Sonos Essay

In the Marketing Week article “Sonos on why its first UK store is a marketing, not a sales, channel,” the Sonos company is using the new installment of their concept store in the United Kingdom to branch out to this new market. This new London location has two “listening rooms,” which allows shoppers to experience the quality of their multi-room listening system first hand. Sonos decided last year that they should develop their own retail stores to promote their systems and provide the experience of the high-quality sound to their customer base. Normally, a person would have to experience the Sonos system from another home, which restricted the company's potential customer reach. By borrowing the Apple store style, Sonos looks to ensure that

The concept of a new store location that is mostly about marketing rather than sales seemed odd to me, so I wanted to look into it. After reading the whole article, the idea by Sonos to develop these stores to reach more customers as a potential marketing tool makes a good amount of sense. A product like a sound system needs to be experienced in-person before a buyer would consider purchasing, so the “listening-rooms” offer this to the shopper. Also, Apple stores are really popular right now for their layouts and customer service, so borrowing this concept from such an iconic brand is a superb idea moving forward. In addition to this business incite, the details in this article relate to what we have talked about in class through sampling, such as the “listening-rooms,” which is a form of free in-store trial, and the use of presentation of the retail store, creating an atmosphere of minimalism with a staff that is suited toward customer service rather than sales. Additionally, what the company is doing is rebranding what buyers associate their products with, thus moving their marketing strategy from word-of-mouth to a more personal experience. Overall, what Sonos is doing is a unique way to market their sound system, but it looks like it will have a positive growth in sales and future