The Truth Discarded Products Tell
If you want to know about the character of a company, look at its failures.
(This is an assignment from Malcolm Gladwell’s MasterClass on writing. We were to click a link that would take us to a random Wikipedia page, take notes on anything of interest on that page, and write about it. So when you think this is maybe an odd subject to write about, remember I started off thinking the same thing.)
There are people out there who take their headphones very seriously. I am not one of them. I love music, but headphones have never been of interest to me. I’ve never thought much about how music enters my ears. Earbuds, headphones, car speakers, or dropping my phone in a plastic cup: if the soundwaves get to my eardrums, I’m happy. So I was baffled when I recently came across a Wikipedia page specifically devoted to discontinued Bose headphones.
Let me repeat that: There is a Wikipedia page specifically devoted to discontinued Bose headphones. This is not a page about the history of the Bose Corporation. Bose has an interesting history, beginning with the time its founder, Dr. Amar Bose, wondered during a flight if the science of acoustics could reduce the roar of an airplane engine. Thus the Bose research team and seeds of its first headphones were born!
But this is not about the history you can find on the Bose website. In fact, this Wikipedia repository of discarded headsets tells a more interesting story than the Bose company website ever could. For example, from the Bose website, I learned that they are “passionate engineers, developers, researchers, retailers, marketers, and dreamers.” That is basically every marketing buzzword in the industry. And wouldn’t any company put something similar on their webpage? From the Wikipedia page, however, I learned about Bose’s failures: where they happened and how the company handled them. That story has been much more revealing than any website marketing-speak.
The Wikipedia page lists 20 different discontinued products since the year 1989, including in-ear models, over-ear models, on-ear models and aviation-specific models. That is 32 years years of research and discontinued products. Some might be tempted to think they simply make bad products, with so many discontinued in three decades. The Wikipedia page tells a different story, however. It reveals that more often than not, Bose used their mistakes to improve user experience and make way for better products without ever leaving its customers in the lurch.
Bose has, on more than one occasion, redesigned products based on customer feedback and then given customers the improved product at no cost. They did this with their first commercial in-ear headphones (IE1/MIE1) after they received complaints that the ear tips demonstrated a lack of stability and frequently detached from the headset. The company redesigned the ear tips and gave them to existing customers for free.
Their actions with their popular Sleepbuds product especially speaks to the soul of the company. According to the Wikipedia page the Sleepbuds were “earphones designed to be worn when sleeping. When connected with a smartphone app, the earphones played soothing, ambient sounds to help mask exterior noises and relax the wearer.” They turned out to be a unique and beloved product, but in 2019 the first generation Sleepbuds were discovered to have battery-life issues. Bose discontinued the product, but not before improving the battery and giving it to existing customers — again, free of charge. John Roselli, the General Manager of Bose Corp, spoke to this focus on customer satisfaction when he said “We’ll go back to research, because we are committed to making our vision a reality. But today, we begin with something more important — doing whatever it takes to make things right with you.” In 2020, Bose released Sleepbuds II with improved design and no battery issues.
Before they ventured into the commercial market in 2000, Bose had already made a name for themselves by catering to the listening needs of pilots. Pilots, it seems, are very picky about their headsets. First of all, pilots who fly often know that they are putting their hearing at risk, so a good noise-canceling product is a must. Second, pilots complain that headphones that are too heavy or fall off their ears cause distraction or exhaustion after long flights, so a lightweight product that fits well is important. Finally, they want what every headphone wearer wants: good sound quality with their music!
This is all to say that pilots are not easy customers to please. The products they buy are extremely expensive, and they are in use nearly every day, for hours at a time, non-stop. If a pilot’s headset is unreliable or fails during a flight it can be catastrophic. In my research I found that even these picky pilots love their Bose products, often using them for years at a time. The reviews on aviation websites were almost unilaterally glowing. One of the things mentioned most often? How much these pilots appreciate that Bose reliably sends product replacement parts for free, even once the warranty has expired or the item has been discontinued.
It is well known that companies in general tend to be slaves to Capitalism. They only want clients to see their successes and accolades, and all companies will clean up or gild their history as best they can on any public-facing outlet. The truth about the character of a corporation — as with the truth about the character of a person — can be found in its failures and how they handle those failures. The strange Wikipedia page of discontinued Bose products turned out to be a delightful surprise. It proved that the true soul of a company is revealed through the stories told by its discarded products.
(Thank you to Laurie Garner and Gwen Buchanan for their copyediting skills.)
