A Sound Relationship

Songbird Hearing (Cranbury, NJ) and its parent company, Sarnoff Corp. (formerly RCA Laboratories), have really listened to the demands of hearing-impaired consumers. The market needed an affordable, easy-to-use hearing aid that didn�t call attention to itself. So, in 2000, Songbird introduced its first disposable hearing aids and, in 2001, added a disposable digital product. The disposable devices have high-quality acoustics equal to those of traditional hearing aids but are more convenient and more affordable, says Michael Tardugno, Songbird�s executive vice president for operations.

The product has the potential to revolutionize the hearing aid market and vastly improve life for the millions of people with hearing loss, Tardugno says. And Songbird has the market to itself. �Songbird is the only hearing aid in the world designed to be worn for a limited lifetime and then replaced.�

Songbird pays careful attention to its brand image. Its packaging must project the product�s high quality. Every aspect of the packaging matters, not just the elegant three-color logo on its glossy white background, but also the fine print�the required variable data on the bottom. That includes the lot number, expiration date, bar code, and format (nine formats meet different needs).

Songbird outsources the package graphics and then applies the variable data in-house. Initially, the company tried continuous ink-jet coding. But when the first packages came off the line, Tardugno wasn�t pleased with the look of the variable data. Seeking better results, he turned to Hewlett-Packard�s (HP) thermal ink-jet technology.

�As soon as we realized our existing equipment was really �underspecified� for what we wanted, I asked our engineers to find an HP solution,� says Tardugno, who was familiar with HP from two decades in manufacturing with pharmaceutical companies. �We were looking for something that was pharmaceutically elegant and very reliable, and HP printers are very reliable.�

Two other factors also were critical: readability of the data and ease of operating the printer. �The information we supply to audiologists and consumers is very important to the hearing aid,� Tardugno says. �They need to recognize the lot number, and they absolutely need to recognize the expiration date and format.� 

Nutec Systems (Lawrenceville, NJ) provided the HP solution. Nutec distributes the m600 printer made in Germany by Wolke. Using HP�s thermal ink-jet technology, the m600 is fast and durable enough to print on packages moving down a conveyor belt. It can print bar codes at 600 dpi. The entire printing technology is located in the snap-in cartridge. Because there are no moving parts, no training is required to use the printer. A low cost of ownership helps Songbird control the cost of the disposable hearing aids. As a bonus, the water-based inks are environmentally friendly.

�The key to the system is the maintenance-free aspect of the HP printer,� says Mike Shaw, vice president of sales for Nutec. �That�s what makes the m600 unique.�

Songbird�s application of high-quality variable data to packaging is exactly what the m600 is designed for. Nutec customized the solution in just one regard. �We designed a conveyor system that would convey the boxes,� Shaw explains.

Songbird has been using the m600 for three years now. �I am nothing but satisfied,� Tardugno says. �It�s very reliable and takes virtually no maintenance; there are no mixups and no problems training employees to use it. It delivers on all its promises.�

As Songbird expands to reach more consumers directly, its image is more important than ever. Originally, the company sold in the United States mainly through private-practice audiologists. It has a bigger market in the United Kingdom, where it is sold through professional hearing-care centers operated in booths in retail stores. Songbird recently introduced an over-the-counter product, the Songbird 400 Hour Digital Hearing Aid, that may open up the retail market in this country.

�Hearing aids for the most part require a lot of encouragement for consumers to accept the notion that they have a hearing loss and a hearing aid can improve their lives,� Tardugno says. �Building public awareness and building consumer loyalty takes time.�

Songbird offers digital hearing aids for less than $100 that last 90 days. There is no need to change batteries, and their acoustics, compared with those of traditional hearing aids, are �every bit as good electronically, and in many cases better,� he says.