Headphone advertisement & marketing

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Shayna Mell

J. Kraft

Group Project 7/22/2012

Nathaniel Baldwin was a tinkerer who wanted to sell the headphones he had cobbled together. The only group that had both money and interest was the military. He found the right target audience and sold the Navy his first order of one hundred headphones. In the 1930s, Beyerdynamic advertised some of the first headphones designed commercial use.

Koss headphones marketing played to the appeal of stereo listening. Since the Beatles were insanely popular in the 1960’s, Koss invented “Koss Beatlephones” which were a huge hit because it was a midline headphone embellished with a Beatles sticker. Other celebrity endorsement was essential to Koss’s marketing strategy. An early support, Tony Bennett endorsed this product along with Mel Torme and Buddy Hackett. The marketing genius here was to associate the product to already popular individuals and musicians.

Before 1979, people were anchored to their stereo systems in their house and car—but what if they wanted to move around? In 1979, Walkman advertised the advantage of their product as being portable and private.

As the leader of personal music player market, Apple offered innovation in the in-ear headphones market. Apple enjoyed a 70 percent market share based on their best-selling line of iPods and, more recently, the iPhone. “The popularity of these Apple devices is no secret. Each of Apple’s products come paired with the standard Apple’s iconic white in-ear headphones” (Kuang).There is a certain simplicity to the headphones, and functionality drives the design and artistry of the product. These headphones are marketed on a principle of friendliness, empathy and focus for the producer-consumer relationship.

Beats by Dr.Dre were a high definition powered isolation headphones, marketing a redefined lowly headphone for 300$. Dr. Dre advertised to the masses. Celebrities created a buzz like Keri Hilson, Joe Jonas, Kate Voegele, David Arquette, and Diddy, who all support Beats. This idea of celebrity endorsement had also worked for Koss.

Works Cited

Kuang, Cliff. "The 6 Pillars Of Steve Jobs's Design Philosophy." Co.Design. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 July 2012. <http://www.fastcodesign.com/1665375/the-6-pillars-of-steve-jobss-design-philosophy>.

"Listen Closely." : A History of Headphones. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 July 2012. <http://www.randomhistory.com/2008/08/20_headphones.html>.

Martin, Andrew J. "Headphones With Swagger (and Lots of Bass)." The New York Times. The New York Times, 20 Nov. 2011. Web. 18 July 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/business/beats-headphones-expand-dr-dres-business-world.html?pagewanted=all>.