In a third shake-up within the company's leadership ranks, I can report that chief commercial officer Deirdre Findlay will also step down from her role. Sonos not yet updated corporate governance page says Findlay “oversees all marketing, revenue and customer experience organizations at Sonos. She is responsible for integrated brand strategy, geographic expansion strategies and everything related to market execution.”
At this point, it can't be argued that Sonos' go-to-market strategy for its rebuilt mobile app was deeply flawed and rushed. Before losing his job, Spence finally admitted that the company should have taken a much more cautious approach and offered the new software as a beta version while keeping the older, more stable version. Instead, Sonos pushed a buggy experience for all customers and has since spent months dealing with the resulting fallout.
When it comes to marketing, some Sonos employees have expressed to me their dismay at the amount of money the company spent on advertising last year. Big expenses included an expansive New York City subway campaign for Sonos Ace headphones and a Christmas elf campaign that cost a staggering amount. The Ace headphones, which I maintain are a very good product, were quickly forgotten when the severity of Sonos' app problems became apparent, so the marketing had little effect. None of that sat well internally, especially after the summer layoffs.
But that was then. In the span of 48 hours, interim CEO Tom Conrad has demonstrated a clear goal: to get Sonos back on the right track. I'm told the measures immediately boosted morale within the company, and employees felt that the new regime is serious about getting back to doing what Sonos does best.
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