How Grado Labs built their word-of-mouth marketing machine 

When I first heard of Grado Labs, my immediate thought was: here’s *another audio company*. Probably not much different than the rest.

Boy was I wrong. Grado Labs is totally different.

Before Beats came along, Grado Labs was unleashing sweet, melodious tunes into their customers' ears with award-winning headphones.

In fact, Grado Labs has now been around for 64 years.

And while Grado’s competitors spend millions on marketing — with a flashy internet ad here and  another commercial there — Grado has built their brand without any advertising since 1953. They rely completely on word-of-mouth.

Some of Grado’s successes:

* Massive companies, like Microsoft, beg Grado to commission special limited pairs of Grado headphones
* Musicians, like John Mayer, swear by Grado headphones in the studio when recording and mixing an album
* Celebrities, like Elijah Wood, retweet Grado tweets *just because they love the brand so much*

![Grado Labs 1995 Tweet - Retweeted by Elijah Wood](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/1ae9d906e15c17b83e64ec2a6efa9c154bc5795e)

For Grado, this is business as usual.

Random retweets from Elijah Wood? Regular occurrence.

("I just wish Elijah would retweet some of my better tweets," VP of Marketing Jonathan Grado laughs.)

For audiophiles everywhere, Grado Labs stands above the rest. What makes this brand special? Why are they so successful?

I went on a mission to find out. Here’s what I discovered.

<YouTubeVideo videoId="BfQQrReQmkw" />

## Grado Labs timeline

__1950__ — Joseph Grado, a watchmaker at Tiffany & Company, had an idea to start producing audio equipment. 

“Joe was making phono cartridges out of his house,” grandson and current VP of Marketing Jonathan Grado explains. “These phono cartridges hold the needle for a record player to play a record”

![John Grado and Jonathan Grado in the Listening Room](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/ccbe17487f2ccfacbeaab8d637c102e4efad5a52)

__1953__ — As phono cartridge production outgrew the family’s kitchen table, Joseph took over the small building of his family’s struggling fruit business and officially created Grado Laboratories.

__1961__ — Fueled by the unexpected success of phono cartridges, Grado Labs started growing rapidly. They released new products for record players, including the Dustat Record Cleaner, speakers, turntables, and more.

![Grado Cartridge Gold](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/32596f5fc93abd1a8c6679f38113c882f8ccde10)

__1965__ — John Grado, Joseph’s nephew, starts sweeping floors at Grado Labs at age 12. In between cleaning duties, John learns about sound and electrical engineering from Joseph. 

“I’ve been working at Grado for 52 years now. But it doesn’t seem that long. Feels like I’m just getting started,” John told me.

__1974__ — John graduates from college (and sweeping duties) and joins Grado full-time.

__1984__ — Phono cartridge development is at its peak. Grado is making 120,000 cartridges per year. All cartridges are hand-made at a small Grado Labs building in Brooklyn, where the family also lives on the top floor.

__1990__ — Tides quickly turn. Turntable sales slow down, and so does Grado Labs and their phono cartridge business. Joseph retires, and John buys the company, becoming President and CEO. 

Jonathan: "Grado went from 10,000 cartridges per week in the mid-1980s to 10,000 cartridges per year in the early 1990s."

__1991__ — John needs an idea to keep Grado Labs from closing down. He decides to enter the headphone market. "I noticed headphones were considered second-class citizens. Most people focus on speakers, so I thought we could have the best impact on headphones."

__1993__ — The SR325, Grado’s first pair of headphones, is released.

__1994__ — A second pair of headphones, the SR60, gets a glowing review from a popular magazine and goes “viral”

__1997__ — The popularity snowballs. *Forbes* magazine profiles John and calls him “one of the finest names in stereo headphones”

__2003__ — Grado Labs celebrates their 50th anniversary

__2013__ — Jonathan, John’s son, joins Grado Labs full-time after graduating college. With a $0 marketing budget, Jonathan has to rely on word-of-mouth to grow the brand. He uses stickers and social media to push Grado products, and Mashable names Grado Labs a top 8 most social small company in America. The praise continues as Wired says Grado builds the "best headphones in the world."

__2016__ — Grado sees record revenue. And they’re just getting started.


## From the brink of extinction to massive success

“I was having the most fun when we were struggling the most,” jokes John Grado about the early days of Grado Labs.

In 1965, vinyl records were growing in popularity and Grado Labs phono cartridges were a popular choice for enthusiasts.

Over the next ten years, Grado would make almost 500,000 phono cartridges each year.

Every cartridge was build by hand in their small Brooklyn building, manually tested part-by-part, and carefully packaged and sent to stores.

But then, it all came to a screeching halt.

![Grado Labs Building](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/c14635b028c2a2643dff4537a808ca5a7950be6f)

*The unassuming Grado Labs building, as it stands today. It’s still used by Grado Labs 60+ years later.*

In 1988, phono cartridge production had slowed to a crawl as consumers moved to portable audio devices.

Overnight, Grado Labs went from “growing business” to “uncertain future.”

Deciding to retire, Joseph sold the business to his nephew John as big questions loomed on the horizon. Will phono cartridge sales ever pick up again? Is the business doomed? Where do we go from here?

“Business is like being a captain on a ship,” John explains. “There are ‘up’ times, where the weather is nice and anyone can steer the ship. But there are also ‘down’ times when you’re in the middle of a storm. It’s during the storm the talented people survive.”

Down to three employees and a lot of uncertainty, John made a critical decision for the future of Grado Labs.

Pivot the business.

"At first, I considered getting into the speaker business. I tinkered, looked around at what others were doing, and ultimately decided against it. There was so much competition and I thought there was a bigger opportunity with headphones."

![Grado Headphones SR225e with stickers](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/3869dc751bd98c805455833a22ca8ed324cc8f1f)

Taking lessons he picked up working under Uncle Joseph, John started experimenting.

Failure after failure, and iteration after iteration, John tested until he built the perfect pair of headphones. 

"Even today, people tell us everything we put out is a hit and it’s perfect. But what they don’t see is a big pile of stuff on the chair we didn’t put out because it didn’t match our standards."

In 1994, two years after starting headphone tests, John and Grado Labs released their second pair of headphones called the SR60.

They were a massive hit. An [unexpected review in Stereophile magazine](http://www.stereophile.com/headphones/532/#HmF46HjTERkOesAt.97) put the headphones on the map in the audio community. The headphones started selling like crazy.

In 1994, just a few years removed from near-extinction, Grado Labs saw revenue of seven figures.

Within a few years, audiophiles everywhere were raving about Grado Labs headphones. The business was growing again.

## Building word-of-mouth marketing to the next level

"Every ad says it's the world’s greatest product. Everything can’t be the world’s greatest. Wherever I look, I see ads I don’t believe. Why would anyone believe ads for Grado headphones?"

When John re-focused Grado Labs in 1990, he refused to pay for advertising — just like Joseph, going back to 1964.

Instead of spending money on ads, John decided to reinvest the money back into the business to create more incredible headphones.

Relying solely on good reviews and word-of-mouth from loyal supporters, Grado Labs grew their reputation.

Generation to generation, the headphones were passed down.

Grandparents handed down SR60s to their children — who then handed it down to their children.

Kids gathered around the living room to listen to a record player using a Grado phono cartridge made 40 years earlier.

And entire families would bond over the near-perfect sound Grado products produce.

Grado’s reputation didn’t stop with just families, though. Celebrities, musicians, and audiophiles obsess over their Grado headphones.

(Plus, unlike traditional headphone brands, which pay money for celebrity endorsements, Grado has never spent a dime asking people to wear their headphones.)

For example, Jimmy Fallon wears Grado headphones live on his award-winning show.

![Jimmy Fallon wearing Grado Headphones on the Tonight Show](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/d3aa1df2b2515254d2e39d19d3697039ca91249d)

Music producer Rodney Hazard — who’s produced for Joe Budden, A$AP, and Meyhem Lauren — uses Grado SR80s to help him create the best possible music for his artists.

![Rodney Hazard wearing Grado Headphones](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/179359e4e94f00c546d7a321bd50af4e7801ecef)

*Rodney Hazard rocking a Heritage pair of Grados.*

And Grammy Award winner John Mayer bought a pair of PS500e Grados to make sure his music sounds the best it can (and to enjoy the music of other artists).

![John Mayer wearing Grado Headphones](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/1131f7563be83941296d317e127001eb00844308)

*John Mayer, listening to music on a pair of Grados.*

Families, musicians, celebrities… for music lovers everywhere, Grado is synonymous with “premium.”

Recently, Grado Labs had another trick up their sleeve to grow the brand: social media marketing.

While in college, Jonathan Grado wanted to help his dad with the family business. “I had the idea to start marketing our brand to more people and hopefully help us grow.”

But Jonathan was in for a big surprise.

“My dad said I could help with marketing, but he couldn’t give me a budget. I had $0 to work with.”

Forced to be creative, Jonathan turned to Facebook and Twitter, “I wanted to create a place for Grado Lab fans and audiophiles to congregate.”

Almost every day, Jonathan would tweet and post on Facebook. His most successful posts were photos of Grado’s beautiful, hand-made headphones. 

> Photos pull people in, and the sound of our headphones keeps them here."

Since Jonathan started using social media to showcase the headphones, Grado’s popularity has skyrocketed.

In 2014, the leading social media news company Mashable named Grado Labs one of the top social media small businesses in the United States.

And over the past three years, revenue has more than doubled.

Now, with a Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter page, photos are just as important. “Photographs of our headphones drive a ton of great comments and draw a lot of potential buyers to our brand.”

## What will Grado Labs do in the future?

“The major focus here is behind-the-scenes. We’ve never paid for an endorsement. We’d rather random people like our stuff than become a name-brand enterprise.”

As Jonathan shares the vision of Grado Labs, it’s clear the team is careful not to grow too quickly and lose their quality.

Even with healthy revenue, there’s no talk of building an ad budget. No talk of buying celebrity endorsements. And definitely no talk of mass-producing the headphones in China to lower cost.

“We don’t need to be the world’s largest company or conglomerate to be successful,” CEO John is quick to remind the small team at Grado.

With steady, focused growth there are two other marketing strategies Grado Labs is using with success:

* Beautiful, high-quality stickers to match the brand (and grow viral marketing)
* Monthly email newsletter — including a birthday surprise for subscribers

Jonathan has always been a big fan of cool stickers. Going forward, he plans to further incorporate stickers into the Grado Labs brand. 

“I keep some stickers with me at all times and some on my desk. They’re great to share with friends or include in orders.”

![Grado Headphones Stickers](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/5cc883d11882a94a7205a9406c54a73836287993)

Over the years, Jonathan has used [die cut stickers](https://www.stickermule.com/products/die-cut-stickers), [rectangle stickers](https://www.stickermule.com/products/rectangle-stickers) and [transfer stickers](https://www.stickermule.com/products/transfer-stickers) from Sticker Mule. "No matter where our customers put the stickers, Sticker Mule quality speaks for itself. The stickers always last and look great."

Going forward, look for even more stickers from Grado Labs.

On the email side, Jonathan has been building the Grado Labs newsletter.

Over the years, Jonathan heard from thousands of dedicated followers who wrote to Grado Labs begging for updates.

Add in people who entered Grado contests and purchased headphones, and there were about 15,000 email addresses Jonathan had saved. 

To appease their raving fans, Jonathan built a newsletter. Every month, he sends out new stories, films, photos, and more for the Grado Labs faithful.

The results have been positive. "Email works pretty well for us. It’s a good sign for the future."

## What can you learn from Grado Labs?

After talking with John and Jonathan at Grado Labs, three key principles come to mind:

1. Quality
2. Creativity
3. Contentment

These key focuses bled through everything they shared:

“Give people the best product you can and eventually you’ll be successful.”

“We had a recent 5-year gap between new headphone products. We only release when it’s needed.”

“All the work and experience of 64 years leads to creating high-quality headphones today.”

The craftsmanship, care, and focus is what makes Grado Labs different. Instead of nickel-and-diming, or focusing on revenue and satisfying shareholders (like so many other companies), Grado focuses on releasing amazing products and let everything else take care of itself.

Today, 64 years later, you can still find Grado Labs in the same unassuming Brooklyn building. While they continue to grow, they’re doing it on their own terms. 

There’s no sign on the door, and if you’ll have to knock loudly because John, Jonathan, and the rest of the team are hard at work building perfect headphones.

If you want to say hello to John and Jonathan (and the rest of Grado Labs), [click here](http://gradolabs.com/).

![Grado Labs Stickers and RS2e Headphones](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/db04cf67206f7eaeeee939e12da211fcf3ff58f4)

There are countless ways to delight your customers and build *your* word-of-mouth marketing machine using stickers and other custom printed products. 

Check out more ways Sticker Mule can help your business grow.

<ButtonCta text="100+ ways to use Sticker Mule" href="https://www.stickermule.com/uses?ref=blog" />

Learn how Grado Labs has built a successful business that has stood the test of time through word-of-mouth marketing. 

How No Treble grew with sticker giveaways 

We all have unique passions — and we want to be around people who share similar passions and hobbies. The best websites bring content and passion to their audience and avoid trying to make everyone happy. 

Every day, there are millions of other people waiting to discover websites and join communities for their specific interests  — from design sites like Dribbble to cooking sites like the Pioneer Woman to startup news like Techcrunch.

For an entrepreneur, this means opportunity.

It’s a chance to create a community for obsessed, dedicated fans who share similar obsessions. Plus, it’s a way to grow a loyal audience who return to your site, and buy your products, again and again.

To give you an example of someone who has created an incredible community for a passionate niche audience, take a look at Corey Brown.

![Corey-Brown-of-no-treble](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/fc41c8285118c298d631d91f419e424a1f6cf7dc)

Corey, the founder of [No Treble](http://www.notreble.com/), saw an opportunity to create a community for his biggest passion: instruments.

A web consultant and entrepreneur since 1995, Corey wanted to combine his experience with the web with his obsession over bass to create a side project.

The site started small, and he heard concerns from his friends and family:

* "You’re targeting a really small group, maybe you should pick a larger audience."
* "You’re wasting your time. There’s no way this could be a profitable business."
* "How are you going to make money? Are you sure you don’t want to focus more on your actual career?"

Instead of listening to the doubters, Corey pushed ahead. Today, No Treble is one of the most popular niche music sites on the web with 450,000+ monthly visitors and healthy revenue.

We’re going to show you how Corey created his small community for niche bassists and grew it into a thriving business.

Let’s get started.

## How Corey grew a unique niche and community into a successful business

Corey’s idea for No Treble started because he wanted to share his passion for bass with a larger audience.

Obsessed with finding the latest news on bass, Corey couldn’t find any bass-focused online magazines like he craved.

For example, on one site Corey would read a great interview with a bass guitar legend. But if he wanted to find information on new amps, or tips for improvising, he’d have to spend hours searching other sites until he found what he was looking for.

To fill his own need, Corey came up with the idea of a “one-stop shop” for bass aficionados like himself. 

![Fender-Mustang-Bass-PJ-Torino-Red-main](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/7948c139d1e43233ad1060b0b2d78bff0ab36347)

At first, Corey didn’t care about making it into a business. All Corey wanted to do was build the best collection of bass articles, videos, and content on the web. “I never did create it to make money, I never created it to be big,” Corey explains.

Coming from a career in web consulting, Corey put his idea into a website he called No Treble. It only had a few blog posts and a couple photos of bass instruments, but it was a good start.

Every day, as Corey kept adding content, he thought about how he could introduce other bass fans to his No Treble site.

Getting the brand in front of the right faces would be difficult. Corey had a shoestring marketing budget and he had to make every dollar count.

After exploring a few inexpensive marketing solutions, he found an effective way to grow the brand inexpensively. He found his magic bullet.

## How stickers helped Corey skyrocket his niche website into a massive success

In June of 2009, with No Treble only a month old, Corey realized something: "I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do to grow the website. But I knew I was a sticker guy, so I wanted them to be part of the mix."

![No-Treble-Stickers](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/e42da3af3de70650b458b6844037b751c2a31140 "No Treble custom stickers")

Corey used stickers as an experiment to grow the site and fan base.

> I even saw my stickers on the amps of famous bass players. They were everywhere I looked."

As a trial run, he printed 1,000 three-inch [custom circle stickers](https://www.stickermule.com/products/circle-stickers). He wrote a notice on his website: anyone who mailed him a self-addressed envelope would get a sticker sent to them for free.

The results blew Corey away. "As time went on, I could barely pull the envelopes out of the P.O. Box. There were just so many."

Every day, dozens of letters would arrive. People wanted to show their love for bass wherever they could — and they wanted to do it with No Treble stickers.

Seeing how successful the sticker trial run was, Corey doubled down.

Riding on the interest of his fans, he urged anyone who received a sticker to send pictures.

Hundreds of emails came in.

No Treble stickers were on cars, computers, bass cases...and even bass guitars!

Corey posted every picture on Facebook. Soon, his stickers started going viral. Every time he posted, he had dozens of curious bass fans writing, “I NEED THIS STICKER! Where can I get it?”

Day in and day out, Corey sent new stickers to everyone who asked.

To keep up with the growing demand, he started searching for companies to print his stickers en masse. It was at this point that Corey heard about [Sticker Mule](https://www.stickermule.com/). “I loved what Sticker Mule was doing, so we switched over our business.”

With more stickers printed, the chatter surrounding No Treble kept growing.

Passionate bass fans were sharing the No Treble stickers every day. They’d post about it on their Facebook. They’d tweet about it. They’d even tell their friends in-person over drinks.

The "small" website that friends told Corey would be a waste of time was exploding with an obsessive, highly targeted audience of fans.

"I was getting pictures from friends who saw No Treble stickers on cars in different cities. I even saw my stickers on the amps of famous bass players. They were everywhere I looked."

As the stickers continued to go viral, international bass fans caught on.

But because of postal restrictions, Corey wasn’t able to mail self-addressed envelopes back overseas. So he decided to create and sell a special pack of stickers anyone could buy.

![no treble sticker sheet](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/d11bc03651bf72e38866fb27b5779d9270b2adcc)

"I started a simple online order form where you could buy 1, 5, or 10-packs of stickers. It was incredible because I sold more 10-packs than anything else," Corey told us.

Selling stickers helped No Treble scale the brand and reach more people — and it helped push this “small” niche website into a sustainable business.

With No Treble’s sticker experiment, success is in the numbers. As the main marketing tool the brand used, stickers helped grow the community into 450,198 monthly pageviews.

Corey is quick to point out how stickers were responsible for No Treble’s success. “Free stickers made it a turning point for us. It was the catalyst for us getting involved in product sales and building a sustainable, passionate business. I never would have guessed we’d mail out 10,000 stickers like we did in 3-4 years.”

Today, No Treble still has stickers as their product staple — and the growth from stickers has allowed the brand to start selling t-shirts, books, and more. Even better, it brings in enough revenue for Corey to keep it going, hire world-class writers, and create a thriving niche community.

And if Corey was able to grow his niche community into an exploding business, you can too.

To help you get started, here’s our step-by-step system on how to use stickers to grow your own niche website or idea.

## How to use stickers to take your idea, product, and website to the next level

__Step #1: Follow No Treble’s lead and order stickers.__

[Die cut stickers](https://www.stickermule.com/products/die-cut-stickers) are a great place to start. Use a logo or another piece of branding that your customers and fans will identify with. Our stickers are weatherproof and waterproof, so your biggest fans can put them anywhere they want  — from [their cars](https://www.stickermule.com/uses/car-stickers) to [laptops](https://www.stickermule.com/uses/laptop-stickers) to their [outdoor gear](https://www.stickermule.com/uses/outdoor-stickers). Stickers are a great way to help push viral growth and skyrocket word-of-mouth marketing 2-5x for a fraction of the cost. (Also check out our [custom sticker sheets](https://www.stickermule.com/products/sticker-sheets).)

__Step #2: Give away stickers as a free email sign-up perk.__ 
Corey gave away stickers to anyone who sent a self-addressed envelope to his P.O. Box. But keeping track of a P.O. Box can be a hassle. Instead, we recommend creating a simple form to request a user’s name, mailing address, and email. Getting an email address gives you the chance to add them to your email list and send offers in the future. 

__Step #3: Once you start gaining traction, sell special stickers to generate revenue.__ 
When No Treble received too many requests for stickers (especially internationally), they saw it as a potential revenue stream. Today, you can [buy six different kinds of stickers on their website](http://shop.notreble.com/category/stickers). Although the greatest benefit is still to spread the word and brand, it can bring in additional cash too.

To see the exact stickers No Treble used to grow their niche community from 0 to 450,198 monthly views, [visit their store](http://shop.notreble.com/).

![no-treble-circle-stickers](https://storage.googleapis.com/sm-content/blog/ddaf728da7fb7348b18c2047e8d5f8781fb5403e)

## Over to you

There are countless ways to delight _your_ customers and grow your brand using stickers and other custom printed products. Check out more ways Sticker Mule can help your business grow.

<ButtonCta text="100+ ways to use Sticker Mule" href="https://www.stickermule.com/uses?ref=blog" />

No Treble used a simple sticker giveaway to expedite its growth to more than 500,000 pageviews a month. 

Posts by David Kelly

How Grado Labs built their word-of-mouth marketing machine

How No Treble grew with sticker giveaways