Developing the first disposable hearing aid was one of my many great ideas that somebody else had first. Several years ago I spent two weeks investigating whether anyone had tried to do it. It seemed like an idea whose time had come: costs of digital technology were coming down, and new materials were being developed that would make hearing aids easier to manufacture and more comfortable to wear. And it had already been done in the contact lense market, which posed equally difficult challenges. But my search initially turned up nothing. Finally, I stumbled across the website of a company called Songbird Hearing. I discovered that Songbird's investors had sunk more than $100 million into a company that was making the first disposable hearing aids, available through the mail.
I wasn't particularly upset someone else had the idea, but something else really bothered me: why had it taken me over a week to find Songbird Hearing? For that matter, why had Songbird failed to find me? I should have been their prime target customer -- someone who for years had mild hearing loss, who already wore digital hearing aids, who had money to spend, and who was always looking for something more comfortable and easy to use. Even a half-hearted marketing effort should have gotten right to me. But I'd never heard a whiff about this company. Now I see Songbird has mysteriously withdrawn its products from the U.S. market, without telling anyone why. Is Songbird dead? Or did they just fly south for the winter? No one is saying. Surely this has to be a case of the world's worst marketing.
Here is what Songbird's website says in total:
"Effective Monday, November 15th, Songbird Hearing, Inc. no longer offers the Songbird 400 Hour digital disposable hearing aid. Current Songbird 400 Hour users: If you need customer support please send an email to CustomerService@SongbirdHearing.com, or call Customer Service at 800-789-1830 between 8 AM and 8 PM Eastern Time, Monday through Friday. Effective Monday, January 31st, Songbird Hearing, Inc. will no longer offer Songbird Pro disposable hearing aids. Thank you, Songbird Hearing, Inc." That's it. Nothing more.
As Henry Ford Jr. said when arrested on a drunk driving charge: "Never apologize, never explain."
So I've done some investigation and will do more. Songbird Hearing, based in New Jersey, was co-founded by Prism Venture Partners in Massachusetts and New Jersey's Sarnoff Corporation, descendant of the David Sarnoff Research Center and RCA Labs famous for pioneering work in electronics and radio broadcasting. Recently Sarnoff has become a for-profit idea- and new-product subsidiary of SRI International, a Silicon Valley research company and think tank. Prism is a leading high-tech and healthcare venture capital firm. Other private investors in Songbird included Hambrecht & Quist Capital Management, another leading venture capital fund.
The editor of Hearing Review this month writes that Songbird hearing aids are still available in Great Britain, though you won't see that on Songbird's website. Then on Prism Venture Partners' website, I saw this:
"In 2004, the company validated consumer demand and succeeded in creating large-scale retail sales. A major investment in late November 2004 by one of the world's largest consumer product companies has validated this opportunity. This investment is expected to result in a more defined consumer strategy, a larger overall market opportunity, as well as a future re-launch...."
So perhaps the world's first disposable hearing aid company will come back to life after all. But it sure would be nice to know the ifs, whens, whethers, whys, etc. This kind of poor communication in an industry already known for lousy marketing is simply bad for everyone -- disappointed consumers, angry resellers, regulators who are already too wary of allowing consumers easy access to the the new hearing technologies -- at a time when the industry is failing to meet the growing need.
I'm going to make it my business to learn more about this one. Stay tuned.
