Q & A The 30-Year Ride:
From Electronics to Something More
Jim Jardin VP Marketing, Directed
DEI, Directed Electronics, Directed: whatever you call the iconic company founded by entrepreneur turned congressman Darrell Issa in 1982, it has the great fortune to have one of the strongest brands in both trade and consumer circles: Viper. In recent years, the company has sought to add siblings to the brand. Some have fared better than others. Recently, it made the decision to sell off the powerful Orion brand, following a shortening of its name—‘Directed Electronics’ to ‘Directed.’ Mobile Electronics queried Vice President of Marketing Jim Jardin about these changes and what they signal for the company and its role in the industry.
ME: Directed has gone through a lot of changes lately, from the shortening of the name
and new logo to the recent sell-off of the Orion brand. Are these changes part of an overall shift in company philosophy or separate events? Jardin: With the remarkable success of Directed SmartStart and the 30-year anniversary of Directed, we felt we needed to re-evaluate our vision, and we focused on three key themes. First, we want to continue to be the global leader in branded security and control telematics. We’re the best at what we do, hands down, so it made a lot of sense to invest all of our energy there. Second, there’s a tremendous opportunity in creating new innovations and driving the future of the cloud connected car. We’re optimally positioned to
Creating and making available the ‘free app’ captures new consumers and drives them directly to our retailers. The success of it can easily be measured by the fact we are rapidly closing in on 1.5 million downloads of the SmartStart app. ”
take advantage of this relatively new business area. Finally, we have two categories of our business that are on a rapid growth trajectory: Directed SmartStart and Viper Window Film. We want to deploy as many of our resources toward growing these businesses as possible. As is often the case, it’s what’s best for us and, it will create the most value for our dealers. By leveraging the power of our brands and investing our energy in growing these thriving businesses, we are able to continue to drive consumers into our dealers’ stores.
ME: Directed started off as a vehicle security company. What is Directed today? Jardin: Directed has always been about state-of-the-art technology. It really is shocking to me how far that underlying fundamental vision has taken us over the last 30 years. Thirty years ago, “state of the art” was a keypad you placed inside your car, that you entered a secret code onto in order to start your vehicle. Today, Directed SmartStart
12 Mobile Electronics February | March 2012
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