What I’ve learned about … creating a premium brand

By Martin Bell, September 12, 2006 @ midnight

Ken Ishiwata’s business card doesn’t have a title. It simply says ‘Marantz … Ken Ishiwata’. It’s not too much of a stretch to imagine that Michael Schumacher’s business card—if he has one—is similarly brief and to the point: ‘Ferrari … Michael Schumacher’. Both individuals are so closely linked to the brands they represent that a job title seems redundant.

Idealog September/October 2006, page 108

The Japanese-born and European-based Ishiwata (he calls Belgium home, although he spends most of the year visiting Marantz outposts around the world) joined Marantz in the late 70s, at the fag end of hi-fi’s golden age. Nearly 30 years on and Ishiwata (or KI as he is commonly known) remains deeply immersed in the company on all levels—the business direction, developing products, defining brand strategy and acting as a roving brand ambassador.

KI has a direct hand in tuning the sound of the majority of the 30–50 products Marantz launches each year. Yet somehow he still finds time to personally select and modify standard Marantz products in order to take them to another level of musical excellence. These premium products—the KI-Signature range—have created a brandwithin-a-brand experience for hi-fi buffs. For them, owning a piece of KI Signature kit is a way of connecting on a near-personal level with the work of a master craftsman. So how did KI develop his brand?

Encourage experimentation and happy accidents

Most people know the story of the 3M employee who invented the reuseable glue used on Post-It notes by accident. Marantz’s KI Signature range has similar accidental origins. Impressed with the sound quality of the CD63mkII, a budget CD player of the mid 90s and realising that the disc spinner could be improved, Ishiwata modified the player for his own use. UK journo Andrew Everard later visited Ishiwata for an amplifier demonstration. Everard liked the amp, but was more taken with the Ishiwata’s tweaked budget CD player—and the KI Signature range was born. The CD63mkII KI Signature went on to sell nearly 300,000 units worldwide and remains Marantz’s best-selling CD player to this day.

Become the brand

The Marantz brand has a rich heritage (the company was founded by American Saul Marantz in 1953) and while technology might have changed a lot since, the basic human requirement for music to be an integral part of people’s lives has not diminished. “I believe that music is our most important, essential and nourishing art form,” says Ishiwata. Every aspect of the Marantz brand embodies that premise with the KI brand—and KI himself—being the ultimate expression of this sentiment.

It’s important to eat today. Just make sure you don’t starve tomorrow

“In our industry, if you know what technological development is going on and can observe the general direction your competitors are taking, it’s easy to predict what they’ll be doing in five or so years,” says Ishiwata. “It’s also crucial to analyse your own resources and capabilities. You need to understand your own strengths and weaknesses in order to see the opportunities and threats.”

Understand the needs, tastes and values of your customers

“A product has to do more than perform its particular function—it also has to represent its owner’s personality,” says Ishiwata. “Around half of customers buy hi-fi kit on price alone and Marantz has no interest in them. Of the remaining 50 percent—the part Marantz is interested in—technology-savvy, early adopters account for around 20 percent, a further 25 percent buy based on a combination of ease of use and aesthetics, while audiophiles make up two to five percent of the market. Marantz has carefully analysed what each of these narrow consumer segments expects from a hi-fi system and designed and tailored its product range to suit them.”