Their social media campaign for their entire company was incredibly effective, with images of celebrities and athletes going about their lives doing anything from working out to walking into an arena but the one constant was their Beats headphones.
I thought their marketing and social media campaign was well received and told the story they needed to tell and they continue to sell their brand in a very appealing way to their legion of followers.
However with the increased popularity of individualized music and the ability to take your music and share it with anyone who may or may not want to hear it, the Pill XL, has truly taken ahold of the marketplace.
In the first part of the monitoring project, I discussed how Beats went pretty basic and plain with their marketing on social media with the Pill XL. Things have changed dramatically since then and they have made a concerted effort to use social media to brand the Pill with more than just the Pill itself. They have taken on their overall company plan of using celebrities and athletes and their usage of the Pill XL to highlight the many ways to use the product.
Traditionally, the marketing for the Beats products seemed to lean towards a more urban African-American population. Even that has changed with the addition of some prominent individuals from other music genres like Reba McIntyre.
— Reba McEntire Daily (@McEntireDaily) November 6, 2015
Unfortunately for Beats, all of their updates and changes have yet to move their brand to the No. 1 spot, rather they seem stuck in a solid but distant No. 2 and the analytics bear that out. The Bose SoundLink, which most insiders believe occupies the No. 1 slot, outdistances the Pill XL in the blogs according to Meltwater IceRocket with the exception of a few spikes, mostly centered around the launch of the Pill XL.
Social Mention doesn't give the Pill XL much to stand on either with its strength and passion hovering at less than 50% and their reach not making it to 40%. I think the most difficult thing for them to swallow might be the overall indifference by most people and the neutral sentiment is more than ten times the positive sentiment. YIKES!
What's NEXT?
Beats needs to continue with their latest trend of expanding their target audience. Music lovers come in all shapes and sizes and from all walks of life and unfortunately, in my opinion I thought they developed this part of it too late. While the use of celebrities and athletes are great and bring in a certain demographic, expanding their marketing to a group of everyday citizens might be a way to swing some sentiment.
Country music's greats and @BigMachine celebrated #CMAAwards2015 by turning on #NewBeatsPill. pic.twitter.com/silTUAdmG3
— Beats By Dre (@beatsbydre) November 6, 2015
One thing you do see and it happens a lot with popular brands that are sometimes out of the every-man's price range is the production of knockoffs. Letting your consumers know what's real and what's fake is another step in the right direction. Beats has done that but because their products are commonly sold in this underground world a more proactive approach to this problem can help with the long term positive views of the brand.While they do attempt to use the groundswell with the use of celebrities and sports figures - many who can use their own star power to influence, maybe starting at home might be the best idea. The marriage with Apple, while initially ignited the groundswell, it hasn't done what I believe they thought it would do long term.
In the end, the real question is how satisfied are you with being No. 2 or are you going to make a push, do some things differently and really go after that No. 1 spot?
Only time will tell.
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