Ok so this may need a little bit of reading up on your part. Reason being that we have been on B&O’s ass for a while now. So please start with this and this.

So now you have a better understanding of the shouting at a closed B&O door we have been doing since (oh my god) May 08. That looks really fucking scary in writing.

All this time we have basically been telling them that they are too old, too expensive and way to uninteresting for the next wave of potential Bang & Olufsen customers. The logical conclusion for us all this time has been a diffusion brand, letting them maintain the dwindling grey high end mother brand, and be a bit more “colorful” and edgy with the diffusion brand.

Good news / Bad news

Good news is that they finally went and fucking did it…

The bad news is that it feels, looks and tastes bad.

Here’s the thing.

To create a succesful diffusion brand, that is aimed at a younger, smarter, faster and more mobile segment, you have to know and understand how they live. This shows with everything you do and say… that you, B&O, don’t!

If you did there is no way in hell you would have made the commercial above. It clearly shows that you and your agency have a misguided perception of either who you should really be targeting, or how to speak to them in a way that is not old grey B&O covered in a fresh coat of red.

Also if you, B&O, understood your target audience, there is now way in hell that this would have ended up on YouTube.

Your CEO Tue Mantoni sounds like he is trying to convince himself and us in the thesis that “this is something new and exciting”. That this is not the “old”, but rather that this is the “new”. But please explain how this is supposed to be for a younger, smarter, faster and more mobile segment when you try to convince us that you can use this in a big house, or anywhere in your apartment. How large do you think the living conditions of your younger segments is? But that’s not all.

Are we supposed to care that you’ve used young designer, good that you did, but don’t use it as a badge of glory. The same with the craftsmanship in the finish of the aluminum. SHUUUT UUUP!!!! Seriously??

Finally we come to make the biggest misstep, and unfortunately it’s a very common one.

How the hell can you make a product that only works with Mac products? And BOOOM you’re grey again. If you knew anything about your new marketplace, and the mobile habits of the segment, you would know that Android is HUGE, as in actually bigger than iPhone.

Ok so let’s recap.

- You do the right thing by creating a “young” sub brand
- You proceed by misunderstanding the word young.
- You think that Apple product actually rule the world.
- You then do a shit television commercial.
- You follow it by a misguided infomercial
- You end it by losing.

And all of that without me even mentioning how bad your “digital” experience.

What can i say… You really should have called us Tue.

Streetbeat