experience, each sensitive stage of life of the
consumer.
Beats wants to launch a new product to be different on the Market for headphones,
because the competition has become harder with its main competitors which are Bose,
Sennheiser, Wesc and Monster. We are Minds over Matter and our new product is called Plugs
by Beats; it is new device to listen music, which takes the form of Plugs. Our device is the most
discreet headphone created; it works with wireless and cell phone app. The principle is very
simple people have Plugs on their ears permanently. When they want to listen to music they
launch the app on their cell phones and the wireless activates directly headphones and people can
start to listen music.
2. Explain the research you would conduct:
Our target audience is musically driven, active members of society. Our product, Plugs by
Beats allows the consumer to enjoy music whenever they desire. Consumers can listen to Plugs
by Beats at work, at school or on the go. Our product is not going to interfere or slow down our
consumers active lives in any way.
Target Audience:
Innovative music lovers
Technology savvy consumers
Innovative music lovers and technology savvy consumers will be targeted by Plugs by
Beats. Minds over Matter feels that these particular members of society will enjoy the style and
easy access of music from our product. We are targeting innovators of society. Plugs by Beats
will be the newest innovative music product on the market, so innovative music lovers will not
miss the opportunity to see what our product is all about.
Demographic Characteristics
Gender: Male and Female
Age: 15-30 years old
Life Stage: Plugs by beats targets young individuals that are currently in school, or just entering
the working field
Education: Current high school and college students, High school graduates, college graduates,
pre- professional school graduates
Socio-economic status: middle class
Most of the audience members likely live in urban areas or larger cities that are very
active. Plugs by Beats can target cities by looking at the areas where our consumers will match
up the best both demographically and geographically.
Minds over Matter is very interested in figuring out our consumers everyday lives,
reasons for purchases, and personal behavior. This type of research is very important for figuring
out what our consumers want in a product. Plugs by Beats is targeting a unique audience that has
not yet been targeted by rival competitors. Minds over Matter is committed to digging deep
inside the minds of our consumers in order to create the best product available.
Our consumers are not afraid to live on the edge and take risk. Sudden changes in our
consumers everyday lives do not particularly upset them. Our consumers have very strong
beliefs and fashion statements. They do not particularly care what the majority of society is
doing because they are comfortable being themselves. Our consumer is likely to start a new trend
for themselves, but does not specifically intend on trying to change society to that trend with
them. Plugs by Beats will have the most success in the hands of innovators and early adopters of
society. Our audience members are very passionate about music and their own lifestyle. Their
music choices may be different that the majority of society. Punk and rock genres are what our
audience is perceived to enjoy the most.
Our consumers are emotionally tied to music. Music plays a very important role in our
consumers lives. Our consumers look to music as a way to relive stress or brighten his or her
mood. Music has the power to change peoples feelings. Plugs by Beats will provide motivation,
entertainment, and happiness in the form of music to our consumers. We want our product to be
the reason why our consumer is having a good day because of the music coming from Plugs by
Beats.
Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning
Segmentation is to split a global market segment with respect to a specific criterion.
The term segment, part of the market composed of homogeneous consumers whose
characteristics are different from those of other segments. The target represents the segments or
the company decides to meet priority.
To segment a market, it must first identify criteria related to characteristics of individuals
and can explain their behavior. There are four main types of criteria: demographic, geographic,
psychographic and behavioral social criteria.
We decide to do a segmentation dividing consumer by groups, and each group will
represent fans of kind of music. The segmentation will take this form:
Rap Fans
Jazz Fans
Country Fans
Electronic house fans
Punk fans
Rock Fans
Classical Fans
Also for our segmentation we decide to divide consumers in two categories people who
wear plugs and people who do not wear plugs. The main goal of Targeting is to pick segments
established in the segmentation process and concentrate advertisement efforts on the segments
chosen. For Plugs by Beats, we decide to focus the advertisement efforts on three segments.
The first will be people who are classified like body modifiers in other especially people
who wear plugs or gauges. The second and the third are close, indeed the second segment
regroup people who are fanatic of rock music and the third regroups people who are fanatic of
punk music. Also and this three segments, we will concentrate our advertisement efforts on
people who have between 15 and 30 years old wearing.
We consider Plugs by beats as new product in order to listen music, a new kind of device
very convenient with easy operation to listen music completely different that other devices like
headphones, speakers or earphones. Moreover we are staying in the same strategy that the
previous products of our company and we define our device like product high performance and
quality stereo. The quality of sounds, the comfort and the durability of our device are values,
which are very important for us. The novelty that we will bring to Beats devices is the fashion
accessory. Indeed, Plugs by beats is not only a modern device to listen music, it is also a fashion
accessory that fits into lifestyle of punk and rock population because these people are often
holder of plugs or gauges.
Sources
Two great sources for our product are Chester Bennington and Hayley Williams. Chester
is a very well-known and respected lead singer for Linkin Park. Hayley is also well-known lead
singer for Paramore. We are using Chester to represent the rock target of our product. We are
using Hayley to represent the punk target of our product. Both sources bring a twist and a flare to
our product. Chester brings the credibility and shows consumers that any musician will enjoy our
product. Hayley brings the attractiveness to our product and shows the consumer that attractive
people buy our product. Chester and Hayley fit well within our target audiences.
What message will work best for our product is the one-sided message. We are only
going to advertise the positives of our product such as effectiveness, convenience of size and
style of our product. Our product is so innovative that when one person buys it another must
have it. This also refers to a group and opinion leaders, because it is such a must have product.
Primary data will be used to conduct our companys research; we will gather new
information from students and anyone in our target audience from ages 15-30. The data will be
gathered directly from the people via survey online or in person. Focus groups may also be
conducted at a future date.
We will also be using quantitative data to conduct and collect research. The results we
obtain from surveys and focus groups will be organized into numeric terms in the form of
graphs. Percentages will also be used to convey the results of the data collected.
By conducting surveys and focus groups we will learn what the consumers opinion of
our product is. We will also learn what color they prefer, what source appeals to them the most,
opinion on competitors compared to our product, and if they would purchase and use our
product. Physiological data will not be used in our research methods.


3. Explain your branding strategy
Beats is a well-known, luxurious head phone brand that is worn and supported by many
stars. LeBron James and Lil Wayne are some supporters of the brand. LeBron wears his Beats
while warming up for games and in everyday life. Lil Wayne is on many advertisements for
Beats head phones. Beats brand is all about new styles and trends for the active lifestyles of
different music lovers. Many young people strive to own a pair of Beats.
Just like any other brand or product, there are lovers and haters of Beats brand. Someone
will always pick the brand or product apart and find something wrong with it. Many customer
reviews were studied and it was concluded that most consumers love beats headphones and
quality of them. Consumers love the different colors and styles that are offered while feeling
luxurious when wearing them. Customer reviews explain how the sound from the head phones is
so great that it sounds like you are front row in a concert. Beats headphones are known for the
awesome bass sound they produce. The few negative comments that were studied explained that
the band on the headphones broke and the paint chipped. Those issues are personal care
problems; if someone is willing to pay hundreds of dollars for headphones they should be taken
very well care of. There is also the issue of being too expensive, but that is because Beats is such
a high quality brand. Beats targets the passionate music lovers which are people that will save
up if they are too expensive.
Plugs by Beats stands responsible and accountable for the brand. The warranty is for one
year from the date of original purchase. The warranty covers only manufacturer defects.
Customers can return for a full refund as long as it is not a wear and tear issue, theft or loss.
Proof of purchase is required and the items have to be in the original box.
The brand personality of Plugs by Beats expresses sophistication due to the luxuriousness
of the products. The pretentious consumers impress others by showing off the characteristics of
the punk rock individuals. Plugs by Beats convey importance, excitement, respect, and
youthfulness. The brand has consistent and meaningful traits that increase brand equity and can
help inspire the people without Plugs to gauge their ears and become committed to the
innovative product.
While there are quite a few negative reviews about our brand, the larger majority of
problems were caused by user negligence rather than factory error. Because of that, we will not
be using image advertising. To build brand equity, we will be reaching out to an often
overlooked marketthe punk and rock subcultures, as well as the body modification
community. Finally, our brands promise is that Plugs by Beats is committed to giving you the
front row experience for your personal convenience.