audio 308

The space age styling of the audio 308 is symptomatic of the crisis into which the Braun audio programme descended in the early 1970s. Struggling to maintain its position in the high fidelity market against technically superior goods produced in Europe and America, the company moved to address the youth market at a lower price point. The strategy did not succeed, failing to anticipate the capture of this market by Far Eastern manufacturers. The audio 308 belongs within a group of '70s Braun Designs - including the KF 20 coffee machine, HLD 5 hair dryer, phase 1 alarm clock - that broke with the austere functionalist approach of the '60s programme, still strongly influenced by the design philosophy of the HfG Ulm. These designs' broadly pop aesthetic registers the increasing influence of market analysis on the design process following the company's acquisition by the Gillette Company.