Soul Electronics Advertising Plan:

It Isnt Music Without SOUL.

Joe Corrigan
BUAD 471: Advertising
I.

Executive Summary
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The premium head phone market has been burgeoning in the past 3
years. Sales of headphones that cost $100 or more increased more than
73% in 2012. From 2011 to 2012 the industry grew from $1.8 billion to
$2.4.1 In 2014, total sales of premium headphones is expected to climb 57%.2
Beats Electronics has dominated the market thanks to constant
product placement in pop music, sports, and other areas. With Apples
recent acquisition of the company, the exposure and growth can only be
expected to increase. With this impending growth and near total
domination of the market factored in with the market being saturated with
competitors, to stay a relevant, viable company SOUL Electronics has to
aggressively and effectively advertise to a targeted audience so as to
build a brand image and, hopefully, brand loyalty.
Since Beats Electronics focuses heavily on advertising to young
tweens, teenagers, and pop culture enthusiasts, it would be in Souls best
interests to seek out a different audience. The gravity and heft of Beats is
too strong to try and take their main audience. With this in mind, Soul
should target young professionals, fitness enthusiasts, and musicians
aged 25-55 who value artistic expression, individuality, and quality. This is
an audience not actively targeted by any premium headphone
manufacturer, which would give Soul Electronics a chance to establish a

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strong, dominant foothold in the market, ensuring stability for the

company in the future.

II.

Past Advertising
Most recently Soul Electronics has focused on their sports line of

headphones, posting informational spots on their YouTube channel. Their

biggest campaign was in 2012 and was entitled SOUL of Greatness. This
campaign featured several world class champion athletes and famous
musicians, and it showed them with the headphones talking about how
music motivates them and helps them focus when achieving their goals.
The celebrities included world class runner Usain Bolt, American football
player Tim Tebow, MMA fighter Brendan Schaub, and rapper/businessman
Chris Ludacris Bridges. The campaign featured the tagline Offical
Sponsor of Greatness. This campaign led to a partnership with Ludacris
and his own line of headphones entitled Soul by Ludacris.7, 8, 9 These
campaigns, while somewhat successful, suffered from the fact that the
appeal of the celebrities was not too far reaching and the campaigns were
not widely publicized.
III.

Competitor Analysis
The premium headphone market has been flooded with options

starting since 2010 (around the time Beats headphones began to take

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off), but the three main competitors include Beats Electronics, Sennheiser,
and Skullcandy.
Beats Electronics Established in 2008, Beats
Electronics is the current industry leader in the
headphone market and premium headphone
market. The headphone market is valued at $1.8
billion, of which Beats controls 27%, and of the
premium headphone market (headphones costing more
than $99) Beats controls 57%.2 Beats has constant exposure thanks to its
connections with major music services like Vevo and Apple and the fame
of its creator, Dr. Dre. Their primary audience is tweens, teens, young
adults, and anyone who keeps up with pop music.
Sennheiser Established in 1945, German audio
company Sennheiser has been a consistent market
force that focuses more on function rather than
fashion. While not as much of a direct competitor as
Beats is, they are a large market force, with a
turnover of $662 million in 2011.3
Skullcandy Established in 2003, Skullcandy markets its headphones in a
lifestyle fashion, akin to how Soul Electronics markets its products to
athletes and people who lead active lifestyles. Skullcandys main target

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audience is at extreme sports participants,

snowboarders, skateboarders, etc, and is skewed
relatively young. 4
IV.

Target Audience

The target audience of the ad campaign will be Souls existing target

demographic of athletes or people of all ages who lead active lifestyles,
and also incorporating a larger focus on young professionals aged 25-54
who prize individuality and creativity.
This target audience would avoid the successfully established markets
of 18-24 year olds that Beats Electronics and Skullcandy both have
cornered. By setting a goal to appeal to this relatively looked over market,
Soul Electronics has a chance to create a stronger brand identity and
wider reach, and if successful, in time, can expand their focus to larger
markets.
V.

Ad Objective
The objective of this six month ad campaign is to inform a specific,

targeted market of the brand and create awareness of the brand in 75%
of the target market. The objective is not focused on sales, yet. The
market is flooded with options, and if Soul Electronics does not establish
itself firmly and create a niche or loyal market, they will risk going under
as popular brands continue to grow. The most important first step in

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ensuring and investing in the future of Soul Electronics is to establish

itself in the market. Once it has accomplished this objective, different
goals such as associating certain attitudes with the brand and possibly
sales objectives can be more pursued.
VI.

Ad Creative Strategy It Isnt Music Without SOUL

To obtain the overall goal of market awareness in the target audience,

ads will be created which show normal, everyday people (the target
audience) using the product. Before, ad campaigns used celebrities that
had slim appeal (MMA fighters) or did not have enduring fame (Psy). By
making ads featuring everyday people, Soul headphones can become
more relatable, and the chances of being able to reuse successful ads
increases.
To this end, this leads to the proposal of the ad campaign: It Isnt
Music Without SOUL. This campaign will feature a commercial to run
television and YouTube pre-roll, an adapted radio spot of the commercial,
and three unique magazine ads. They will all share the same logo and
slogan and feature members of the target audience.
Commercial Spot
A 30 second ad will be created that features three different characters:
an aging soul singer (aged approximately 40-55), a female athlete (aged
approximately 30-40), and a young professional (aged approximately 25-

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30). The ad will detail them at their respective passions while wearing
different models of Soul headphones: the soul singer on a subway en
route to the studio or performance, the female athlete warming up before
her run, and the young professional driving to work. There will be three
brief inner monologues that play while showing each character:
Soul Singer: Music is my inspiration. Singing is my passion. Every time I
sing, I sing with everything.
Female Athlete: Music is my second wind. Running is my escape. Every
run I take, I give everything.
Young Professional: Music is my motivator. My job is my life. Every task
I work on, I do everything I can.
After the three speeches, there will be a montage of the three characters
completing or doing their passions: the soul singer singing, the female
athlete running, the young professional at a desk. As it shows them
working, they will have a short voiceover over their respective clip:
Soul Singer: It isnt singing without soul.
Female Athlete: It isnt a workout without soul.
Young Professional: It isnt a job well done without soul.
The spot will then fade to a black screen with a video showing various
models of Soul headphones.

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All three in unison: It isnt music without soul. (Text will display with the
logo next to the headphones.)
This ad can be adapted into an audio only version for radio spots, by
simply playing the audio with sound effects to sub in for the visuals.
Magazine Ad
Three full page magazine ads will be developed for various magazines.
The characters will be similar to those featured in the commercial spot,
but with different actors/models. All three will have the same basic setup:
On the top of the ad, in bold, large typeface will be the words Stand
out., and on the bottom there will be the same logo used in the
commercial with the text It Isnt Music Without SOUL. The three
variations will be as followed:
Musician: A man (aged approximately 30-40) will be shown in street
clothes, riding a bicycle, wearing Soul headphones. He will be smiling
and the color will be more vibrant around his figure as he rides
between gray cars with drivers looing bland/bored.
Athlete: A man (aged approximately 40-49) will be shown smiling,
running a marathon wearing bright clothing. As in the ad before, the
colors will be most vivid and saturated around his figure. In the
background, you can see other younger runners behind him, looking
tired.

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Young Professional: A woman (aged approximately 25-35) is shown at a

desk with a sea of cubicles in the background. Her figure, is as before,
standing out among the image. She is dressed in professional but
trendy clothes, smiling, as she types at her desk wearing Soul
headphones. Her coworkers are dressed blandly, colorless, and look
listless in the background.
VII.

Media Plan

The ad plan will focus on 4 main channels of distribution: Network TV

and YouTube pre-roll (for the commercial), radio (for the adapted ad), and
magazine spots for the print ad.
TV Commercials Commercial slots will be bought primarily for the
TBS network, because it best encapsulates the target audience. It is
a near perfect split of men and women (at 51.1% and 48.9%
respectively), the viewership is the target age (of its viewers, 61.8%
are ages 25-54), and the median income of the viewers is above
60,000 dollars, which targets the desired demographic of
professionals. Coupled with this is the statistic that of those with
paid TV plans, 40.04% are between the ages 35-54 and 68.52%
have an income of above $50,000. Two elements that coincide with
the intended target audience.6
Radio Money will be allocated to buy spots in national radio
programs during peak hours of the morning commute and evening
commute.
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YouTube Pre-Roll A cheap and relatively simple way to get ad

exposure. Depending on the clients preferences, spots will be
bought before specific channel videos. (Indie music label channels,
Health and Fitness channels, and Business oriented channels.)
Magazines To reach the target market, ad spots will be bought in
the following magazines:
Womens Health For the Athlete Ad
U.S. Weekly For the Young Professional Ad
Rolling Stone For the musician ad.
Depending on budget constraints and flexibility there will be varying
amounts of frequency, but ideally each will be featured in an issue
for three months.
VIII. Estimated Advertising Budget
For this plan, the estimated ad budget is set at 250,000. This is a modest
sum, but the ad campaign is planned to run only three months at the end
of that period, analysis of the pre and post-test (Section IX) will be in, and
the company can make adjustments based on what is working and what is
not. That way, if there are any glaring triumphs or tribulations, they can
either be expanded upon or fixed, so as to have the most effective ad
campaign.
Type of Ad
TV Commercials
Magazine Spots
YouTube Pre-roll*
Radio Advertising

Money Spent
100,000
75,000
50,000
25,000

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*The CPM (Cost per Milli or thousand views) was estimated in 2013 at
7.60, so by allocating $50,000, that should yield roughly 6.5 million
views.
IX.

Ad Efficacy Assessment

At the beginning and at the end of the 6 month period, online surveys
will be sent out to a sample size group of the target audience to function
as a pre and post-test. The surveys will analyze 3 main things: if the
consumer is aware of the brand, their thoughts/emotions towards the
brand and the advertisements, and how they heard about the brand. The
analysis of these results will dictate the next move for Soul Electronics,
whether that means moving on to more sales oriented goals if the target
audience awareness goal is met, or if more money will be allocated to a
certain media that proved most effective. A sample survey with possible
questions can be found below:
Sample Survey
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Have you heard of Soul Electronics before?

If so, where did you hear about it?
What was the main message of the ad you saw?
What did you like most about this ad? Please be specific.
What did you like least about this ad? Please be specific.
If you were to describe the ad or product with an emotion, how

would you describe it?

7. On a scale of 1-9, how likely would you be to buy a pair of Soul
Headphones?

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Works Cited
1. Marketing Execs of Headphone Brands on Biz of Selling Sound |
Special: Music and Marketing - Advertising Age (Advertising Age
Special Report Music and Marketing RSS)
http://adage.com/article/special-report-music-andmarketing/marketing-execs-headphone-brands-biz-sellingsound/244379/
2. How Beats headphones changed the audio world (CNN) By: Leopold,
Todd.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/13/tech/beats-headphones-audio-market/

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3. Sennheiser enjoys strong turnover and profit growth in 2011 | Comms

Business (Comms Business)
http://commsbusiness.co.uk/news/sennheiser-enjoys-strong-turnoverand-profit-growth-in-2011/
4. How I Did It: Rick Alden, Skullcandy (Inc.com)
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20080901/how-i-did-it-rick-aldenskullcandy.html
5. The Average YouTube CPM Is $7.60, But Making Money Isnt Easy
(Tubefilter RSS) http://www.tubefilter.com/2014/02/03/youtube6.
7.
8.
9.

average-cpm-advertising-rate/
Marketer's Guide to Media 33 (2010): 29-161. Print.
Soul Electronics (YouTube) http://www.youtube.com/user/soulsocial
Soul Electronics (Soul Electronics) http://www.soulelectronics.com/
SOUL of Greatness | Ludacris (Vimeo) http://vimeo.com/54955957

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