In the 1970s and 1980s, the US economy was in recession and real estate values shrank sharply. A large number of houses in the Bronx, New York were abandoned.
In this “ruin”, street culture trends such as Breaking, DJ, and graffiti were born. It is often seen that DJs carry turntables and speakers on the streets to hold various music parties.
In 1987, the American movie “Breakin” was released in China, and the dance style called breaking also had a resounding local name-breakdance, and at the same time set off the breakdancing craze that swept China. Along with the magical rhythm of Disco, cassette recorders, toad mirrors, high-waist bell-bottoms, and pointed leather shoes all became the trends of that era.
“These are what I have experienced back then, and the experience of those present may not be much.” As he recalled, Elvis founder Zeng Dejun said jokingly.
It’s hard to imagine that Elvis will design a product inspired by breakdancing. However, the four-year-old Elvis always shows people with a niche impression. It does not follow the trend but can always be evoked by a unique design. People’s feelings.
After selling 2 million speakers with feelings, Elvis enters the headphone market
From the radio to the headset
The rounds of applause showed that the new product launch conference did not disappoint the “cat fans”. On the same day, Elvis released a new product line “Elvis Thunderbolt Player” and “Elvis Radio · Wave Wireless ONE”.
The Elvis Thunderbolt player, which resembles a cassette recorder, is the first dual-speaker, stereo Bluetooth speaker among Elvis’ portable products. Elvis internally called this product a “leg-shaking dual-speaker”, “Elvis’ thunderbolt player has high power and can bring a strong sound effect, but it is small in size and is a must-have artifact when going out.” The contrast becomes this one. The unexpected surprise of the product.
From the little prince OTR, to the atomic phonograph B612, to the Elvis Thunderbolt player, Elvis has always insisted on popularizing retro-style radios to the public. Elvis sales reached 200,000 units in 2016 and 700,000 units in 2017. Zeng Dejun said that Elvis has more than 2 million users today.
At the press conference in March, Elvis Presley released the Elvis Radio Walkman, which has not yet been mass-produced due to quality issues. On the day of the new product launch, Zeng Dejun calmly said that the difficulty of innovation surpassed his imagination. “In the eyes of others, Elvis has always insisted stupidly. We don’t like to follow. We have always hoped to create something that is eye-catching. But not being a follower actually exposes us to a lot of innovation risks.”
Unbelievable, Zeng Dejun released another cross-border product-Chao wireless ONE TWS headset, and equipped the headset with an independent controller-Elvis Super Control. Both the Thunderbolt player and the headset support OhPlay Elvis Presley and Tencent Cloud Xiaowei’s intelligent voice assistant. “Let Bluetooth speakers and Bluetooth headsets become smart speakers and smart headphones in seconds,” said Zeng Dejun.
OhPlay Elvis Presley is an application that Elvis Presley released last year to provide content-side support for Elvis Radio. After the algorithm is empowered, it will provide users with personalized music recommendations. According to statistics in April, OhPlay Elvis Presley has 480,000 registered users, with a cumulative number of activations exceeding 5 million, and a total of 18 million playbacks. At the same time, the broadcast volume of Elvis Radio’s self-made program, Elvis Music Station, has exceeded 50 million.
Zeng Dejun said that four good products have always been the philosophy of Elvis Presley. The top three may be easier to understand. “The mainstream market likes high-tech flat, minimalist designs. Have you found that Elvis’ things are very manual? One of the things we insist on is manual control, especially the experience of the radio turntable.” Elvis Music Li Wen, the founder of Taiwan, said in an interview.
The only constant is always changing
As soon as the voice fell, Zeng Dejun had already “played” with the Elvis on his wrist to be super-controllable. While “playing” with him, he kept asking everyone, “Do you think I’m trendy?”
In March, Elvis redefines its brand strategy. Trendy play is based on classics and retro. Elvis has created a new “personal design” for himself. This can be seen in more and more portable products of Elvis Presley.
The “niche” is more evaluation given to it by the public since the birth of Elvis. “Elvis was originally not a product for everyone, it was for the group of people who have beautiful dreams about the world. Otherwise, there is no way to explain why a product such as a radio is still needed.” Li Wen said. “But in the future there will be no masses, just more different types of niches.”
As the person in charge of Elvis Presley’s content, the “Elvis Music Station” under Li Wen’s responsibility was established last year. The software and content are freshly laid out except for the hardware. This year, Elvis made two products other than radios. When asked where the boundaries of the product are, Zeng Dejun said that perhaps Elvis related to sound would do it. “The only thing that Elvis does not change is that it has been changing.” This is an idea that the team agrees with.
Elvis Presley signed Chen Qizhen as the brand spokesperson. “Our post-90s and post-95s young people are constantly increasing, and Elvis is moving towards a trendy brand. We need to have a way to communicate with young people, not just put the product there and let others see it. “Elvis co-founder Yao Mingkan said the considerations behind this. “We made the third edition of Radio Easter, but in fact, we nicheized our own things when we made things.”
On the basis of maintaining “tonality”, Elvis also wants more and more young people to like it. “Where the traffic is, we will fight wherever we go, and we won’t stand still.” Le Wen added. Next, Li Wen said that he would update his understanding of the content. “In the past, the content of a radio program was the content, but the product itself is the content. We want to build a big content by adding product marketing, product-related services, and traditional content.” I can only do radio, and I may also enter short videos.” Li Wen secretly laughed.
But no matter where Elvis wants to change in the future, “incorrect” will always be Elvis’ bottom line. Perhaps “incorrect” is too abstract. “Chief Product Officer” Zeng Dejun used Jobs and the iPhone twice in the press conference and interview. “When Jobs released the first generation of iPhone in 2007, he removed the physical buttons on the phone. The move was ridiculed by almost all traditional mobile phone manufacturers. Looking at it now, it is precisely because of the incorrectness of the time that such a sexy design has been created, and a new era of smart phones has been opened.”
The press conference is over, and the 24-hour radio will start on Easter. Standing on the beach of Anaya is the main vision of the third radio station Easter. It is a yellow little prince OTR·submarine version. Inside the Beatles Museum is a model of a yellow submarine, and it continues “Yellow Submarine” is playing, which is a famous song by the Beatles in the 1960s. This is where the creativity of the Little Prince OTR Submarine Edition came from, Zeng Dejun said.