Some of you will have seen the post with the speakers targetted at dj's. Simon raised a point about B&O appealing to the 'bling' community. This of course is a group of people with no intelligence but lots of money wholike spending it on certain brands.  As such, Cadillac, Crystal champange and Burberry have been brought down from high class brands, to those(at least partly) associated with 'gangsta' rappers.  Do people think that B&O might at some point mightrisk being a similar victim of its own success?

I don't think B&O is at big risk in this case because the mentioned community likes displaying things in public, and one can't drive a Beolab 5 like a Cadillac, nor wear a Beovision around the neck like a Burberry scarf.

Never seems to dent Rolls Royce or Bentley either, they sell to all markets with money with no dent in image or status from their sectors don't think there's much to worry about.

At the risk of sounding patronising (and why not?) to this group I would say that B&O is generally too understated to qualify. Take the Cadillac example: it's the copious knobs buttons and chrome that attract that crowd; B&O doesnt shout at you with flashing lights superfluous knobs or controls. Does that make it almost the antedote to bling? 

Where I was coming from with the comment was that B&O and 'Bling' are usually not seen together at all, so the idea of some bright yeallow pimped-up speakers witrh B&O down the side has a certain macabre fascination.

With B&O the branding is usually so understated you either need to look closely or know your design and/or hi-fi to realise it is B&Oat all, so almost by definition B&O and Bling are not found together unless things like this happen!

 

Simon

B&O products come across to me as dignified, mature, sensible, well balanced and beautiful. Like a Rolls-Royce (NOT LIKE A CADILLAC). I honestly don't think there is anything to be concerned about here.

Anyway, do many of you guys watch video clips for that genre of music? My assumption is, that the target audience for these artists, products and this music, would not have ever heard of Bang & Olufsen before.

Does this topic have anything to do with the "mass vs class" & "does bling beat the market?" articles in the september 17 issue of Fortune europe edition?