Question
I am a long time Sonic customer and hope that the acquisition won't change the things I love about Sonic. What kind of changes can I expect to see as a Sonic customer?
Answer
In order to see where Sonic is going, it is sometimes helpful to look back at where we came from. At Sonic, our past includes a strong reputation for having great, natural sound quality, an outstanding noise reduction system that provides benefit, and very small, comfortable custom devices.
Our products also have had a focus on design;interesting styling that was very comfortable and provided benefit, such as our Touch product that won an award at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2010. We've always had very simple, easy-to-use fitting software;its usability is a strong benefit for professionals fitting Sonic products. Our customer service and technical support teams have always had a reputation for being friendly, responsive, and very helpful. We are also obviously one of the few American brands in our industry. These collectively have been some of Sonic's strengths.
As you know, the hearing industry is an extremely competitive business and it takes a lot of R&D investment to continually bring innovative technologies to market. This becomes very difficult for a small, standalone company. Over time we had fallen behind in delivering these technologies in a timely manner and subsequently were outpaced by the competition. This also impacted other parts of our business including marketing material and support which were needed to help our business partners grow their businesses in today's marketplace. . With all of these challenges in front of us, and because we are a younger company in this industry, it was easy for competition to spread the rumors that Sonic would not be around. . How wrong they were.
William Demant Holdings acquired Sonic in order to have another brand to meet the needs of the global market. Sonic's strengths were those that customers like you valued and therefore Demant knew that Sonic had a legitimate place in the market and was a brand worth keeping. The challenges I mentioned were not insurmountable for a company like Demant, with resources and financial backing.
Today, Demant is providing the financial and other resource support to Sonic. For example, product research and development is very expensive. It's difficult for a small company like Sonic to fund new chip development, new platform development, and large-scale research projects on different technologies. Demant's support has enabled us to make leaps and bounds in terms of R & D, and to release Flip and other new products in a relatively short time since the acquisition. Demant also brings marketing and sales expertise and leadership to Sonic. A good example is our new President and COO, Joe Lugara, an experienced leader with a proven track record in the industry and business development.
In addition, the association with Demant allows Sonic to capitalize on synergies created by sharing services to maximize productivity and efficiencies in key areas of our daily business.. This support enables Sonic to remain a unique company - with our own purpose, position and identity - and to focus on the things we do best. Our new branding speaks to this new, exciting time at Sonic, and who we are today.
In short, we won't be changing the things you love about Sonic, and we hope you're excited as we are about all that we're able to build upon as a unique company within the Demant family. Thanks for your question! For more information about Sonic, our products, and our 4S Foundation, please visit: www.sonici.com or give us a call at (888) 423-7834. You may also visit the Sonic web channel on AudiologyOnline.
Kathy Landon joined Sonic Innovations in 2000. During her tenure with Sonic Innovations, Ms. Landon has been integral to the company's software and hardware product development efforts, and has most recently spearheaded Sonic's new marketing strategies and initiatives. Before joining Sonic Innovations, Ms. Landon held a number of software and product development positions, having come to the company from Network Multimedia, Inc., a spin-off company of Novell, Inc.
