5-18-2017 -- The beginning of car audio is rooted in the early 1970s when CB radio and 8-track players were a big deal—before the first sound-off events were staged in the late ’80s.

Out on the West Coast, a movement had started. Folks wanted more out of their cars than the standard sonic fare. A group of enthusiasts had an idea about what needed to be done and started building 12-volt audio amplifiers. This was the backdrop for Audiomobile, launched with industry pioneers Paul Starry and Rich Coe at the helm. 

The company name, of course, says it all. “It is a landscape name,” said Matt Overpeck, Vice President of Audiomobile. “It says exactly who we are—audio and mobile—and it is an absolute legacy brand. Many would say it is the genesis of high-end car audio.”

The original Audiomobile from Costa Mesa, Overpeck said, not only put Starry and Coe on the map, but Larry Frederick and other luminaries like John Bishop, who literally wrote the book on high-end car audio. “They had a technical training manual that they published on a quarterly basis that was the vanguard of teaching retailers about audio and stereo,” Overpeck said.

Audiomobile was not only at the forefront of the high-end car audio evolution then, but has managed to survive being bought, shuttered and re-launched. Today, according to the company’s web site, Audiomobile is fully committed to delivering products that represent a “no compromise” philosophy.

 “We have no Internet sales, we do business with no distributors, we are in some respects the antithesis of your typical car audio brand,” Overpeck said. “In fact, we actually say that we’re not a car audio brand, but a solutions-based audio engineering company that develops products for the automotive platform.”

From terminology like the 6-channel (front-rear sub) architecture to the “amp rack” concept, Audiomobile—according to company lore—brought these technologies to the mobile audio world.

These days the company maintains its standing with targeted product offerings, working exclusively with boutique specialty shops that can handle the kind of installs its products demand, said Overpeck, and which also have the discerning clientele that Audiomobile is interested in courting.

“We have been at CES for the last seven years but we always exhibit off-site because we’re not interested in the typical tire kickers,” Overpeck said, adding that the company also seeks to avoid the drama and excessive costs of CES. “It is a union town so if you want to hang a sign over your booth, it’s 10 grand. The logistics in and out are obscene. It just doesn’t make sense for us since we are incredibly selective about who we do business with. We’re pretty much on an invitation-only basis.”

Turning The Tide

The car audio business over the years attracted many types without much need for credentials, according to Overpeck. “The barriers to entry on any level—manufacturer, retailer, rep—were about as thin as a dime, “he said. “Anyone could get into the game. It attracted a lot of people looking for low hanging fruit. No problem, but then comes 2008 which was a real paradigm shift.”

At that point, people didn’t have a lot of discretionary money, so the only thing that was selling was cheap. “Since a company’s prime directive is to survive, and if the only thing that is selling is cheap, then you’re making cheap stuff,” he said. “As a result that dragged down the average selling price, dragged down reliability, and put a real burden on retailers because then they’re selling to fewer customers at lower prices at lower margins. It was a perfect storm—a triple hit—and it persisted for quite some time.”

Thankfully car audio, and the consumer electronics industry overall, has seen a resurgence and the tide has turned. “People are buying vinyl records and record players again,” Overpeck said. “There is an elasticity to the U.S. consumer buying cycles and mindset. What people have figured out, now that things have stabilized with the economy, is that if they have money to spend—and I am hearing this from lots of retailers—consumers want better quality. They don’t want to buy junk. If you couple that with a car audio industry where retailers are now in the business of integrating into computers on wheels, it has thinned the herd to a large degree.”

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Exploring new territories, retailers branch out as manufacturers to stake new claims and feed their passion.

Mobile Electronics May 2016 Issue, May 25, 2016 -- The simple formula of retailers operating only their stores as part of their business plan is becoming a strategy of another economic era. Today, retailers are diversifying their options from not only doing installations and selling sound products, but to operating training organizations and launching their own branded products.

What is driving this new way of doing business is a passion for the industry and the hope of reinventing and reinvigorating one’s business and oneself, as well as giving back to the 12-volt world.

 The Right Fit

Back in 2011, Perfectionist Auto Sound, based in Anchorage, Alaska won the coveted Mobile Electronics Retailer of the Year award. According to owner John Schwartz, it was this honor that put the retailer on the map along with being the number one Compustar retailer in the world. The next year when Schwartz taught a business class at Mobile Solutions in Tempe, Ariz. a few guys from Australia were there.

“First question they asked was why they didn’t have Compustar in Australia,” Schwartz said. “Good idea, I told them, let’s make it happen. Daniel Gardner, owner of a retail shop called Carbon Car Systems, which is right outside of Sydney, and I talked about it and worked on it. We formed Compustar Australia.”

It was Gardner who discovered a sound deadening product which he was successfully selling in his shop. The product, branded under the Carbon Car Systems name, was intriguing to Schwartz. “It was a beautiful product,” Schwartz said. “And I wanted to do the same thing for Perfectionist—just bring it in and brand it under our name. The only problem was no one was going to buy it because it would have our name on it. Why would they want our name on it when they would rather have their own name on it?”

After discussions, Gardner and Schwartz knew that to sell it to other retailers, the product had to be global. That is how SoundSkins USA was born.

With a global plan and a product that every shop could comfortably sell, it was time to bring it here to the States. Today, SoundSkins USA is a full production house. “We have a distribution point in Dallas so we can ship to everyone in the country,” Schwartz said. “We’ve gotten a lot of traction.”

Not only is it easy for retailers to place orders and get product, but since it is a rep-less model without the need to pay commissions, Schwartz can keep the costs low.

Read the complete story HERE.

5-10-2017, Mobile Electronics -- A bird of prey has many functions. These functions change based on the surrounding environment. To survive, the bird must rely on its instincts and natural abilities to catch food. The method of catching food, however, is almost always different. Land-based predatory birds require different strategies than water-based predators. The birds in these varying landscapes go by different names, which include fish eagle, sea hawk, river hawk, fish hawk and one other—osprey.

Much like its namesake, 12-volt retailer Osprey has earned its name by adapting to an ever-changing environment in its 32 years of doing business. The Westwood, Mass. location operates out of Boston's South Shore community, where car audio is only a fraction of its daily workload. The company goes by a different name, Boston Truck & Van, to cater to its fleet business installing ladder racks, van shelves, emergency lighting and GPS tracking. This work is done not just for small businesses like plumbing and electrical, but for local municipalities like police and DEA vehicles.

Since opening its doors, the company has adapted to declining revenue in one category by venturing full-force into another. That journey began in a completely different market, far from a standard 12-volt operation.

"In 1985, there was a new thing coming to Boston called cellular. We were the very first cellular telephone dealer in the Boston area," said Jeff Maron, owner of Osprey and Boston Truck & Van. "The book ‘Who Moved My Cheese’ is our creed. When the cheese gets moved, you have to find more cheese or you're going to die. The cellular telephone business was such a good thing that those companies (like Verizon and AT&T) opened their own stores. At that time we started doing alarms and remote starts, which became our new cheese. A little while later, my son Jason came in and said 'We are going into the stereo business with cassette players, CD changers, dealer work and personal work in customers’ cars.'"

For the last five years, the company has profited greatly by using Adrian Steel, a local supplier of ladder racks and other installation components that Boston Truck & Van uses in its fleet and B2B installation work. 

"We're doing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of business. Now we're off the Automile and in a new facility," Maron said. "This new facility is outstanding. Now we can house nine vehicles at a time. It has two dedicated bays for electronics and the rest dedicated to van shelving and ladder racks."

A Larger Wing Span

To be in business for 32 years means the necessities of your business will likely grow. More work means more space is needed to accommodate more vehicles. Today, the store does work with 80 car dealerships and has fleet vans lined up outside the bay with an average of seven in the bay at any given time.

"Were totally out of space and needed a bigger parking lot. By doing business with so many dealerships and different brands, whether it be Ford, Ram or Mercedes, we fish in a lot of ponds," Maron said. "It's all about needs over want. It's not a kid who wants a car stereo. It's a plumber who needs lighting in his van to work more efficiently or GPS to get to his next job. We talk about needs selling all the time."

The new location consists of 11,600 square feet of space, with 6,000 for the warehouse and garage, two showrooms of 1,500 and 800 square feet each, and the rest made up of offices, employee break room, customer waiting room, electronics stock room, four bathrooms, and a kitchen.

The store is a traditional retail shop, fully stocked with product, and offers a focused product offering that includes Kenwood, Alpine and Directed for 12-volt products, Whelen lighting for emergency vehicle lighting and Adrian Steel for ladder racks and shelves.

Located south of Boston, Mass., right off of the busy I-95 highway, the store sits in the middle of a shopping center called University Station which sees thousands of people pass through daily. 

To make the shop's recent transition to its new location a seamless experience, Maron emphasized the importance of what he calls "The Five P's."

"Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance. People's plans don't fail, they fail to plan. If you are working in the new facility while still cleaning out the old facility, it's good planning," Maron said. "The only time success comes before work is in the dictionary. If you plan for it, when you move into the new building it's like you've been there all along." 

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5-24-2017 -- A leader should unite and inspire the team, not only innovating and making the workplace more efficient, but allowing others around them to feel energized by their passion for the industry. Troy White is the newest addition to the team at Cartronix in Valparaiso, Ind. and has filled the position of service manager. When White planned to relocate from Iowa in order to be near his new grandson, he hoped to find a workplace that fit well with his values.  

“I had, through my research, already got the feeling that Cartronix was aligned with my values and beliefs as far as how things should be done and how customers should be treated,” he said, adding that he appreciated the business’s high standards. “When you work for someone who doesn’t have those standards and you have to compromise, it’s almost demeaning.”

All of Cartronix’s staff members have been with the company for two-plus years. Eric Carter, owner of Cartronix, stated that when he’s looking for a new hire, he generally looks on the Internet for someone who might be interested in relocating. He checks the 12-volt industry website, and also Facebook. What’s he looking for? “Someone who wants to gain new experiences,” Carter said. “I also talk to friends in the industry.” For two to three years, Carter needed a service manager for the shop, but just couldn’t find the right fit. It’s important to find the right person for the job, and each business has its own hiring practices—some more complicated and in-depth than others.

The Hiring Process

When interviewing candidates for any position, carefully assessing responses and the body language of the individual can be utilized to gain some insight. While it’s great to agree with one’s coworkers, having a good mix of different viewpoints can bring new ideas and concepts on board. Without these new ideas and fresh mindsets, an organization can become stagnant. Mike Bartells of Extreme Audio, Inc. in Mechanicsville, Va. stated they have a complicated hiring process to help weed out anyone who isn’t serious.

“In a way, we overcomplicate our hiring process to naturally weed out the people not willing to put out the effort,” Bartells said. “Someone who is not going to put in effort now won’t do it two years down the road as they’ve gotten comfortable.”

Jeff West of Benchmark Auto Sound & Security in Springfield, Ill. has a similar approach to hiring. Certain answers give him an indication as to the individual’s mindset. “There’re many trick questions I ask,” he said. “Like what’s more important, making money or doing a job well? If someone answers making money, well, that’s fine—but you don’t want to take a shortcut just because you want to make commission. Generally, the answer I’m looking for is ‘doing a job well,’ because if you do, money will follow anyway.” West added that the candidate interviewing for the position should demonstrate friendliness and enthusiasm. They should also believe in “the golden rule,” he added. “If I get a good read on all that kind of stuff, then they’re generally going to work out really well.”

Carter, like the others, aims to hire for the long haul. “I always know there can be turnover,” he said. “It depends on the individual’s family and relationships. There’s a lot of unknowns that can happen. I try to think they’re going to be there for the long haul. I see five, six, seven years.”

Before White joined the team at Cartronix, he explored the situation to gain a feel for it. For Carter, it was clear his new service manager knew what he was doing. “When I first met Troy, I could tell within a few seconds that he was very knowledgeable of what he did,” Carter said. “He was very confident in himself, in his mannerisms, so I knew right away that he’d be a perfect fit.”

The hiring process and seeking employees for management positions is different for each company, but there are still a lot of similarities—including the difficulty of attracting new people to the industry, according to Bartells. “I believe we need something to create interest in this industry,” he added. “It was always driven by hobbyists and people who just did it because they enjoy it. With the amount of technical knowledge needed now, I think what we’re missing is [people who have] the desire, the interest to learn the inner workings of this stuff.”

Read the rest of the story HERE.

5-2-2017, Mobile Electronics -- It may be true what they say—third time's the charm. In its third year, KnowledgeFest Spring Training has set a new record for attendance with more than 800 attendees and 32 exhibitors. The event, held at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, Ind., took place April 9 through 11 and featured over 29 hours of educational sessions, 39 hours of manufacturer trainings and over 14 hours of exhibit time on the show floor.

The original intent of the show was to highlight manufacturers' newest products to prepare retailers for the selling season. Categories highlighted at the show included car audio/video (amplifiers, speakers, subwoofers, DSP, sound deadener, monitors), remote starts, alarms, OEM integration and the growing safety category. Companies on the floor ranged from long-time attendees like VOXX and Kenwood, to returning brands like Savv Mobile Multimedia, makers of headrest monitors.

The popularity of the event has centered around its diverse offering and ability to reach retailers who may not have the resources to attend other shows like KnowledgeFest in Dallas.

“There were two drivers behind our creation of this event: First, to offer our retailer members the opportunity for training and networking; and, second, to offer our manufacturer exhibitors the opportunity to meet with their retail accounts east of the Mississippi, the mobile specialists they’re not seeing in January in Vegas," said Chris Cook, president of the Mobile Electronics Association. "Exhibitors we spoke with on-site at space selection for our 2018 events were pleased with the traffic they received, both in their booths and their training workshops. We received strong commitments from exhibitors to come back to Indy next year and to participate in our new Spring Training Long Beach.” During the town hall presentation, Cook announced that MEA was adding a third KnowledgeFest event for 2018 at the Long Beach Convention Center in southern California, February 23 through 25.

Also at the town hall, Cook provided a ballroom full of retailers, installers and manufacturers a glimpse into the overall popularity of 12-volt products for the past three years with the industry conducting around 4,500 transactions a year, with the average amount between $104 and $113 per transaction.

Cook stressed the importance of keeping up with new technology in each category in order to better educate customers and make sales. According to automotive data from the SAE Group, the connected car will play a key role in the near future with 380 million vehicles set to be connected in the next four years. Even with these advancements, the aftermarket has an opportunity to surge ahead through innovations in established and emerging categories, according to Cook. "What are you doing to get ready?" he added.

Tech Fest

One highly talked about portion of the show was the manufacturer trainings, which included product tips and tricks from top companies like Alpine, Escort, K40, AAMP Global, VOXX and Metra, among others. To keep things fresh for retailers, who may already know a fair amount about most products, some companies went the extra mile and created focused classes offering something that could only be learned at this particular show.

Metra, for example, took its attendees to school with its "Metra/Axxess 101: Back to the Basics" course. The class went over basic installation techniques on the company's most popular products. During the JL Audio training, "OEM Integration Made Easy With FIX and the All-new Functionality With TUN Software," individual simulation consoles were set up to help retailers learn the process for producing a clean, flat audio signal with the company's latest software products.

Even for those companies that focused on general information for product lines, retailers were still able to gain a great deal from the experience due to the sheer amount of information retailers must retain to remain experts in their field.

"I'm a Sony dealer and I have most of the product in store already. But the way Kris Bulla breaks it down is really helpful. And he's new with them," said John Schumacher of Audio Solutions StL. "They went through the whole lineup, features and product line with general information. There're things in there you forget, certain features on certain SKUs. It's always good to refresh yourself."

The DD Audio training discussed the company's recent work building 30 enclosures as an experiment to understand different applications of the enclosures in different vehicles.

"It took well over a month. We found that listening to different genres of music affected the customer's enclosure and power amount allotted," said Kevin Doyle, a representative of the company. "The training is more general, focused on all models of our subwoofers."

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Mobile Electronics, May Issue, Real World Retail, May 1, 2016 -- In any given field, knowledge is power. The more you know, the more power you have to serve and influence others. Such was true of many people throughout history.

Leonardo Da Vinci was a man of great fame during the late 1400s. He was a painter, sculptor, musician, mathematician, inventor, writer and astronomer, among other talents. Many historians refer to Da Vinci as the prime example of a "Universal Genius," otherwise known as a "Renaissance Man."

Another example that fits this description is U.S. founding father Benjamin Franklin, credited with discovering electricity, inventing the bi-focal and co-writing the declaration of independence, among other achievements.

While it's most common for so-called "geniuses" to receive this title, a "Renaissance Man" can be found in most professions, with successful men and women who develop knowledge in multiple areas in an attempt to achieve greatness. Such is true for JC Motorsports, a one-stop-shop specializing not only in 12-volt products and services, but aftermarket automotive services as well.

After concluding its first year of sales with gross of $300,000, JC Motorsports followed the path it set forth by continuing to sell both 12-volt products—like car stereos, amps and speakers—and automotive products typically sold at maintenance shops like truck accessories, tires, wheels and lift kits. The shop also provides window tinting and graphic wrap services, which can produce high profit margins.

Today, the store generates $1.5 million in sales annually, despite being located in a region that's seen dramatic business changes in recent years. Operating out of Egg Harbor City, N.J., only about a half-hour drive away from Atlantic City, JC Motorsports has had to overcome the hurdle of a fluctuating economy due to the problems associated with casino closures. Not to mention the $2 billion dollar resort that recently closed due to bankruptcy, after only being open for two years.

Thanks to strong remote start sales on the 12-volt side, and an effective combination of aftermarket automotive offerings, the company has grown its staff to eight employees (six full-time, two part-time) and a building that owner Joe Chiarolanza (JC), built from the ground up with 7,200 square feet of space (6,000 of that dedicated to the installation bay, which can house up to 12 vehicles at once).

By pushing its company slogan, "If you want it, we got it!" the shop attracts a fair amount of its customers through strong radio advertising and word-of-mouth. Although walk-ins are welcome, the shop books the majority of its business by scheduling appointments. Located next to highway 30, which sees around 12,000 vehicles pass by per day, the store has its fair share of walk-in traffic as well.

Despite the effectiveness of his operation, JC can't claim to have always had it all figured out. That's especially true given the state in which he left his parents’ car after attempting his first install. 

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