Headphone Persuasive Speech

[Ora M]

I have a speech class this semester in college and I'm soon to start working on an outline for my persuasive speech, titled "Low-fi Audio for Hi-fi Prices." This is mostly a speech to sway people from spending excessive amounts money on names, looks, and prestige. I'm using Beats by Dre Solos and Studios as examples, because these are seemingly the most rampant example of terrible qualityrice ratio.
 
Our teacher is requiring us to write the outline is Monroe's Motivated Sequence. I figured this was the best place to ask for unbiased, factual sources for my speech. It'd also be great to get some information about these from a very experienced audiophile who has given these a good listen and has well formed opinion about each of those headphones. I have already read what the general consensus on the headphones is, but I won't mind if you want to toss in you're constructive 2 cents. 
 
 
 

 

[mbamg]

Quote:

I have a speech class this semester in college and I'm soon to start working on an outline for my persuasive speech, titled "Low-fi Audio for Hi-fi Prices." This is mostly a speech to sway people from spending excessive amounts money on names, looks, and prestige. I'm using Beats by Dre Solos and Studios as examples, because these are seemingly the most rampant example of terrible qualityrice ratio.
 
Our teacher is requiring us to write the outline is Monroe's Motivated Sequence. I figured this was the best place to ask for unbiased, factual sources for my speech. It'd also be great to get some information about these from a very experienced audiophile who has given these a good listen and has well formed opinion about each of those headphones. I have already read what the general consensus on the headphones is, but I won't mind if you want to toss in you're constructive 2 cents. 

 
This isn't the place for that. AFAIK a speech isn't meant to give people a full explanation on a specific topic, but to tap into the audience's emotions. Given many people's unfamiliarity with headphones, some comments may be viewed as elitist, condescending, or simply psychobabble, and may be hard to relate to. Some may be emotionally vested in their purchases, and you may simply drive them away. The more technical descriptions of sound, which are essential for you to present a solid argument, are best reserved for seminars or tutorial videos. Perhaps your speech should be more general, like on price performance, or on new money vs established wealth.

 

[Ora M]

Quote:

 
This isn't the place for that. AFAIK a speech isn't meant to give people a full explanation on a specific topic, but to tap into the audience's emotions. Given many people's unfamiliarity with headphones, some comments may be viewed as elitist, condescending, or simply psychobabble, and may be hard to relate to. Some may be emotionally vested in their purchases, and you may simply drive them away. The more technical descriptions of sound, which are essential for you to present a solid argument, are best reserved for seminars or tutorial videos. Perhaps your speech should be more general, like on price performance, or on new money vs established wealth.

I was mostly aiming for a price performance type of speech. I have no need to get into great detail. The speech will only be 7-8 minutes. I'm basically just trying to gather up enough info to say, "You're paying too much. Here's why you're paying too much. Finally, here are better alternatives to paying that much." The whole speech is going to run on the principle of "Keep it simple, stupid."
 

 

[catsup]

Quote:

I was mostly aiming for a price performance type of speech. I have no need to get into great detail. The speech will only be 7-8 minutes. I'm basically just trying to gather up enough info to say, "You're paying too much. Here's why you're paying too much. Finally, here are better alternatives to paying that much." The whole speech is going to run on the principle of "Keep it simple, stupid."
 

It'll be hard for you to persuade people without any background in hifi that beats are overpriced. It is a given that they are expensive, but I think most people that buy into beats never had any real quality headphones to begin with so they think beats are the best. They also mostly buy based off of brand name and to show off to others that they have the headphones. The cool factor is a major part of their decision making process. But idk, you can try to persuade them, but you're going to have to go into detail and maybe define terminology in sound quality, sound stage, etc. within the speech.

 

[144004]

Sounds like an exercise I did in first year uni. Here's how I would outline my approach, if I were you:
1. Begin with a rhetorical question, e.g. "How much does a pair of headphones cost?"
   1a. Pause. Move into a modified version of the question, "How much SHOULD a pair of headphones cost?"
2. Illustrate costs (prices) of currently popular headphones
3. Zoom in on Beats. State price, make bold statement, e.g. "This price? It's ridiculous." (this is to gather your audience behind a common cause, namely we are all being cheated by a common enemy)
4. Propose list of features in a headphone one SHOULD pay for, e.g. sound quality, comfort, style, tech support
5. Break down the costs (how specific depends on you) for Beats. Main aim here is to show that one pays very little for what matters in a headphone (dependant upon your definition in point 4)
6. Attack marketing claims made about Beats, e.g. "studio" use, "audiophile" use.
7. Show headphones that are objectively and subjectively approved to have better sound than Beats for less money.
8. Close with a call to action--e.g. you can buy better, do better, because you DESERVE better (reiterate headphones in point 7 as examples).

 

[catsup]

Quote:

Sounds like an exercise I did in first year uni. Here's how I would outline my approach, if I were you:
1. Begin with a rhetorical question, e.g. "How much does a pair of headphones cost?"
   1a. Pause. Move into a modified version of the question, "How much SHOULD a pair of headphones cost?"
2. Illustrate costs (prices) of currently popular headphones
3. Zoom in on Beats. State price, make bold statement, e.g. "This price? It's ridiculous." (this is to gather your audience behind a common cause, namely we are all being cheated by a common enemy)
4. Propose list of features in a headphone one SHOULD pay for, e.g. sound quality, comfort, style, tech support
5. Break down the costs (how specific depends on you) for Beats. Main aim here is to show that one pays very little for what matters in a headphone (dependant upon your definition in point 4)
6. Attack marketing claims made about Beats, e.g. "studio" use, "audiophile" use.
7. Show headphones that are objectively and subjectively approved to have better sound than Beats for less money.
8. Close with a call to action--e.g. you can buy better, do better, because you DESERVE better (reiterate headphones in point 7 as examples).

It's a good approach but I doubt he can make fit it in 7-8 minutes. He's going to have to define a lot of terms for the laymen and that will make him lose audience attention. If you approach it in the logical sense, it'll take time and it might not work since beats is all about obtaining something that everyone desires rather than real functionality/price ratio.
 

 

[144004]

Yeah, the limitations of a speech are that you can only really hammer home 3 points, max. And in that timeframe it's pretty much 1 point--so OP, maybe you should define what 1 aspect of sound the Beats do badly, and then just go for that. My outline was more of a "what are you paying for" cost breakdown as the crux of it.

 

[Ora M]

Here's a basic template of what the outline should look like: http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=Mh96cGkv
 
This should give you more of an idea on what I'm looking for.
 
I have a fairly strong desire to make it technical and do a lot of explaining, but I'm not willing to sacrifice my grade for such a cause. Also, I have no time for long explanations, unfortunately. I really do have to keep this as basic as it gets. Just going to talk about the general sound, build, and price. These are usually the things you would think of when buying something that you're making a fair investment into or at least worry about after you've made a head long dive into a purchase after basing your opinion on popular media. Make people think "Is this truly the best sound quality?", "Is this gonna last long enough to make my investment worth it?", and "Am I really getting the best bang for my buck?"
 
It's fine if they don't turn absolutely against buying Beats. I just want people to think twice when they starting thinking about putting a lot of money down on a pair of cans. Also, I do realize people are going to get mad or offended at what I say. I have no problem being that guy. I'll sit down with anybody on civil terms and discuss it, if need be. 

 

[KG Jag]

Read, view and learn grasshopper:
 
http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/monster-beats-dr-dre-solo

 

[144004]

Quote:

It's fine if they don't turn absolutely against buying Beats. I just want people to think twice when they starting thinking about putting a lot of money down on a pair of cans. Also, I do realize people are going to get mad or offended at what I say. I have no problem being that guy. I'll sit down with anybody on civil terms and discuss it, if need be. 

But you're not being graded by peers, right? 

 

[Ora M]

Quote:

But you're not being graded by peers, right? 

Of course not. Teacher is the only one that matters.