Headphone manufacturers who are currently living off booming sales have been warned to pay attention to some simple facts as a new generation of wireless headphones get set to be launched.Last night several headphones experts and execs gathered for a panel at a Consumer Electronics Association meeting.
Among them was Crystal Griffith, Audio-Technica consumer marketing manager; Noel Lee, Monster’s head monster; and Robert Heiblim, co-founder and principal of BlueSalve Professional Consulting and David Carnoy, CNET executive editor.
Twice reported that Audio-Technica’s Griffith stressed the importance of staying true to the company’s audience. “Whenever you’re looking at the product, you need to look at who this is for and stay true to that audience and market it to them in that voice.” It is also crucial, Griffith added, to walk “the fine line between trend and innovation — to do something different while staying in trend with the market.”
 |
Lee echoed this sentiment, noting that his company has targeted a different audience for its new Inspiration headphones line than it had in the past with the Beats by Dr. Dre line.
And while a manufacturer may have the best intentions for its audience in mind, this may not prove to be enough. It’s not enough to slap a celebrity on the packaging or design a headphone simply for a young audience, BlueSalve’s Heiblim said. The product must receive “permission” from the audience, he said.
“No matter how small the sector may be, [you need] a group of consumers who are going to give you that permission,” he said, pointing to Monster as a brand that has done that very successfully. Without doing this, the product will not come off as genuine, despite the kind of star power it has behind it, and it will not resonate with its intended audience.
The panel agreed that wireless sound is likely to play a more important role in the market going forward, especially if the new iPhone comes with Apt-X technology, as expected by some, to improve the Bluetooth sound quality.
