Marketing Planning and Practice

Beats by Dr. Dre refers to an audio company or brand that was founded in 2006 by Dr. Dre together with Jimmy Lovine. The company has been amongst the top audio brands and is mainly tasked with production of items such as headphones and speakers that are commonly used in the world of music. It is a renowned and respected company and its products are commonly used and bought by many people across the world (Green, 2019). In order for the company to improve even further or to better its sales it needs to expand and make its marketing to be even better every day. It then calls for the need for the use of the various marketing plan. Comment by Michelle Jackson: I not L Comment by Michelle Jackson: Not sure what you mean here

The firm is one of the most popular audio companies across the world. Additionally, Dr. Dre is one of the successful businessmen to come out of the hip hop and was greatly involved in the great era of hip hop. The company is vividly remembered for its paring up with monster cable in 2007 to make the first pair of phones. Beats continues to be one of the most influential audio companies in the world, with several other companies imitating Beats' design and sound signature. And, due to Beats1 Radio, the Beats company has spread beyond goods, but really who understands or is aware of what else Apple has planned for Beats. We may have just seen the start of Beats now that they have Apple's almost unlimited supply of cash and ads (Singh, 2019). Comment by Michelle Jackson: Source?

The company's popularity has expanded exponentially since the release of the "Monster Beats by Dr. Dre Studio headphones" in 2008. Its tremendous success can be attributed to the excellent fusion of excellent disclosure preparation and a successful product. Beats by Dre gambled on co-marketing deals with major names in sports and music to grow their brand awareness to where it is now.

The firm offers a variety of goods and services. The on/over ear headphones feature technical advancements such as noise isolation and wireless connection, and were designed to provide much superior audio quality. In addition to its technological features, the product has a trendy design, which is essential for consumer acceptance. On their official website, the headphones cost between approximately usd130 and US$400. The product is also available via Apple and retail stores, as well as many other e-commerce sites. It's a high-end item with high-end fabrics and luxurious packaging. As previously mentioned, Beats by Dre primarily tends to promote its products by celebrities endorsements. Comment by Michelle Jackson: This is quite a detailed background – this hasn’t helped the issue with your word count

The marketing plan would be important because it helps in explaining vital aspects such as Industry and Organisational Insight i.e. most important factors and key issues facing the organisation and the category/industry in which it operates, challenge or opportunity, based upon the preceding insight analysis which the marketing plan will address and marketing objectives based on the challenge/opportunity. Additionally, the marketing plan seeks to Identify and justify a proposed strategy and the tactics (7 Ps) proposed to achieve the objectives and strategy as well as the plan to include implementation, monitoring and measurement (Osborn, 2018). Comment by Michelle Jackson: This is descriptive – not required. Stay focused on the task.

As stated above, Beats by Dr. Dre refers to an audio company or brand that was founded in 2006 by Dr. Dre together with Jimmy Lovine. The company has been amongst the top audio brands and is mainly tasked with production of items such as headphones and speakers that are commonly used in the world of music. It is a renowned and respected company and its products are commonly used and bought by many people across the world. It is however important to note that the company just like any other company, faces a number of issues and factors that affect it. Comment by Michelle Jackson: You are repeating information covered in just the previous page. The reader will not need to have this recapped so quickly.

As per NDP group, Beats Electronics' market share regarding premium headphones over $100 has decreased from 63 percent in 2012 to 60 percent in 2013, and is still declining, despite the fact that they are still at the top of the industry.

Premium over-ear headphones are expected to have a target market of 23.6 million people. Additionally, they are the audiophiles of the twenty-first century. The company has a niche market that is willing to spend money on a quality product while still appreciating the brand name.

It is important to note that Internal and external environment analyses, objectives, challenges, opportunities and strategy identification are conducted in order to comprehend the situation in which Beats by Dre finds itself and how the business can expand its market share. The company operates in a market where Customers prefer to spend money on headphones with decent sound quality. Even though Beats by Dre produces high-end goods, they are not good enough in the eyes of audiophiles. Some consumers, on the other hand, would prefer a product with a well-known brand name (Williamson and Cloonan, 2007). Comment by Michelle Jackson: You are focusing too much on the organization here. You should be identifying factors in the external environment affecting the headphone market.

In the market in which it operates, the firm also faces stiff competition and  Some of Beats by Dre's rivals have been in the industry for quite a long time, for instance as Sony, Bose, and Sennheiser, while others, such as Bowers company & Wilkins firm, Skullcandy, and Monster, which are newcomers. Only Sennheiser and Bowers & Wilkins, on the other hand, are considering how to penetrate the proposed target market for Beats by Dre, which it attempts to penetrate by creation of a high-quality sound product. Comment by Michelle Jackson: Source? You must include the source for this.

For a long time, marketing has been a central factor in the success and/or failure of different companies in a variety of industries. The scope of these companies is vast, ranging from new cell phone commercials on television to movie stars endorsing high-end clothes. Nonetheless, there is still a lot of space for creativity and new markets. Beats by Dre found a brand new market for its premium headphones in one of the untapped areas. People's perceptions of how they listen to music have shifted thanks to Beats by Dre. Dr. Dre, a legendary artist and singer, is endorsing audio items in the same way that soccer players are endorsing sports shoes. Despite the diversity of audio companies on the market, they were the leaders in doing this, as remarkable as it can seem.

Beats by Dre has grown into a multibillion-dollar corporation with well-known audio products sold all over the world. However, there have been some reports about the company's product's consistency and reliability, which is another key issue that the company faces in the market today. Comment by Michelle Jackson: There is very limited underpinning to the information you are including.

The Beats by Dre organization's popularity is largely attributed to Dr. Dre's well-known celebrity. In addition, the business has some significant assets as well as a fantastic product. The headphone is available almost anywhere, thanks to its trendy nature and fashionable status. The products have a fantastic sound and a one-of-a-kind premium unboxing experience. These luxury headphones, on the other hand, are a little pricey. They have a high perceived value, and rumors about production costs have tarnished their prestigious image. Not just that, but the device's performance graphs showed poor sound quality as compared to similar-priced devices (Montgomery, 2019).

Beats by Dre will now explore a variety of opportunities with personal computers and mobile devices, thanks to Apple's acquisition of the company. The firm ought to   Invest in the creation of modern, higher-quality goods. They have the ability to create innovative designs and/or personalize items. Despite its enormous popularity, Beats by Dre is still vulnerable. Old rivals are upgrading and renewing their products, while new entrants have already entered the premium headphones market. Not to forget forgeries and knockoffs.

When talking about the external layer of the business/ enterprise climate, a variety of factors may have an impact on the company. Given the political study, Beats offers an international commodity with the majority of its markets being outside of the U. S., necessitating the company's maintenance of good international political ties. These business relationships allow the company to grow. Another example of a political aspect is a tax increase. The import tax rate in Brazil is high, at 34% it makes the commodity more expensive, decreasing the number of customers and impacting the company's demand patterns. Comment by Michelle Jackson: ? Comment by Michelle Jackson: How do you know this – you must include your sources

Economic factors, such as a financial crisis, may have an effect on product use i.e. the products of the company. For example, the financial crisis of 2009 drastically reduced technical efficiency. Since Beats by Dre is a luxury item, people can opt for a less costly alternative in times of scarcity.

Beats is primarily a social brand, synonymous with some of the world's most famous people. As a result, it is important for the organization to uphold a social obligation for its clients, for instance the Product Red brand, which is a campaign to combat tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and malaria. It is evident that Dr. Dre's social commitment was also shown when his film Straight Outta Compton was criticized for its depiction of violence against women and he had to apologize for the same (Strologo, 2020). Comment by Michelle Jackson: There is insufficient consideration of the macro and micro environment

 In the current world, the cultural change that society has witnessed in relation to the use of headphones is absolutely fundamental. People could play and listen to music from the portable cassette decks with uncomfortable headphones, very poor sound quality, and a wire attached back in the day. Headsets have been entrenched in society in recent years. People could use them everywhere, with music being streamed from mobile devices. As a result of this digital evolution and cultural change, wireless types of headphones with improved comfort and sound quality were created. Furthermore, Beats' foresight has resulted in a 90 percent increase in sales for the luxury headsets segment (Hernandez, 1996).

Another challenge that the firm faces is new entrants into the luxury headset market have intensified brand rivalry and eroded the superiority of well-known brands like Sony, Bose, and Sennheiser (Gerzon, 1977).

Elsewhere, when making a comparison to similar products with the same price, the Beats by Dre product is a high-tech product that is well-known for its trendy status. But, when compared to similar products with the same price, it has a perceivably higher price and poor sound quality. It's just about the profit margin. Despite the fact that the company invests a fair amount of money in research, development, and testing, the majority of the budget is spent on packaging and advertising (Everrett, 2014). Comment by Michelle Jackson: This is very descriptive – the decision on opp/challenge should be brief

The consumer is looking for high-quality sound items such as the earphones and headphones In addition to what it has now. It needs to have high quality products to retain the fact that it is a well-known brand. It is to take about a year to have the objective feasible as required by the firm. The objective is to be measured by quality surveys among the customers and customer ratings of the quality of the products online. Quality of products means ability of the products to offer quality sounds such as base and a combination of different musical notes. They are technologically savvy and demand the most up-to-date equipment. The majority of customers are concentrated in urban areas as a result of these factors. They enjoy using social media to share their individuality. It is evident that Money is not a primary concern when it comes to the financial situation, accounting for just 10% of purchase influence. The majority of them have developed a successful career. It's possible to prove that they're good in their careers and that they own a car and a home. A young entrepreneur or a young manager is a good example of this niche community (Wójcik et al., 2017). It is therefore evident that one of the objectives is to improve on the quality of its products. Comment by Michelle Jackson: This section is not about measurement – that’s for later

The business has prospects for growth in a variety of industries, as well as development opportunities. One of these plans is Beats Music. It is an app that aims to outperform Spotify in the next 3 years by delivering music to all iPhone and iPad users. It’s to be measured by parameters such as app ratings, higher scores on survey regarding the use of such apps among others. On the BeatsAudio app, Beats will expand its partnerships with other car brands. The company can also create items that are uniquely tailored to the user, such as a simple color and style change or a complex custom-molded in-ear headphone.

There is also the objective of edging out the competitors of the firm to enable the company to have the lions share in the market. It’s by customer base, quantity of sales, profitability among others. It is an objective that is to be achieved within the next 5 year strategic plan. Is to be achieved by the above parameters. Comment by Michelle Jackson: Your plan should be for one year Comment by Michelle Jackson: This is really unclear – I’m not sure what your objectives as they are not clearly stated.

To meet the above objectives, the following are proposed strategy for the company. Firstly, since rivals are introducing new features for their headphones, such as the ThinkEar, a personal audio device powered by your brainwaves, the business must also remain creative and come up with ways to distinguish its products in order to remain appealing to consumers and to edge out competitors. Cost competitiveness will also be a factor, as businesses are increasingly adopting similar pricing strategies for goods with similar features. Cost effectiveness would be addressed y reducing the cost of then earphones, headphones and remote talk cables by between 20-25% within the two years to make the products competitive cost wise. Even if some goods with similar specifications are more expensive, customers' loyalty to larger brands may often prevent alternative rivals from entering the market (Nwachukwu, Chládková and Fadeyi, 2018). Comment by Michelle Jackson: You could have used marketing concepts to underpin this – Porter’s generic strategy for example

Customers are willing to pay more for products with higher sound quality and additionally that have better specifications, so Beats by Dre must have creativity in their product offerings. Comment by Michelle Jackson: This would be Product Development

The organization is well-known for its technical prowess. Together with Apple Inc., they plan to develop a new product that requires extensive testing, lowering manufacturing costs and satisfying even the most ardent audiophile. It explains the reason why the company is investing in the Beats music app to take it to the world literally. Despite the fact that the product will be more expensive than the BeatsPro, customer reviews will increase, narrowing the gap between price and product quality and capturing customers who appreciate brand name and high-quality sound. Additionally, Customers who are millennial audiophiles are loyal to the brand's dedication to creativity (Eyers and Potter, 2017).  Many consumers who value quality sound will make a choice of Beats products over rivals if only that Beats Electronics raised research and testing costs on the production product.

 The "millennial audiophile target market" will undoubtedly grow if the business can be able to close the gap that exists between perceived value and sound quality. With the above objectives and strategies, it is expected that the company would have die hard clients who have enthusiasm for high fidelity sound production, within the next 2-3 years, that would be enhanced by the above discussed app plans. Comment by Michelle Jackson: You haven’t used a strategic model to help you and this was required by the brief. Strategy should give clear direction and this discusses this a little but it is overly descriptive.

Dr. Dre Beats is a firm that specializes in producing high-end headphones. Its goods provide consumers with a complete music experience, including the opportunity to produce songs as they will be heard in professional recording studios.

Teens, the youth who have the allowances to spend on the new devices, are their target market. People in this generation, known as Generation Y, are all about what's fresh and fashionable, and they place a high importance on brand names (Morgan et al., 2019). Comment by Michelle Jackson: This section should identify the particular product and this doesn’t do that clearly.

The company's goods are priced in different price ranges for instance between $199 and $699.Its high-end pricing is dictated by the high-quality products used in the final product, as well as the refined packaging. The company s used a pricing strategy same to APPLE'S called "price skimming," in which the firm set the product's price high when they first enter the market before rivals arrive (Petit, 2016). Comment by Michelle Jackson: Source? I’m still not sure which product is being focused on this a very broad range Comment by Michelle Jackson: Good that you include wider marketing theory here

Beats by Dre Headphones can be purchased from online e-commerce websites such as flipkart, snapdeal, and amazon in the United States and other countries such as India. They also have a partnership with Apple, making them the exclusive distributor of Beats headphones in India. Dr. Dre's products are now available for purchase from the official website of Beat. Comment by Michelle Jackson: Source?

Use of Advertisements through commercials, by music videos, and the vast internet network of Twitter, Youtube, and Facebook have all proven to be successful promotional tools for Beats by Dr. Dre.

The brand had already established itself as a success through a combination of word-of-mouth marketing, not-so-subtly seeding its products to well-known athletes and artists to gain immediate exposure, and a groundswell of street-level popularity for its large, round, and now ubiquitous headphones (Kotler, 2016). Comment by Michelle Jackson: Bur what are you proposing?

The founders of the company are Dr. Dre is a well-known contemporary musician. Jimmy Lovine is a well-known music producer.Luke Wood is a songwriter, producer, and musician. Additionally, there is Monster Cable Sound Technology is an audio business known for making high-quality yet expensive HDMI cables. Current Apple design executive Robert Brunner and the people who purchase from the company i.e. the clients to whom the strategy is aimed at. Comment by Michelle Jackson: You haven’t understood this element of the mix

Regarding marketing, the aspects that can be found in dr dre’s website or on the official website of the company include like: Manuals for items, Guide to Purchasing Safely (to avoid buying of fraud products), Authorized Merchants (to find stores that legally sell legit products). What you need to know about the company and the people who work there, all items that are currently available and Policy Statements: Policies on Privacy and Return. Comment by Michelle Jackson: Sort of – what about the ecommerce process?

The physical evidence of the strategy implementation would include like: improvement of the product quality, the reduction in the cost of products and innovation into the various ways that can be used to improve the performance of the firm in the market. It means that they will be physically evident to show the way the strategy has been used to improve the company operations and performance (Cecere, Corrocher, and Battaglia, 2015). Comment by Michelle Jackson: grammar Comment by Michelle Jackson: Marking stopped here – 3000 words Comment by Michelle Jackson: This hasn’t been understood

The task to implement and monitor the strategy discussed above would be tasked to the management and directors of the company and to all the employees. The marketing department for instance is tasked with undertaking all the marketing requirements of the strategy and the finance department would be responsible for allocation of money needed to facilitate the strategy to be practical. To be specific, the team would be tasked with finances allocation towards the above outlines aspects. It would also come up with a strategic plan, guiding polices and a plan in details that would be used in the above strategies implementation and constant evaluation to determine the progress made by the firm reading the ultimate aim of meeting its objectives. Regarding monitoring, the management would be tasked with quarterly strategy evaluation to determine its implementation and output to be able to determine if to continue with it or to halt it. It is also important that the strategy gets the required support of the owner and any shareholders of the company. It therefore requires the effort of all the stakeholders to ensure that the strategies are implemented and monitored (Kotler, 2016).

The measurement of the progress made by the firm in terms of the strategies would be done by various aspects such as sales amounts on weekly and monthly basis, researching into the level of brand awareness, social media feedback about the organization among many other techniques. Additionally, to be specific, the measurements would be done by the use of metrics such as the total number of headphones and earphones sales in the next two years as compared to the last two years to determine if an improvement is achieved. Elsewhere, a survey of customer awareness ought to be done to determine the market awareness progress made and the penetration into the market. The marketing managers for instance would be responsible for the plan and the measurement of the progress in the strategies used. It requires the input of all the employees to also ensure that the measurements are obtained properly and on time (Kotler, 2016). Comment by Michelle Jackson: Although not marked you have some suitable content in the control section and this would certainly have helped improve your mark if included.

Summary and Conclusion

Beats by Dr. Dre refers to an audio company that is quite popular in the market today worldwide. Despite its popularity, it faces various challenges such as competition, the perception of its low quality products and the high cost of its products among others. It therefore explains the need for the above discussed strategies such as innovation, product quality improvement efforts among others to ensure that the firm retains and grows its presence and influence in the market. The tactics (7 Ps) are also proposed to help in achievement of the objectives and strategy (Hsu, 2011).

Beats by Dr. Dre as a company’s aim is to beat the rest and be the best in the market and in its particular field. . The above marketing plan in detail explains the same and helps the reader to understand the whole marketing plan concept of the company.

The differences between theoretical and practical aspects of marketing is the fact that theory explains what ideally can and is possible to be done given some set of conditions, while practice stipulates what in actual sense is possible to do. It helps to draw a line of distinction between possibility and real ability especially in marketing.

Regarding the situation above, it theory it is possible to state that the firm could be able to use the various marketing procedures and processes including stating for instance the need to sue funds that may not be available. On the other hand, practical outlines what is actually possible to be done regarding the subject matter above. For instance it is possible to undertake the above strategies because in actual sense the above challenges indeed are faced by the company. Improvement of quality, reduction of costs and competing favourably would help a lot. It would help to keep competitors at bay, to improve the quality perception in the market of its products among other contributions that would help the strategy to work

Elsewhere it is the responsibility of all the employees especially the marketing department, the marketing manager and the various stakeholders to ensure that the above strategy is implemented and monitored properly to enable the firm to achieve its goals and objectives. Comment by Michelle Jackson: This has not contributed to your mark. There are no sources included and this was expected. You show some understanding of marketing planning issues.

Cecere, G., Corrocher, N. and Battaglia, R.D., 2015. Innovation and competition in the smartphone industry: Is there a dominant design?. Telecommunications Policy, 39(3-4), pp.162-175.

Everrett, T.M., 2014. Ears wide shut: Headphones and moral design (Doctoral dissertation, Carleton University).

Eyers, D.R. and Potter, A.T., 2017. Industrial Additive Manufacturing: A manufacturing systems perspective. Computers in Industry, 92, pp.208-218.

Gerzon, M.A., 1977. Criteria for evaluating surround-sound systems. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 25(6), pp.400-408.

Green, D.D., 2019. Hip-Hop Culture: A case study of Beats by Dre for entrepreneurship. Manag Econ Res J, 5(2019), p.9564.

Hernandez, D.P., 1996. Sound systems, world beat and diasporan identity in Cartagena, Colombia. Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies, 5(3), pp.497-508.

Hsu, Y., 2011. Design innovation and marketing strategy in successful product competition. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing.

Kotler, P., 2016. A framework for marketing management. Pearson Education Limited.

Montgomery, W.F., 2019. Analysis and Utilization of Hip-Hop Techniques in Classical Music.

Morgan, N.A., Whitler, K.A., Feng, H. and Chari, S., 2019. Research in marketing strategy. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(1), pp.4-29.

Nwachukwu, C., Chládková, H. and Fadeyi, O., 2018. STRATEGY FORMULATION PROCESS AND INNOVATION PERFORMANCE NEXUS. International Journal for Quality Research, 12(1).

Osborn, B., 2018. An Open Educational Resource for the Analysis of Music Video.

Petit, N., 2016. Technology Giants, the Moligopoly Hypothesis and Holistic Competition: A Primer. Available at SSRN 2856502.

Singh, A.P., 2019. Dynamics of Persuasion in Advertising: An Analysis of Apple Commercials (Doctoral dissertation).

Strologo, F.R.D., 2020. Drivers for M&As and Strategic Alliances: an Industry Based Analysis (Master's thesis, Handelshøyskolen BI).

Williamson, J. and Cloonan, M., 2007. Rethinking the music industry. Popular music, 26(2), pp.305-322.

Wójcik, P., Wasowska, A., Oblój, K. and Ciszewska-Mlinaric, M., 2017. With your headphones on: go global or stay local?. Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies.