Following the Treaty of Rome in 1957 the Danish radio industry found itself crippled by an influx of German products as trade barriers came down and competition intensified. Many companies went to the wall, marginalized to the point of irrelevance by better engineered, cheaper and more innovative imports.

As Denmark's radio industry was faced with extinction, Bang & Olufsen developed a “strategy for survival”. As the leading Danish manufacturer, the company was left with a stark choice: defend its position as the leading brand in Denmark with a diminished workforce and turnover, or expand into Europe. Mindful of the devastating effects to the local economy of the former, Bang & Olufsen embarked on an ambitious plan to “conquer” the continent.

A new ideology was thus born as the brand was re-positioned, making a virtue of the fact that their products would be designed exclusively as highly integrated products which communicated visually through their design. Bang & Olufsen re-branded itself as “The Danish hallmark of quality” and set to attempting to find oversees subsidiaries to market the brand in the correct way.

Thus “The quality brand from Denmark” was introduced to quality driven, design conscious British consumers…