Beats by Dr. Dre, CMO, Omar Johnson, Shares 9 Winning Brand Identity and Culture Values
Last week (February 28 - March 3), Qualtrics held their annual customer conference called the Qualtrics Insight Summit at the Grand America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. This conference attracts the best customer experience leaders from around the world. The summit also has a line up of world renowned speakers that are impressive and inspiring.
Your Product is the Experience
Omar Johnson, Chief Marketing Officer, Beats by Dre, inspired the audience from the stage on day one with his keynote, "Your Product is the Experience: Why Beats By Dre Isn't Just About Headphones." I agree with Omar. The greatest brands are created around a product or service that delivers a consistent and an amazing experience.
“Your Product is the Experience”
Best Idea Wins
Omar started by explaining how Beats has built a winning product experience culture. He said, "We've created a culture where the best idea always wins, no matter where it comes from. This is key to get the entire company engaged and empowered towards our vision—and it's not just about headphones." Then he explained the why of Beats. You can also learn about the, "Start with Why" concept from Simon Sinek here.
The Why of Beats
Omar laid out the why for Beats and then explained how their clear vision and mission help Beats position their product (headphones) with an inspiring and impactful experience.
Beats Vision and Mission
Vision: Experience music the way the artist intended
Mission: Inspire a revolution through the emotion of sound
The Nine Beats Brand Identity and Culture Values
Omar than explained 9 brand identity and culture values that help influence decisions and strategies for the Beats product experience. These values help Beats deliver experiences that inspire the world.
1. Clear Identity: The target consumer needs to clearly identify with the beats vision and mission.
2. Product is King: The product has to deliver on the promised experience.
3. Always Tell a Story: A story helps enhance the experience around the product.
4. We Are Artists: Art is something unique to everyone, inspire art in everyone.
5. We Are Young: It's not about age, but how we live our life that matters.
6. Always Authentic: Create authentic and real experiences that legitimize the product.
7. Live the Connection: Make the connection with others and live it.
8. We are the Leader: The mental state to develop a winning product experience.
9. We Move Culture: The impact of our product and experiencese change global cultures and perceptions.
“Always tell a story. A story helps enhance the experience around your product.”
The vision and mission of Beats combined with their 9 brand identities and culture values have helped Beats drive rapid growth and positive product experiences that have helped them win and capture global market share. As a result, Beats grew from $180 million to a $1.1 billion dollar global icon, which lead to the 3 billion dollar acquisition by Apple on August 1, 2014.
Omar highlighted a few of his favorite campaigns that used the Beats headphones (product) to deliver an impactful experience. One campaign he mentioned was "Hear What You Want". The campaign drives home the point to not listen to voices of doubt and hate. Instead, drown them out and believe in yourself. This is a powerful message tied perfectly to the Beats product/experience.
Data to Insight to Experience
Omar concluded his keynote by talking about the importance of gathering data about your product experience, quickly inferring insights, and making the proper changes. I believe this, you can't just gather info. You need to quickly gain insights and turn those insights into positive change. The type of change that positively impacts the experience of your product. Product is king.
“Data to insights to experience”