Q & A MADE IN ARIZONA:
Theresa Hephner, Senior Director, Products and Marketing
Rockford Corporation’s Theresa Hephner describes OEM partnerships, an industry outlook and engaging retailers for social media initiatives in 2012
Experiencing steady business with its OEM partners and innovative lines of Rockford Fosgate amplifiers, subwoofers and component speakers performing well in the aftermarket, Rockford Corp. is on solid footing in the fourth quarter of 2011, going into 2012. The responsibility to manage a swath of the company’s efforts since May of this year is with Theresa Hephner, senior director of products and marketing at the Tempe, Ariz.-based company. Several days after the 2011 SEMA Show concluded, Mobile Electronics checked in with Hephner to talk about Rockford’s entry into the power sports OEM market, its other lines and its social media initiatives created with retailers in mind that will be rolled out in 2012 concurrently with new integration products.
Q: Research firm IHS recently released a report claim- ing global sales of high-end car audio systems were north of 7.9 million units in 2011, up 14 percent over 2010, and will continue to grow to 13.3 million units by 2015. The mid-market cars will fuel the growth, per IHS. What’s your take on this forecast?
Q: Tanom Motors is your latest OEM partner, the first in the powersports market. Can you go over the OEM partners that Rockford is currently working with?
A: The report is really interesting; it’s not surprising, actually, be- cause on the automotive side with the automakers, many of them are finding that by using audio products — as well as video, navi- gation and other items, but especially audio right now — they’re able to get more consumers to purchase their vehicles. They’re us- ing audio as that premium upgrade. It’s similar to what navigation used to be, but today so many people are using the navigation on their smartphones that a built-in nav unit is not such a demand. So, there are a lot of automakers that are rolling over to audio and saying, “That’s going to be our premium pull,” especially ones that are trying to go after the youth market. I think we’ll see a lot more of it happening. And then on the aftermarket side of the business, there are a lot of customers who are keeping their cars for longer periods of time. They’re not trading them in and getting a new one every two years. Those people who are considering a new car are reinvesting in their current one, so we’re seeing a nice uptick in the aftermarket side of the business, as far as audio being added to cars that are already owned out there in the marketplace.
Q: What kind of lines do you have on the ho- rizon, as far as integration products?
A: We continue to be a partner with Nissan, and you will actually see a couple of new platforms. There are new platforms on the dealership lots today. We also work with Suzuki and Mitsubishi on the automotive side. We’re working with Malibu Boats and Sea-Ray Boats in OEM partnerships on the marine side, and then Tanom Motors is our first partner in the powersports side.
A: I can tell you the integration products that will come out in January will be able to interface with Bluetooth of any platform. It’s across the board. It will not be specific to any one platform — it would work with all of them.
12 Mobile Electronics December | January 2012
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