Short answer: very well. BOSE Corporation is one of the few Massachusetts technology companies founded in the mid-1960s that’s not only still around—it’s healthy and growing. It continues to carry the name of its founder—Amar G. Bose—who, forty-five years later, is still the company’s chairman and worth about US$ 1.5 billion, according to FORBES. Furthermore its brand name, after all these years, remains synonymous with superb sound.

BOSE has maintained its successful branding by refusing to compromise its long-held dedication to quality sounds and aesthetics while also actively identifying, defining, and inventing the acoustic future. Even in today’s hyped-up and competitive marketplace, BOSE is about class, not flash. There is much to be said about knowing who you are. As a company, BOSE doesn’t make a lot of noise. It is private, so it stays below the financial radar. But BOSE is an industry powerhouse that currently employs some 10,000 people worldwide and has about $2 billion in sales.

The evolving success enjoyed by BOSE can be attributed to a type of inventive consistency regarding three aspects essential to the company’s values and objectives:

Technology
BOSE systems make use of advanced, often breakthrough technology. The company reportedly spends $100 million annually on research. Fourteen years of research led to the development of acoustic waveguide speaker technology, found in the award-winning Wave radio and the Wave and Acoustic Wave music systems. Today some of the world’s most luxurious cars feature BOSE sound systems, each one acoustically tailored to a particular car model. BOSE has even begun to move beyond its core business. For example, the company said it has developed an automobile suspension system based on electromagnetics instead of hydraulics that may be available in luxury cars as early as 2009.

Design
BOSE seems to put as much thought into the design of its products as the technology. BOSE systems are elegant and streamlined—one might even label them beautiful. Each BOSE product is as sleek and functional as an Apple product. In fact, in 2004, BOSE introduced a slick product called the SoundDock digital music system that has become the sound standard for iPod speaker systems. And with the advent of high-tech home theater systems, BOSE finds itself in the perfect position to match its stylish products with demanding customers who put the same, if not a greater, amount of thought and money into their entertainment choices as they do their furniture and art.

Marketing and Distribution
BOSE has avoided mass distribution and instead focused its efforts on direct marketing and its own branded retail stores. Now, BOSE has over 100 stores in the United States. It sells in nineteen other countries, including Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Over the years, BOSE has been a direct marketing innovator, utilizing print advertising in upscale magazines and newspapers to sell off the page. BOSE has also employed high quality direct mail and direct response radio and television advertising to sell direct to the consumer. BOSE has managed to achieve considerable success with a marketing method that is often restricted to low-dollar merchandise.

One of the reasons BOSE is successful at targeted marketing is the fact that it enters and dominates select niches. BOSE:

• custom-designs sound systems for auditoriums, hotels, restaurants, and other performance venues and business uses.
  
  
• creates automotive sound systems for select car models. BOSE offers a line of professional audio systems to musicians.
  
  
• offers a variety of high-quality sound systems and home theater speaker systems for consumers.
  
  
• manufactures acoustic noise-canceling and audio headphones for consumers and airline pilots and passengers.

BOSE understands that to enjoy longevity and sustained profitability companies must do more than simply maintain the status quo. BOSE has learned how to adapt without losing its values, which has strengthened an already strong brand. It continues to take the high road, manufacturing only high-end technologically sophisticated products for select niche markets. As a result, the BOSE brand continues to be associated with superior quality. Which makes the BOSE brand a pretty sound investment.

Barry Silverstein has been a frequent brandchannel contributor since 2007. He has thirty years of advertising and marketing experience and is currently a freelance writer and marketing consultant. He founded and ran his own direct marketing agency and held executive positions with Epsilon, a leading database marketing firm and Arnold, a major ad agency. Silverstein is the author of three marketing books, including the McGraw-Hill book, The Breakaway Brand, which he co-authored with Arnold CEO Fran Kelly.