TOP 12
Columbus Car Audio
With three locations in the Columbus, Ohio, area, co- owner Todd Hays’ plan is simply to continue with a strong footprint in the market. “Five years from now, our big mis- sion is to be the best not only in central Ohio, but one of the best in the state of Ohio and throughout the country,” Hays said. To separate Columbus Car Audio from a litany of local and regional competitors, the chain strives to be innova- tive in both how technicians install products “and how we bring products to market,” Hays said. “We’re always look- ing for the next cool thing, to let people know why they should buy products from us.” While Columbus Car Audio has a well-designed website and relies on email to communicate with customers, the company’s marketing is still oriented around radio, TV and events. “We do quite a bit of radio,” Hays said. “We also do a fair amount of getting in front of people, whether it’s supporting a charity golf outing or just getting out in the neighborhood.”
Being recognized as a Top 12 retailer is something
Hays is very appreciative of and went an extra mile to get. “We’ve been amongst the top before but this year we de- cided it was important to us and definitely made a push to get up there,” Hays said. He added emails were sent to customers, Facebook posts were made and the store chain prominently displayed the link to vote on its website.
Extreme Performance
With South Beach a stone’s throw away and miles of beachfront abound, Extreme Performance is well situated to serve the performance and marine markets as a tra- ditional car stereo retail. In fact, it was the eight-year old store’s core at the start, and it wasn’t until four years ago that the shop began specializing in audio as well, said Zach Abass, who recently joined the Palm City, Fla., store from Tampa. Originally, Extreme Performance was doing truck lifts, suspensions and specializing in off-road trucks and wheels. “We did some audio before, but it was more or less adjunct,” Abass said. “Four years ago, they brought in Jeremy Carlson, who made it into the 2011 Top 12 install- ers, and built out the bay. It reached the point where they actually brought me in to have someone give audio the same attention we give performance.” To get the shop into the Top 12, Abass said he and other
staff went to marine and car dealers and to existing cli- ents, in addition to Facebook and online boards such as the Camaro Forum.
One piece of advice that Abass suggested as a good business practice is cross-promotions with other electron- ics retailers. He pointed out a home theatre store nearby, to which he directs business and vice versa. “We do a lot of cross-promotions,” he said. Ultimately, the plan for the future is to simply “keep growing” and become “Florida’s one-stop shop.”
34 Mobile Electronics June| July 2011
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68