Some years ago, I was involved with B&O marketing. We participated in a competition for the world wide account, and beat the leading Japanese agency, a major American agency, and others.
I was then introduced to the nightmare of trying to create good advertising for B&O - which proved impossible.
We identified exactly what Lee is pointing out: you have to connect with and engage younger customers; you have to tell brand stories that are in-depth and that reveal the ingenuity of B&O; and you need attitude.
Remember the old Beomaster 1900 ad with the Japanese studying the amplifier? That had attitude. That's what we wanted to do for B&O. I was able to do interviews with Helene Grimaud (brilliant pianist), with John Mathieson (photographer who shot Gladiator, among other epics), with Daniel Harding (conductor who raved about being in an Audi A8 listening to himself conducting Mahler).
We wanted the Apple generation to realize they could use B&O's active speakers without an amplifier. And we wanted to move activities to the stores, and use the stores as the advertising medium.
No go. The brand didn't dare stand out, the chief reason being that the various national rep's wanted something that would fly without any objections anywhere. The brand didn't run its advertising, instead it listened to every objection raised around the world, and ended up with blandness that was ignored everywhere - instead of communication with attitude that would be noticed.
It was a tremendous letdown to go through. We had an incredible pianist raving about the BL5s. A world class cinematographer that enthused about how his movies played to perfection on B&O screens and theatres. I had the Berlin Philharmonic ready to enter into a collaboration with B&O, leading musical agents willing to have their talent plug the brand. And they didn't dare push it hard - instead opting for the product shot in an unliveable atmosphere. Waste of advertising space and money.
I am a diehard B&O enthusiast and wanted others to become as engaged with the brand's unique stories. Because the stories are there, ready to be told. Sometimes, products are so unique and great that you don't need embellishing them with anything else - at other times, you can revitalize brand perceptions with the kind of stories we were pushing, and that have been mentioned above.
For instance, while in Portugal presenting the new brand platform to all the dealers, I was in a room together with the head of audio, listening to music from a pair of BL5s. But he was disturbed, something was wrong. And he realized that my iPhone was playing music through its earbuds, in the back of the room - and that little sound was the reason he was disturbed. That would have been a tremendous story to tell - his ability to listen was that acute.
It's tragic. I had fun - I met Frede Kristensen, and was able to do an interview with him for the catalogue, telling the story of how I got him to refurbish a Beolab/Beomaster 5000 for me. But marketing management then wasn't able to believe in the power of those stories - instead opting for the blandness that everyone was comfortable with inside the organization, and no one cared about outside.
We wanted to do lots of work like the ad I'm appending, but it didn't fly with management. Our suggestions were outside their comfort zone.
It ended when we suggested having a leading Japanese game developer invite people to come into the stores, with large store window displays, to experience what playing his games would be like on B&O equipment. That was too radical, and "would scare away our customers."
Hindsight is cheap - but what's been done to the B&O brand by management is close to criminal, in my opinion. And I'm starting to get the sense that it is too late to turn the brand around. I should probably not write this post, but like Lee (whom I came to know through our efforts for B&O) we loved the brand and wanted others to love it, as well. To get that going, you have to take chances, you have to be unconventional, and you have to believe in what you're selling with as much conviction as your greatest fan and adherent.
And you have to be in charge of your communication - today more than ever - if you want it to get noticed.
(Click the BeoLab 5 pdf above for the sample. We had to get permission from each of those concert halls, all renowned for their acoustics, all pleased to be associated with B&O, for free!)
Adding: today, I received the stands for my mint condition Beovox S45-2 speakers. I sprayed them with aluminium paint, mounted the speakers. Used the cables that Steve at SoundsHeavenly just sent me, connected them to my Beolab 5000, and have spent some time listening and enjoying - and thinking that this would also have been a great ad. What other electronics brand can tell a story like that? (Thanks also to Dillen, who sent me the capacitors for those speakers, to help me make them "as new" again. B&O has enthusiasts all over the world, who love the brand, who are keeping it alive, in spite of marketing's efforts to kill it.)
