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The way the creative minds at BOOM Movement see it, young consumers today are more interested in how a product fits their lifestyle than the brand name stamped on the device.
So, instead of simply copying major manufacturers and spinning off me-too products, Ryan Minarik, founder of BOOM Movement (Born Out of Original Motives), and his chief designer, Mike DiTullo, clearly define their target audience and dig deep into it to find out exactly what they’re looking for in a consumer electronics product. It’s something the two call ethnocentric research, and the approach will continue define the company’s products.
In BOOM’s case, that person is in their late teens to early 20s, and considers themselves something of an “adventurer”—someone who is ready for anything at any time and needs the gear to match that get-up-and-go attitude. Think of someone who has embraced the skateboard/surf/snowboard lifestyle, especially if they’re from the San Diego area, where Minarik and DiTullo live, work and play. “A lot of this comes out of the California lifestyle,” Minarik said.
All of BOOM’s product design, though, springs from its target audience. The outcome is clear in the Urchin ($149.99), the company’s newest product, which it will showcase at CES.
The Bluetooth speaker is ruggedized (shock and water resistant), has interchangeable silicone skins, and ships with a carbineer for hooking it from a backpack or a tree limb, a suction cup for sticking it to the shower wall, and a screw mount attachment for the dash of the car or connecting it to an optional bike mount.
The Urchin supports Bluetooth Version 2.1 + EDR or higher, Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP), Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP), Simple Secure Pairing (SSP), Advance Audio Coding (AAC), Hands-Free Profile (HFP) 1.5 or higher, and Headset Profile (HSP). It has about 10 hours of battery life, takes two hours for a full charge, and includes a 3.5mm input.
Minarik started the company, producing headphones, while he was a student at the University of Arizona. The concept was simple: sell decent-quality $20 earbuds at the student bookstore so that anyone who needed a pair on the fly could pick one up and still have some money left for the week. The company still markets its Leader Series ($19.99), as well as the Renegade ($39.99) over-ears, and the higher-end Commander ($49.99) earbuds.
BOOM continues to tap into that youthful energy by recruiting college reps on campuses across the country (it has close to 100 so far) and hiring talent from other youth-oriented companies.
“It’s cool because all of the information is rising up from the people,” Minarik said. “We get a ton of input from them; they’re our content machines and we kick all of that input over to our marketing team.”
Today, BOOM sells into about 400 college bookstores, as well as Fry’s Electronics BrandsMart and Crutchfield, and plans on expanding to non-traditional retailers.
A few years ago, BOOM teamed up with DEI Holdings, the parent company of Directed, Polk Audio, and Definitive Technology, which is led by Ryan’s father, Jim Minarik, a long time CE industry vet. BOOM recently hired Steve Jain, formerly of D&M Holdings, JVC, Panasonic and DEI, as its director of sales. The company also recruited Travis Forster and Tyler Kalin, bringing experience from Rockstar Energy Drink and Skullcandy, to lead its marketing department.
DiTullo, chief design officer at DEI Holdings, said that street-level marketing and all the user information it generates makes it imperative for BOOM to broaden its product line across different categories.
“That’s why it’s so important to have a greater brand platform. When people notice the build and sound quality of the product, they want it,” DiTullo said. “They want to be part of the BOOM tribe. After they use the product, they end up telling other people about it.”
Minarik and DiTullo wouldn’t let on what their future products will be, but you can bet their fan base has a few good ideas. “We’re designing a brand that products can bubble up from,” DiTullo said.
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