With the ever expanding market for newly released electronics and the countless accessories released for the past, current and future versions of these products on the market, many companies are looking to develop the next new electronic out there for each company’s respective target market.  However, recently Beats headphones have expanded the current market to include business professionals and executives, stating that they, “…want something that goes a little better with [their] Brooks Brothers suit.”

At the price of almost $300, an executive comfortably sitting on a long flight, for example, now has a device that is “good for sound quality, noise canceling, and sturdiness.” However, the price for just the logo, a new design and an endorsement from Dr. Dre does not justify the high product cost. In fact, competition such as the makers of Bose headphones produce the same item, with very similar features that include noise cancellation, better sound quality, and sturdiness, amongst other feature around the same price. What’s the difference? Well, Bose products for one have been on the market a whole longer than the Beats counter part. Bose has also not specified their target market but generally targets the most avid music listeners and not just young urban music listeners. Ironically, what Bose did before Beats was to acquire more market share and sell their product to a larger target market rather than the narrow range of music listeners aquatinted to Dr. Dre’s music and subsequently the products of his business. Bose did this by having an entire audio line of high quality music accessories.

Evidently, it was in the best interest of Monster, the Beats headphone manufacturer, to have possibly taken the sales numbers of their competition, upon the release of their products, to generate forecasts. This could provide an idea to determine how the Beats headphone would fair in a market where the next new accessory with newer features, a sleek and stylish model and quality sounds would sell. If anything, Monster would have at least some data to predict sales trend lines and production forecasts to be as profitable and cost effective as possible.

What could have Beats audio done differently provided that they could access competitor statistics to generate their forecasts? Since both brands are in the audio industry and make very similar products, does the price reflect a mass manufacturing approach to their productivity for greater profits?

Wong, Vanessa. “Beats’ New Headphones Are for the Corner Office” 2012.  Bloomberg L.P. 18 Oct. 2012 <http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-10-16/beats-new-headphones-are-for-the-corner-office#r=hpf-st>