NEW YORK —
It’s no surprise that Beats Electronics
president/COO Luke Wood used a music
metaphor to describe the company’s “amicable”
split with Monster earlier this year.
“It’s like we were the Jackson 5,” he
told TWICE last week, “and now we
want to be Michael Jackson and make
‘Thriller.’”
The Beats by Dr. Dre line has dominated
the headphones category since
it launched, and the company is anxious
to show what’s next as it heads
down the path of becoming a completely
freestanding company. Its split
from Monster, which is being done in
stages, will be completely finalized by
Jan. 1, 2013. Wood shot down the idea
that Beats will partner with another audio manufacturer
in the near future. “Now that we’re autonomous,
we’re going to relish the ability to have the
ball and carry it as far as we can,” he said.
As the company focuses on bringing a “completely
non-disruptive transition for vendors, retailers
and consumers,” it is also making plans
for new speakers and headphones scheduled to
debut this fall and during International CES in
January.
“We didn’t want to launch a lot of new product
in the middle of a transition,” said Wood. “Now
that I feel we’re successfully moving through the
transition, CES is really our target. We’ve
only begun to touch what the headphones
business can be.”
Beats Electronics is also planning a
massive promotional campaign centered
around the new colors of its Solo headphone
that will include broadcast, print
and social-media components, and will
begin around Labor Day for the back-toschool
season.
Wood added that the company intends
to continue its “evangelical approach
to teaching people about audio again.”
He described audio as once being the “bastard
stepchild of consumer electronics,” and said the
company plans to elevate audio to the status that
high-definition TV has achieved.
“What we’re now doing with Beats is teaching
them that sound is as important as the visual …
As we teach them about sound and audio, they
become addicted [and] they can’t go back.”
