Strategy and businesses

Consumer Hearing business

We deliver premium sound experience to consumers worldwide.

Sonovaʼs Consumer Hearing business, operating under the licensed Sennheiser brand, fulfils the consumerʼs desire for the best hearing and audio experience possible with premium headphones, audiophile products, early-entry hearing solutions, and soundbars, each providing exceptional sound quality for a specific consumer setting. Beyond delighting the premium audio consumer, our role in the Sonova Group includes sharing our expertise in high-end sound technology, establishing and sustaining a presence in key markets and channels, and connecting with a discerning consumer population at an early stage in their hearing journey.

After a challenging macroeconomic phase, the overall global consumer audio market returned to growth in mid-2024, supplementing the growth in segments where we already had a strong product portfolio, such as audiophile and premium over-the-ear headphones. Our strategy therefore focuses on taking advantage of this improving environment to ensure sustainable profitable growth, playing to our strengths and making investments to reinforce our position in high-value market segments. The key elements of this strategy are: advancing our premium portfolio for highest impact, expanding customer reach in key markets and new channel partnerships, efficiently reaching and converting consumers digitally, elevating customer service touchpoints, and optimizing product-related costs. We have initiatives under way in all five strategic areas.

Advancing our premium portfolio for maximum impact

Our portfolio includes highly-acclaimed, multiple award-winning products, such as our MOMENTUM 4 wireless headphones, MOMENTUM True Wireless 4 earbuds, and the new HD620S audiophile headphones providing open, airy sound in an isolating closed-back chassis. We extract the maximum impact from this portfolio by concentrating effort in the categories where the Sennheiser name and market-leading audiophile heritage have the most resonance – at the premium end of the market.

As a result, we are increasing market share, seeing new consumers buying our flagship products for the first time. We consolidate this growth by extending the market visibility of our portfolio, adding new exclusive colors and brand partnerships, including this yearʼs co-branding arrangement with Lufthansa, providing our MOMENTUM 4 headphones to first-class passengers and for sale in airports and online. Our premium portfolio also includes our highly acclaimed All-Day Clear OTC hearing device which continues to build a presence among both general and hearing-specific retailers in the US, as well as in our own webshop.

Expanding customer reach in key markets

Our key markets are the US, China, and Germany, where we benefit from good customer loyalty and a willingness to pay for exceptional sound quality. These are the markets that most reward increased engagement, so we are extending and diversifying our approach to ensure that we realize the full potential that they represent. In China, this involves expanding our distribution capabilities from Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities where we have a strong presence, to the Tier 3 and 4 cities where there is further market share to be gained. In North America, we work with our existing customers to extend our in-store portfolio, and are investing into business development capabilities that unlock new customers and channels. Consumers who seek premium audio solutions care about sound, and love to hear and see before they buy; we are therefore progressively expanding our physical presence within the large retailers.

Understanding the digital consumer

Webshop sales are only part of our digital engagement with consumers. Before they buy, most go online for information, recommendations, reviews, tips, and brand profiles. We therefore draw on in-house capabilities to rigorously analyze our consumer data and use it to shape our performance marketing. This supports our own digital sales effort, and also puts us in a strong position with large retail partners, who rely on the insights we generate to place our products optimally. Our digital and in-store marketing strengths are therefore mutually supporting.

Providing service that lives up to the brand

Sennheiserʼs brand value is all about providing an outstanding experience of sound. The experience of dealing with us has to be similarly outstanding. Whether theirs is a technical question or purchasing issue, consumers rely on prompt, accessible, effective service. Moreover, they need to feel listened to, even when they are not communicating directly to us. We are therefore launching a best-in-class self-directed online service experience that allows consumers to get the answers they need quickly and in their own time. Our service commitment also means interacting closely with key online communities and social media channels, so that we can take onboard and respond to comments and views in a timely and effective way.

Optimizing processes to increase margins

Applying the Sonova X business system and mindset has proven its value for the Consumer Hearing business. An “accelerator room” approach to increase impact cross-functionally through operational improvements, with a physical space where process owners can effectively review and drive progress on all elements of the project, has cut the time-to-completion for key initiatives. “Daily management,” which continuously tracks leading and lagging indicators to inform demand forecasts and quality assessments, has enabled an agile and targeted response to facilitating improvements. We are also further optimizing our approach to product manufacturing and lifecycle management, particularly in the refurbishment or scrapping of returned products (an unavoidable occurrence in the consumer goods industry), which will save significant cost and reduce environmental impact. All these initiatives have immediate positive impact on gross margins, which have risen this year and show potential for further growth.