Beats by Dr Dre eyes UK for growth
Beats by Dr Dre is preparing to ramp up its UK marketing by creating its first UK marketing team to develop strategies that strengthen the company’s ties to the region’s fashion, sport and music scenes.
The yet to be hired team will seek to identify new “localised” brand ambassadors, similar to what it has done in the US where it has used popular musicians and sportsmen such as Justin Bieber and Lebron James for branding.
It is hoped the strategy will lead to the brand appearing in music videos and movies produced by UK artists as well as partnerships with football players and fashion designers to boost its affiliation to what it says are “people who are inventing and influencing culture.”
Beats president Luke Wood told Marketing Week that the London was the brand’s most important market outside of North America.
He adds: “The UK, particularly London, drives global culture in sport, in fashion and in music. We want to be with people who are inventing and influencing culture in really progressive areas because they have such a loud and influential voice with people. The Beats brand will become linked to that moment of creative invention.
“We need a marketing team to tuned in to everything that’s happening in the UK to figure out how we can do that.”
The company is preparing a tactical marketing campaign in the UK to promote its Executive range, its first product targeted at professional business people. Activity will focus around Facebook and Twitter promotions as well as in-store partnerships at Dixons and HMV.
Beats has stepped up its marketing in recent months to exploit an increase in brand awareness, particularly among young people, following a successful ambush of the London 2012 Olympic games.
Wood adds: “What we’ve done is dramatically expand the market and make price premium acceptable, as much for design and the brand as for the audio quality.”
