349In the fiercely competitive speaker market, various brands have surged and receded like the tide. From the HiFi speakers of the CD era, to desktop speakers in the computer age, to portable speakers in the mobile Bluetooth era, and now to smart speakers in the AIoT era, every technological revolution has reshuffled the industry landscape.
However, amidst this wave, the Sonos brand has managed to stand firm since its inception in 2002, with cumulative product sales exceeding 49.28 million units, entering 16 million households worldwide. In fiscal year 2024, its revenue surpassed $1.52 billion. Even under the siege of smart speakers from Amazon and Apple, its star product Era 100 still achieved a monthly sales record of $1.1 million.
So, how has this brand managed to remain prosperous year after year?
Image source: Sonos
01
Defying the Odds: Carving Out a Track in the “Impossible”
According to information, the four founders of the Sonos brand (John MacFarlane, Tom Cullen, Trung Mai, and Craig Shelburne) were not from the audio industry, but had always focused on research in the internet industry. With the accumulation of experience, they keenly sensed the internet’s potential to drive the development of emerging industries in the future, which prompted them to target the home music field for their entrepreneurial venture.
At that time, streaming media was not yet popular, and smartphones had not yet risen, but they had already envisioned a future of multi-room synchronized playback via WiFi.
“These guys are a bit crazy,” someone once commented about them.
Early Sonos advertisement Image source: Sonos
However, in the third year after the founding of the Sonos brand (2005), the first wireless audio system ZP100 was launched, quickly opening up the market with its innovative experience.
In the following twenty years, the Sonos brand applied for more than 4,000 patents, covering fields such as acoustic structure and vibration suppression. This focus also brought market returns: its star product Era 100 achieved a monthly sales peak of $1.1 million on Amazon, becoming a “phenomenal product in the speaker industry.”
Tom Cullen demonstrates Sonos’ ZP100 and CR100 to Bill Gates
02
Riding the Trend: The Audio Market Boom
Of course, the Sonos brand’s ability to stand firm for more than twenty years is also inseparable from the support of the market environment.
According to data, the global speaker equipment market is expected to reach $80.12 billion in 2024 and grow to $151.98 billion by 2031, with a compound annual growth rate as high as 13.8%.
Naturally, as the market continues to expand, consumers’ demands for speakers are no longer just “being able to listen.” In addition to high fidelity and lossless playback as basic functions, personalized sound effects have also become a key focus for consumers.
From inviting Oscar and Grammy-level masters for tuning, to developing Trueplay™ automatic tuning technology, the development of the Sonos brand has perfectly matched this ever-evolving market, laying the foundation for the brand’s stable development in the market.
Image source: Global Speaker Market
03
Omni-channel Layout: Dual Engines of Online Experience and Offline Immersion
Beyond products, the Sonos brand’s channel strategy reflects another kind of balancing art.
According to third-party platforms, its independent site is estimated to contribute 33% of total sales, a figure far above the industry average.
At the same time, the Sonos brand also achieves multi-point reach through mainstream e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Best Buy, covering the shopping habits of different consumer groups.
Amazon (top) Best Buy (bottom)
Corresponding to the wide online coverage, Sonos’ immersive offline layout is also very thoughtful. They have opened flagship experience stores in global cities such as New York and London, with professional audition spaces inside, allowing customers to personally experience the sound differences of different room types and speaker combinations.
Image source: Target
04
Social Media Penetration: Building Brand Warmth in the Age of Fragmentation
Let’s talk about Sonos’ operations on social media platforms, especially the differentiated operations on two key battlegrounds: TikTok and YouTube.
-TikTok
As a gathering place for young users, Sonos mainly uses short video content on TikTok to build lifestyle scenarios, allowing users to intuitively feel how music enhances daily life experiences, thus making users think “I need it.”
Image source: TikTok
For example, in a video posted by Sonos’ official account @sonos in November 2024, they combined speaker effects with an immersive horror movie experience, using atmospheric contrast to showcase the sound quality details of the speakers. The video ultimately received 68,900 views.
Image source: TikTok
To further expand its reach and penetrate vertical circles, Sonos has also cooperated with many TikTok influencers for promotion. Among them, the collaboration with TikTok tech lifestyle influencer @tussalty is the most typical case.
In June 2024, @tussalty posted a review video of using the new Bluetooth headphones in different home scenarios. Through an immersive first-person perspective, the video highlighted the performance advantages of the new product. The video eventually garnered 335,700 views and attracted the attention of many real users.
Image source: TikTok
-YouTube
On YouTube, Sonos chooses to let “the voice of users” take center stage. On its official channel (97,200 subscribers), you rarely see stiff product ads; instead, there are more real user experience shares and short videos directly showcasing product highlights.
In addition, Sonos also collects and displays feedback videos shot by users in different home environments. When potential consumers see feedback from users in environments similar to their own, it is easier for them to relate, thereby building trust in the product and achieving traffic conversion.
Image source: YouTube
05
Starting from Solving a Problem
From the initial simple wish to let music flow freely in every room, to now becoming the choice of millions of households, the story of the Sonos brand has always revolved around “how to let people better enjoy sound.”
Perhaps its path cannot be fully replicated, but the “consumer spirit” it demonstrates is still worth learning from, that is, unwaveringly putting users at the center and making all products serve the users.
Believe that as long as you stick to this goal, your journey overseas will become broader.
