Editor’s Note: Audio brand Denon knows all about competing with bigger ideas and smaller dollars, said Mike Allen, chief marketing officer at Denon’s parent company Masimo Consumer Audio. Denon is a 110-year-old brand that faces large and well-funded competitors, making marketing a challenge. The brand recently debuted a new marketing campaign with Katy Perry for its PerL Pro earbuds. Multichannel Marketer’s sister publication Chief Marketer spoke with Allen about the campaign collaboration and its goals; Perry’s own marketing contributions; challenges to product differentiation within the audio listening space; lessons learned from previous marketing gigs; and more. Below is an excerpt of the piece; Visit Chief Marketer to read the full article.
Chief Marketer: Denon PerL’s personalized sound is at the heart of the marketing campaign. How does the technology work?
Mike Allen, Chief Marketing Officer at Masimo: The Denon PerL has what’s called adaptive acoustic technology, which basically means that it can customize hearing for each person to your own unique profile. It’s tied to an app, and it sends frequencies into your inner ear which bounce back. The device understands the way you hear different frequencies and optimizes the sound for your ear. It is truly personalized sound.
CM: Why was Katy Perry the right partner for this?
MA: The product’s been out for about a year, but we were launching a new colorway in June, so we wanted to go out there in a big way with somebody who represented the same sort of personalized spirit—who would invest in a unique product, but also was from the world of music. Katy came to mind because I happened to be a fanatic of American Idol, and I knew she was leaving the show and there were rumors that she was launching a new album.
And in my experience, if you can line up an incredible personality with a product at the right point in time, you can get a lot of buzz going. That was the idea of partnering with Katy as she relaunches her music career, a new single and her new album going on tour next year. We’re trying to line up a very unique product with a very unique pop star.
Visit Chief Marketer to read the full article.
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