Danish Design Model B&O: Show Your Quality

For a family to provide high

Therefore, even if we have high quality, we must be good at expressing them in various ways. This is the brand.

For Danish people, B&O is not only a pronoun of high quality sound, but also a model of "Danish Design". It is a name that makes the Danish royalty proud.

The company, which has won numerous awards in the field of industrial design, has created many first in Denmark: it first chose high-end wood for radio production; the first TV set was launched in 1950; the first roll out mobile TV set in the first century in 60s and 70s; in 1978, the New York Museum of modern art permanently collected its three product designs.

A company founded by invention rectifier was eventually selected by marketing master Martin Lindstrom as a sensory organ.

Danish gene

This is a company with strong regional color. It is located in the town of Sturr in the northeast of Denmark, with a population of 15 thousand people, 1500 of whom work.

It was once a family business controlled by two founders and has been in operation for more than 80 years.

After the 1972 listing, every 18 year old resident in the town was able to get a share of the stock it gave.

It is so deeply rooted in Danish soil that its product design history is like a miniature version of the Danish business history, which covers the Danish household standards, the Bauhaus pragmatism, the fashionable Danish furniture design, and even the competitive strategy of the Japanese electrical enterprises.

The founder, Peter Bang, was born in a wealthy businessman's family and was interested in the technology of the radio in his youth.

After graduating as an engineer in 1924, he worked in an American radio factory for 6 months.

There, he has mastered the latest technology of developing radio.

After returning to Denmark, I studied with my classmate and my good friend, Svend Olufsen.

The parents of Svend Olufsen have a Quistrup estate near the town of sterlor in Southeast Denmark.

In 1925, B&O officially opened in the loft of the manor.

The first product they launched was radio, and they encountered Waterloo after the market.

It was this failure that made them realize the importance of design.

The novelist, Johannes Buchholtz, described the competition in the radio market in 1937: "although radio technology is highly developed, it is still in infancy.

The pattern of this year will be out of date next year.

All clever minds are desperately thinking about how to improve this product.

Engineers all over the world sit at the table and play the new model repeatedly.

This is what they call competition and brutal competition.

Engineers always cling to pencils and erasers, never satisfied, and pursue better, better and better.

In the second year, they developed the first product with commercial value: Eliminator.

It can make radio no longer rely on battery power and switch to AC power supply.

The product was so successful that Olufsen needed to use the labor force of the family farm to help iron sheet.

The cash flow brought by the rectifier not only enabled two people to continue developing the most popular electrical radios at that time, but also allowed them to have a formal factory building.

B&O China Business Development Manager Lin Junzhong pointed to an old photo and said, "this is the first factory.

Why is this style? Their parents think that the business of the two young people is short term behavior, and they build the factory into a school style.

If the company really breaks down, it can be pformed into a school sale.

In 1930s, their business went by leaps and bounds.

Peter Bang focuses on technology, Svend Olufsen is responsible for business promotion.

After the first Mickey Mouse movie was played by Disney, B&O made a loudspeaker for the cinema and became a household name in Denmark.

The two founders are increasingly paying attention to the value drive of design.

The Beolit39 radio, launched in 1939, draws on the concept of Buick Y and skyscrapers in design, and marks the initial product philosophy of "emphasizing both design and function".

"The founders of the family formed their original design concept according to their own needs and ideas. By 1930s, the company had professional designers, and the idea they provided was more competitive, helping the company occupy the market share."

B&O president and CEO Tour Mandoni said.

At this stage, the design style of B&O is more to satisfy the taste of local market.

He said: "in Denmark, homes and houses are very important.

People are accustomed to spending money on decorating their houses, buying furniture and household appliances.

Because Danes even invite their business partners to their homes, it's very important to have a comfortable home, especially a TV set and a stereo for entertainment.

There has also been a revolution in the design of the local market, to the design of universal market and universal value.

In 1960s, the rise of Japanese electrical appliance enterprises, apart from cheap and practical, was unique in Japanese design, with a market share of over 70%.

At this point, B&O has entered Sweden and Britain. After World War II, it entered the United States and Australia in cooperation with dealers.

External competitors force it to make changes.

In order to compete for market share, it introduces free designers like Jacob Jansen to define the Danish design style through unremitting efforts, so as to separate from Japanese products.

The two founders began to master a product principle: "honest music reappears."

They hold the idea that the musical experience of entering the ear through a loudspeaker should not be affected by technical constraints, and the high fidelity technology should be used to recreate the natural state of music.

This concept makes "psychological acoustics" an important factor in the design and testing process.

Explaining technical terms such as hi fi technology to customers not only makes people drowsy, but also effortlessly thankless.

With design as a bridge, B&O cleverly found a solution to convey product characteristics with visual images and create advanced technology products that are loyal to the image conveyed and easily accepted by people.

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Design kernel

In the book "sensory brand", Martin Lindstrom analyzed the commonalities of the success of the world's top brands: most of them used sensory brand marketing tools to create a new "five dimensional" sensory world, from visual, auditory, taste, touch and feel, so that customers maintain loyalty to the brand.

In his view, the superior appearance or other sensory experience can play a strong hint role in the quality of the product, so smart enterprises will consciously strengthen the user's sensory experience, which is why B&O will strengthen the status of design so that it is even known as "visual enterprise". Its brand description is stated as follows: "design is the core technology of everything we do."

We design stories about creativity, products and brands.

As a result, the "vision Department" in the sound industry has replaced aluminum with wood instead of wood, so that people can intuitively recognize its "aluminum surface treatment technology"; conical loudspeakers and its heavy base are linked to the "acoustic lens technology" that reduces the floor and ceiling echoes, and the 360 degree evenly distributed "acoustic lens technology".

B&O is also very meticulous in haptic design. B&O's remote control is deliberately heavy and strong, very hand feeling. This deliberately created "sense of gravity" extends to all product lines of B&O, from telephone to microphone, and even to the general pursuit of lightweight headphone products.

The study of Psychoacoustics has made B&O aware that visual experience such as touch and touch can also affect auditory experience.

In B&O, a product starts from the topic, through the design, research and development, material selection, production, audio-visual test, durability testing and other processes, the time needed before and after, short is one year, long for three or four years.

Designers usually put forward the concept of color shape, user comfort, scientific and technological feasibility, and trend selection until the model is determined.

In order to respect the designer's freedom of creation and artistic standard, the management has no right to modify the design model, and can only choose to accept or deny. Only the designer has the right to modify the model.

This enlightened way of cooperation has attracted many artists and designers.

But B&O never readily recruits free designers.

Although famous for its unique design style, B&O does not have a dedicated designer team.

It has many long-term cooperative free designers, such as Jacob Jansen, who created many classic designs in the 80s of last century, and David Luis, chief designer in 80s of last century.

But they are not employed inside the company. The company has special posts to design and manage free designers.

Designers are free from the restrictions imposed by the company, and can absorb the most fresh inspiration, vision and design ideas from the outside world.

"This job is delicate, and we must strike a balance between giving direction and freedom."

Tour Mandoni said.

The company headquarters has a space called "creative territory", which is the place where all designers, creative engineers, engineers and management meet regularly every Friday.

Tour Mandoni said, "a good designer should have good design ability and ability to get along with people. What's more important is to understand the advanced technology of B&O and truly understand the needs of users."

He added: "there are many talented designers, but it is very difficult to find creative, loyal and able to produce chemical reactions".

For B&O, design is a language.

In other words, design is never an end, but a way.

Only design will not create a brand's international reputation.

There are no basic ideas or concepts. Such designs are superficial and ephemeral.

How to make the product leave the impression of "top class" at first sight and easily distinguish it from other brands?

B&O, executive director of the Asia Pacific region, believes that this is not only attributed to design, but also from high-quality materials, production processes and user experience.

When the design is confirmed, engineers will choose materials that are most suitable for presenting design concepts.

The use of aluminum in products has become a major feature of B&O.

In 1980, it also set up an important speaker sound quality testing center, the largest Cube in the world.

Before entering the "torture chamber" before making temperature, smoke, firmness and safety tests, the product will also refer to the "audio-visual group" made by ordinary consumers.

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So, is the company that has worked for decades, whether it is a design led enterprise or a technology led business?

"Consumers pay great attention to the beautiful appearance of the products, but the technology of the kernel can not be ignored," he said.

Like Ferrari racing, it looks cool, but the engine is also the best.

We have put a lot of effort into product design, but there are more manpower and material resources involved in technological innovation.

When we come to our store, what consumers see is the appearance design, which is easy to be accepted. This is the key first step.

After that, we need to spend more time explaining to them that our technology is also the top.

Finally, he concluded, "I prefer to call it a technology led company."

Just a few weeks ago, Tour Mandoni went to the biggest Creative Workshop in the company, where the person in charge told him about the design process of the new remote controller.

These designers have just returned from Italy, visiting five local families, taking many photos and images.

These data recorded the state of watching TV in Italy and the use of remote control.

For example, when a family watches TV, who controls the group behavior, who controls the remote control and what habits are used.

This remote controller has only four buttons. Even if you do not look at it, you will know the function of the top and bottom.

The biggest breakthrough is the control of audio, television, video games, air conditioners, curtains and other appliances, and freeing users from a lot of remote controls.

It accurately conveys another product principle - "making necessities, and absolutely not complicated."

Embrace light users

With its unique visual language, B&O has become the first high-end market to explore "design led, home entertainment equipment".

In 1968, B&O put forward such an advertisement: "for those who consider taste and quality before price".

Marketing products as a way of life is aimed at a small number of consumers but more internationalized target consumers.

They are well educated, have comfortable houses and cars, and have a taste and self motivation attitude. Before widescreen TV becomes the fashion trend, they are willing to pay more money for high-quality audio and video equipment.

In the B&O exclusive exclusive audio market for more than 40 years, in the 80s of last century, Spanish Rowe, the United States Bose audio, Japan's middle road company Nakamichi announced that they entered the high-end audio-visual market.

At that time, B&O under the control of the two families was facing the most serious survival crisis in history.

The management of the company only pays attention to aristocratic taste, ignores the arrogance of consumer groups, and makes products seriously disconnect from the market.

In particular, products are stored in warehouses, resulting in low logistics efficiency. Many customers are unable to endure long wait and buy other brands.

The extent of the crisis spanning nearly ten years was once thought that the old company would disappear from the stage of international industrial design.

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In July 1991, the old management of the company was replaced by a new and ambitious management team.

After Knudsen took the CEO, he took timely and effective "reform point plan".

They launched a radical restructuring of the company and rediscovered the product advantages of "system integration".

"From product, customer experience, sales to competition, every step should be set standards.

In every aspect of marketing, sales and logistics, we all need to know where the standard is, where the gap is, and then make up for the gap.

"This is an important lesson learned from failure," he said.

Instead of increasing their sales performance by opening more stores, they started intensive farming.

In 1994, from the Australian distribution channel, the traditional multi brand exhibition hall was gradually replaced by a single brand store, and the storefront became a part of the brand image.

Especially for the front-line salesmen, besides the pre employment screening and training, they also have good dress taste and sales style.

Dealers are dedicated to subscribing to the most authoritative business magazines in the country for front-line salesmen, asking them to read business topics and talk freely with customers.

Salesmen should not only identify personalized consumption needs, but also be good at explaining them, turning them into tailored and intelligent proposals.

Many customers are attracted by the succinct design style of the exhibition hall. They are entangled with salesmen, who want to know the hidden skills of complex wires, or they are attracted by a gadget used in shop display, and they want to copy it to their home.

These methods provide conditions for front-line salesmen to better collect customer data.

Ultimately, it is targeted at four types of target consumers: young people growing up, young families who have families, wealthy families and grey haired groups.

Companies responsible for marketing believe that such a classification is not to label customers, just to let dealers better understand the needs of different customers.

Along this line of thinking, B&O meets the needs of the rapidly changing era, extending from the original three core business speakers, televisions, players to vehicle audio and digital products, completely covering a person's life from home to the road, from visual to auditory.

In 2005, B&O made the first set of car audio on Audi A8.

"The car audio system is a response to the market," he said.

We used to focus on high quality home audio and video equipment. The car itself is a good place to listen to music. Consumers like to enjoy music in the open air, so we put the sound on the car.

At present, car audio accounts for 15% of the company's business, while TV, speakers, players and other audio devices occupy the remaining 85%.

Although the proportion of car audio is not large, it has a unique marketing value in the Chinese market.

"In China, I prefer to be a marketing manager for Louis Vuitton, Lamborghini or Rolex," said Mai Lupu, who has a deep insight into the Greater China market.

He found that "in China, people who buy luxury cars may like our products. People like the size, size and power of the stereo, a bit like Russia."

Because of this, B&O's marketing channels in China have targeted marketing policies to cooperate with luxury brands and star hotels to get consumers' recognition.

In May of this year, the new earphone which was just listed in China and the speaker base designed for Apple signifies that B&O has achieved the pition from core users to light users.

Designed for apple, the speaker base Beosound8 is an "entry-level product".

It has attracted Apple fans, young people and white-collar workers.

Since its listing overseas in November 2010, it has sold over 2.5 million units to become the brand's "best selling sound product in history".

Its subversive design, in addition to winning the praise of art, has also proved the ability of old brands to adapt to the new era.

Today, B&O has 500 thousand users worldwide.

In Tour Mandoni's view, this huge group has something in common: music or television plays an important role in their lives; most of them are interested in culture; they usually have more television channels but only watch fewer programs.

B&O headquarters is thinking about how to structure these information into a better tool to understand the existing customer groups.

Headquarters encourages distributors to participate in the consumer purchase database. In their view, once a consumer knows something, every dealer will benefit from it.

In any case, high quality products need to be truly felt and experienced by consumers.