The company has always priced high, but in some categories the products haven’t always lived up to the brand’s prestige: attempts at noise-canceling headphones from the 2010s were bulky, had poor sound, and had poor battery life; and it also sold a line of overpriced Bluetooth speakers with screens that no one needed.

Then, after its physical storefronts didn’t have the billboard effect Bose wanted, the brand, just before Snyder arrived, decided to radically pivot — a word that can so often be replaced by “panic” – towards a strategy focused on online sales and strengthening exposures in existing storefronts such as Best Buy in the United States.

This seismic shift resulted in the closure of all Bose stores in the United States, Europe, Australia and Japan, leading to the closure of 119 stores and hundreds of layoffs worldwide. So far, under Snyder’s leadership, this shift toward online and in-store retail has, the company says, worked, but it could have gone the other way.

Brands like Nike that have moved away from brand-owned retail stores have seen sales fall, but the main difference is Bose’s decision to rely on retail partners. By building exposures in places such as Best Buy and other stores, as well as leveraging sales on Amazon and other online retailers in addition to its own website, Bose has been able to maintain a broad reach while not keeping retail costs in-house. According to Snyder, this lean approach has been effective in turning around Bose’s fortunes, especially when combined with great new products.

Exclusive audio

As a technology company focused entirely on audio products, Snyder says Bose’s secret sauce is research. Engineers are constantly looking for innovations in materials, acoustics, design, production, and more. When asked about recent innovations in solid-state driver technology, for example, she doesn’t hesitate to talk about her prodigious market research.

“What’s interesting about Bose is that we’ve been an audio company for 60 years,” Snyder says. “We know we are going to be in competitive markets. We’ve always been in competitive markets, whether it’s headphones, home or automotive. What sets us apart is that we are completely audio-focused. You can rest assured that we experience everything. When we think something is ready, we present it. We are always looking for game-changing technologies.