Hey guys

I'm doing a bit of work for a company who has asked me to conduct a little bit of market research, and ask any of my peers if they would be so nice as to answer a couple of questions for them. Of course you don't have to help, but my first thought would be to ask you guys as I know most of you reasonably well and I'm friends with a lot of you. The help would be hugely appreciated as I said in the title, and anybody who helps out, I will personally owe a favour to (A reasonable favour of course )

The set of questions are based around Audio electronics (Specifically headphone amplifiers)

You don't have to know anything about headphone amplifiers to answer the questions, although a little bit of knowledge could help. Any responses ranging from 10 words each to 1000 word essays are welcomed!

Thank you in advance to anybody who chooses to help out. Questions are as follows:

1:
How important would you say social media (ie: Facebook, Twitter etc) are to marketing a product?

2:
What facilities would you prefer for new electronics equipment? (USB, Line-in, RCA cables) In other words, would you like to see new products with simple, easy to use connections - or newly researched connections which could be more complicated.

3:
The look of the product. Would you like to see audio electronics created in a variety of colours to match gender preferences for example (Pink, Black, White, Red, Blue, etc) or do you think that slightly higher end electronics should retain a mutual, professional look (White, Brushed Aluminium, White, grey)

4:
Do you think a font such as Times New Roman should be changed to something a bit more youthful to attract the attention of a more youthful audience, or should the font remain consistent to in-keep with professionalism and quality.

That's it

The main thing they're looking for is creating a new headphone amplifier to appeal more to a younger target audience (16-30 range) at a price of around £200 - £250. Any notes you feel to add on to your responses are more than welcomed.

Again, thank you if you answer.

1 Not so much important
2 Audio cable: jacks/AV cable
3 Prefere professional
4 Futura set is better

1. I never look at a company's Facebook page.
2. USB / HDMI
3. Professional look
4. Myriad Pro is my favourite font.

1. Not at all important. A lot of businesses followed the hype of social media early. There's this rule saying that if a customer likes a product, he will on average tell about 6 other people. But if he dislikes it, he'll tell up to 20-25. Turns out that this doesn't apply to social media. "Liking" something on social media is too easy, and what they like isn't the physical product, but an internet page.
"Followers" aren't committing to anything. They've become desensitized to advertisements, and they will blindly accept terms on any site they register on without even reading them once.

Word of mouth is still very important, and in that respect social media still holds value. However it's best to provide good specifications, images, videos et cetera, and get people talking about the product. Attaching some celebrity name or name that's already established in the market will still do wonders as well.

2. For headphone (amps) it's best to go with industry standards such as 3.5mm(line in/out) and USB. Compatibility is key with this range of products. Multiple channels are always desired as long as the quality remains.

3. Headphones and electronics these days are used to project a certain image. However in my experience the traditional "professional" colors and materials at least make the electronics look higher quality. Some level of customization with headphones is always welcome and easy to do, however for the electronics themselves I much prefer the traditional black plastics, cobalts, whites and brushed metal.

4. Times New Roman is ancient history yes. Calibri is the standard office font now I believe and already looks more organic. Or Arial or something.

Notes: 200-250 quid for headphone amps, isnt that a bit much? That's getting into proper mix panel territory.

Thanks guys, and thanks Bart

You'd be surprised at the prices of headphone amps, mine is £600. As a general rule of thumb which I've found - the higher the impedance of the headphones (signal they take to drive), the higher the price of the amp. You would usually spend more on the amp than you would on the headphones for a good setup.

The company in question sells headphone amps from kind of £250 - £600, so the price they'll be asking is low in comparison to their other products.

1:
How important would you say social media (ie: Facebook, Twitter etc) are to marketing a product?

Not as important as a normal compagny website, but it becomes more important by the day. I think twitter is the most important type of social media. because the simple short updates you can post on it.

2:
What facilities would you prefer for new electronics equipment? (USB, Line-in, RCA cables) In other words, would you like to see new products with simple, easy to use connections - or newly researched connections which could be more complicated.

There should be just one connection usable for every electronic device. One to upload data and the same to recharge your batteries.

3:
The look of the product. Would you like to see audio electronics created in a variety of colours to match gender preferences for example (Pink, Black, White, Red, Blue, etc) or do you think that slightly higher end electronics should retain a mutual, professional look (White, Brushed Aluminium, White, grey)

I always like the professional look. But my sister on the opposite is very attrracted to girly colors. Everey phone she had owned was purple of pink. But the most people would go for the professional look.

4:
Do you think a font such as Times New Roman should be changed to something a bit more youthful to attract the attention of a more youthful audience, or should the font remain consistent to in-keep with professionalism and quality.

Times new Roman is a nice font, but I like the looks of Calibri better.

Greetz Kevin

1) It's hard to say, it could certainly act as a means of getting the company name out there, and with a large number of followers, a new product release could be notified to thousands of people. Maybe only one in a hundred would follow it through, but that's still a decent proportion.

2)USB 3.0 or standard line in/ line out connections. Right now I need an adapter to plug an amp into my pc or other devices into the amp

3) Colours sound cool, sort of in an ipod style. Rounded corners, with a high gloss coloured finish, with matte white or black details could look the buisness

4) Times new roman isn't the most attractive of fonts. There are plenty of more modern, "youthful" ones without being unprofessional, calibri, veranda etc. Much more rounded and in my opinion better looking, but still very tidy and professional.

1) id say its very important in the modern day society, its allows you to advertise will not shoving it downs someone throat like many of the adverts do on television or on YouTube

2) A USB

3) definitively professional look

4) i think it should definitively keep that type of font but not necessarily Times New Roman

1:
How important would you say social media (ie: Facebook, Twitter etc) are to marketing a product?

For me personally not so much as I would take proffesional reviews of products and word of mouth much more than that of anything I saw on a social media site. However in saying that it is a good way to get the name of a company known to a much wider audience. If they company is world wide however has an established base in a country on continent I think it can definately help spread knowledge of that company. Also I presume that settting up a company page on facebook is free the same as a personal one.

2:
What facilities would you prefer for new electronics equipment? (USB, Line-in, RCA cables) In other words, would you like to see new products with simple, easy to use connections - or newly researched connections which could be more complicated.

I like new connections on electronics as long as there is a reason or a use for it. Usually the reason it because it's better- better transfer speeds to update mp3 players, better sound quality etc. If there is something new about products, especially electronic ones there has to be some ease of use to it also. By this I mean, taking headphone amplifyers as an example, if a company comes up with a new way to connect headphones it is useless if you can only buy headphones with that connector from one shop.

3:
The look of the product. Would you like to see audio electronics created in a variety of colours to match gender preferences for example (Pink, Black, White, Red, Blue, etc) or do you think that slightly higher end electronics should retain a mutual, professional look (White, Brushed Aluminium, White, grey)

This is possibly the hardest question to answer here. Obviously there is no reason for the colour a product or the range of colours if can be bought it in to effect the quality. However if I see brighly coloured electrical equipment I do automatically assume that it isn't a high quality product (unless proven otherwise) There is possibly another side to this as well in that people will buy, or not buy, a product on whether it matches things that they already own. An example of this is - I use a computer for a media player but my pc case is black, mouse black, keyboard black, monitor black, tv black, headphones black so when I bought my surround sound speakers which came in silver or black I bought black. This I think rings true with alot of people so therefore who is going to be buying random coloured goods.

4:
Do you think a font such as Times New Roman should be changed to something a bit more youthful to attract the attention of a more youthful audience, or should the font remain consistent to in-keep with professionalism and quality.

Times New Roman is a plain font however there is nothinig that annoys me more than when a company used such an obscure font you have to work out what it says. That is not to say that different fonts can't be used as a distinguishing factor between product lines by a company however they should always be easily legible.