beats by dr. dre
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Spring College Tour Sidee Dlamini Greg Laver Megan Smock
Introduction to Beats by Dr. Dre
In 2007, Dr. Dre introduced studio style headphones to enhance the way listeners experience music. Dr. Dre is best known for his contribution to the music industry as a producer, rapper, and record executive. In 2010, Dr. Dre introduced his audience to an expanded product line of Beats by Dr. Dre headphones. Dr. Dre says, “Most headphones can’t handle the bass, the detail, the dynamics.” Beats by Dr. Dre is a relatively new product, but has already proven success in the early stages of sales. It appeals to all types of music listeners. Beats by Dr. Dre is a type of headphone with the capability to reproduce the full spectrum of sound that musical artists and producers hear in professional recording studios. They also provide a noise cancellation feature to prevent interference of outside noises. The different types of Beats by Dr. Dre headphones can range anywhere from $100-$500. The style ranges from over-ear or in-ear headphones. Speakers are also available. The packaging includes the headphones, attaching cord, batteries, and noise cancelling effect. Beats by Dr. Dre promises a high performance playback. Dr. Dre says, “With Beats, people are going to hear what the artists hear, and listen to the music the way they should: the way I do.”
Program Elements
To promote Beats by Dr. Dre, we plan to implement a concert series marketed towards college students at several campuses in the major metropolitan areas across Texas. The tour will feature a show stopping lineup of the top artists in several genres to illustrate that Beats by Dr. Dre headphones are the premier product for any music fan. The College Spring Tour has a duration of 30 days in the month of April in which each week will be spent at a different area in Texas. We will sponsor with a merchant, an energy drink company, as well as a vodka company to cross-promote during the concerts. Throughout the week leading up to the concert at each location, the tour will be marketed on the college campuses in that surrounding area to grasp the attention of our target market. Audio set-up will be present at every marketing post at active places on campuses. These set-ups will feature a DJ playing music of the artists booked to play at the concerts. Our energy drink sponsor will also be set up at the promotion sites on campuses to give away free samples. Coupons will also be passed out to buy our Beats by Dr. Dre
headphones bundle at our partnered merchant. The bundle will include the Beats by Dr. Dre headphones package as well as a code to download a limited edition mix of our artists which will feature collaboration between our artists. While promotion is taking place on-site on different campuses, the nearest merchant sponsor will also have ads running as means of off-site promotion.
Program Description
The strategic alliances for the Beats College Spring Tour will include Red Bull, Interscope Records, Best Buy, and Smirnoff. At the promotion sites on campuses, not only will music from the artists booked for the concert be playing, a Red Bull representative will be passing out free drinks. The coupons that will be handed out will also act as an advertisement for the concert. They will include details about the upcoming concert. Off-site promotion will be happening simultaneously at nearby Best Buys. The concert will include top artists from Interscope Records’ different genres. The artist line-up includes Dr. Dre and Eminem, Blink-182, LMFAO, and Black Eyed Peas. The genres represented at the concert are most popular with our target market, the college students. Our drink sponsors will also be present at the concert. Red Bull will continue to hand out free samples and Smirnoff will have rights to be the only alcohol available at the concert. The locations were selected to best advertise to college students. The locations selected for promotion and concerts are the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex (targeting TCU, SMU, and UTA), the University of Houston, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Texas San Antonio.
Program Rationale
A concert series was chosen with artists of all different genres because it applies to a full range of people within our target audience. The wide range of artists also allows us to create a compilation of music from the concert, so the audience can use the product. By using listeners’ favorite artists to promote the product, it shows the audience that real musicians understand the benefits of the product. The artists that have been chosen for the event have cohesive sounds and
will flow well together. The co-sponsors we have chosen to help promote the event will resonate to our target audience. The cities we have chosen to host the concerts can appeal to more than one college at once because each area is home to multiple schools.
Why not Uggs?
Our original idea was to create a sales activation plan for the shoe brand Uggs. While brainstorming, we found that Uggs lacked a variety of strategic alliances to carry out the campaign. We also found that the target market is very limited which also proved difficult to find strategic alliances. Beats by Dr. Dre allowed us room to attract different kinds of people with different tastes in music as compared to Uggs which may only target women interested in warm footwear. We also felt that a promotional event was not the best fit for Uggs.