There are several reasons as to why Beats by Dr Dre headphones have become ubiquitous in western pop culture, so much that Apple paid 3 billion for it: the former NWA founder's fanbase is one; great build quality and pretty good sound is another; but mostly, it's because of really clever marketing. The brand plays up a premium, yet "street" image, and pulls off copious (almost shamelessly blatant) amount of product placements, the first of which happened in Beijing.
The story, according to multiple reports, including this one by ESPN, goes like this: in the summer of 2008, music producer Jimmy Iovine was in talks with LeBron James about developing a documentary. At the time, Iovine had already begun working on a set of headphones with Dr Dre. Realizing that James would be a great spokesman for the brand, Iovine gave the NBA star an early pre-production pair to use. James, a wise businessman who was on his way to Beijing to take part in the 2008 Olympics, countered to Beats: "give me 12 of these, and I'll make sure they're seen."
And so, when Team USA Basketball arrived in Beijing, the hundreds of reporters in attendance immediately noticed that almost every member of the team -- all NBA stars, except Tayshaun Prince -- had a pair of Beats headphones on their head or draped around their neck. Media took notice, and the Beats hype officially began.
Leon Wu, chief technology officer of Chinese headphone maker Fiil, is well aware of this story. In fact, Fiil, which is founded by Chinese rock star Wang Feng, has its own version.
"During the 24th birthday celebration of [Hong Kong singer] G.E.M., Wang gave her a pair of Fiil headphones," says Wu. "She put the headphones on in front of bunch of reporters, and it attracted a lot of attention and a boost in sales."
The Beats marketing strategy, Wu adds, is one Fiil would like to emulate.
Wang, who has a successful rock career and is married to actress Zhang Ziyi, is arguably just as big a name in China as Dr Dre is to the U.S. So when he decided to start Fiil in 2015, it quickly drew media attention.
But the founder of the rock band No. 43 Baojia Street isn't just a figurehead boss of Fiil. He's very hands-on and passionate about the company -- he did, after all, use $2 million of his own money to get the project off the ground.
"Fiil means a lot to me," says Wang, 45, who is also a judge on China's version of the singing competition show The Voice. "I have to ensure that I am satisfied with the audio quality, so I take part in the R&D process of each of our products. I want the headphones to be as authentic as possible, [playing music] from a musician's perspective."
Wang often uses his musical knowledge to help Fiil engineers craft the "right sound." But even when the rock star is busy, the company is in good hands. Wu, the CTO, has a master's degree in audio engineering and worked for U.S. audio communications company Plantronics for more than a decade.
Wu, 38, says he left the California-headquartered company to help start Fiil because of a desire to build his own thing.
"I was already making wireless headsets at Plantronics," he says. "But that was like raising someone else's children. At Fiil, I am raising my own children."
Both Wu and Wang talk about Fiil like it's their own baby, and rightfully so. The company is a start-up, and everyone involved is is very passionate about the product, Wu says.
For example, Fiil's upcoming product, the wireless sports earbuds dubbed Carat Pro, was delayed because the company wanted to improve the built-in heart rate monitor (inside the earpiece), which is developed in partnership with pioneering heart rate sensor makers Valencell (this is the company that famously sued Apple for allegedly stealing its heart monitoring tech).
"This is not common in Chinese start-ups," Wu says. "To delay a product due to quality control."
But unlike the stereotypical college-aged bootstrappers working out of a garage, Fiil is also well-funded -- it raised about $30 million or so from venture capitalists and crowdfunding projects this year, and the company has offices in Beijing, Shenzhen and Suzhou -- and has staff that Wu admits are a bit older.
At least on the engineering side. "All of the people on my hardware guys are in their late 30s and have worked for known audio brands like Harman and Monster, or manufacturers like Foxlink," he says. "I didn't want to hire young guys because they need time to learn. I want them to get it right on the first go."
So far, critical and fan response seem to show Fiil's getting it right. The company's first product, the wireless over-the-ear headphone Fiil (the one G.E.M. wore), received great reviews from tech blogs and won design awards from iF and Red Dot. Fiil's second-generation premium headphones, the Diva Pro, which was the first headphone to offer 3D audio, voice search features and noise-canceling in one package, was a success on Kickstarter, and was named an Innovation Award honoree at U.S. electronic trade show CES. It, too, got rave reviews, including a 98% customer rating on Chinese shopping portal JD.com.
I got to test out the headphones during my visit to Fiil's Shenzhen office, and my favorite part about both the first-gen headphones and the Diva Pro is that they're very comfortable, with great noise cancellation that's almost on Bose's level, and legit 3D audio sound (seriously, listening to a live recording of a concert sounded uncanny). The Diva Pro also has built-in storage so it can serve as a stand-alone music device without the need to tether it to a phone or computer.
In a refreshing turn of events, Wu is also very candid about what the company can improve on, and what may turn off buyers. He concedes the Fiil's noise canceling is, indeed, not as great as the ones found on Bose right now and his team is working on improving it (it's worth noting that a pair of Bose headphones typically cost several hundred dollars more). Wu also admits that Fiil's products are more expensive that most Chinese audio headsets or earbuds.
"We're not really trying to compete with the budget brands," he says. "I know shoppers may be tempted to buy those, but I think you can hear and feel the difference in quality."
Wu says Fiil is trying to market to the premium headphone community -- people who tend to buy Bose or Beats or Sennheiser -- except Fiil's headphones would be "about 3/4 the price, and just as good, if not better."
With a musician fronting the band, Fiil knows it has to produce sound that can please audiophiles, and the specs are all there. Fiil's headphones not only can play MP3s, but also uncompressed "lossless" files like FLAC at 24-bit.
Right now, Fiil is already the top-selling headphone maker in the mid-to-high price range in China, according to JD.com, but the company has always focused internationally.
"From day one, when we made the products, we made sure to meet the certifications requirements of the FCC, MFI, and so on," Wu says. "Because we never intended on just being a China company."
Like all start-ups, Fiil has a strong software team, which develops its own app, and understand the value of collecting user data.
"Once our headphones with fitness tracker rolls out, we can learn about a user's sporting habits," Wu says.
In a sense, Fiil is the best of both worlds -- it's got the cashflow and experienced (older) staff of a major corporation, but it's structured like a start-up, with forward-thinking goals.
Wang, the rock star, says his ultimate goal is for Fiil to be an internationally renowned audio brand, and also be "the pride of the nation."
