Learning from Leaders

WORDS BY JAMIE SORCHER

Last July, Aron Demers, senior vice president of VOXX Electronics Corporation, was featured on Mobile Electronics Association’s Learning From Leaders podcast. With a 25-year career at VOXX, Demers has experienced some constants during that span—like travel and meetings. But it’s also been a journey filled with continual change. Last year alone brought a pandemic and an acquisition. At the time of his interview, VOXX had just completed the purchase of its main competitor, Directed, which brought together two of the industry’s most powerful brands.

“Things have calmed down for sure since then,” Demers said, explaining that when the deal was closed, the company had to onboard all the new employees and get inventory out to the supply chain. “Directed was pretty lean on inventory when we bought them,” he added, noting they prioritized ordering product to ensure there was enough stock for the remote start selling season.

Directed’s brands, led by Viper, along with Autostart, AstroStart, Automate, Avital, Clifford and Python are now owned by VOXX along with Directed’s accessory lines. Not only did combining assets provide VOXX with stronger offerings for customers, and expand its distribution network, but it also brought over Directed’s top-tier engineering team comprised of 40 folks who remain based in Canada.

“We haven’t been able to get up there and break bread with them like we would normally do when we have new members join our team,” Demers said. “We want to show them we’re invested in them for the long-term. For us, this acquisition now means we’re able to control our destiny a bit more by having those resources.” The company now has more control over its future in terms of products, planning and vehicle application, he added.

One area of increased focus will likely involve the connected car. Demers said VOXX is exploring how to leverage this platform for use with other products and technologies.

“For example, you can use your phone as a digital key using an app. We think that will be important with any ride-sharing or connected fleet products that we look at in the near future,” he explained.

Most recently, ride-sharing has been impacted by the pandemic. Consumers have been forced to rethink daily routines such as taking an Uber or a Lyft, which has increased the benefits of having one’s own vehicle. Demers pointed out that COVID-19 has caused consumers to look at many things in a different light.

“I’m a perfect example of that. We used to Uber on a pretty regular basis,” he said. “We don’t do that as much anymore.” He noted that he has a new level of comfort about being in his own vehicle instead of someone else’s. “I know who has been in my car. I know when it was last sanitized or cleaned, and all that stuff that goes along with it.” The mentality about ride-sharing versus owning a car may be changing a bit more, he added, at least for the immediate future. “How long this will last is yet to be known.”

Looking back, Demers said he couldn’t have anticipated what 2020 would have in store especially with a strong start to last year. VOXX’s first quarter was last March. “We came out of the gate right on track. We were halfway through the month, tracking at 50 percent, and then COVID hit and everything came to a screeching halt until April when the stimulus came out,” he said. “Then we saw a lot of the independents pick up quickly.”

Demers noted a few reasons for that bump in business: For example, some of the big box stores were shut down. This, he explained, contributed largely to the boom in business for specialty retailers. “As COVID continued, and staying at home became the new reality for so many people, there was nothing to do.” People who ordinarily frequented restaurants or went out for entertainment had extra spending money.

“They might have had an older vehicle they wanted to update, or a boat in need of new gear and a lot of products being sold were a subset of that,” Demers added. “With our rear-seat entertainment, we saw that business really kick in during the summer—a bit higher than years before. A lot more consumers were driving rather than flying for their summer vacations.”

COVID also altered Demers’ rigorous travel schedule. In any given year, he said he flies more than 100,000 miles domestically. “I’ve only had two trips since COVID started spreading that were essential.” Face-to-face visits with dealers help Demers and his coworkers understand different trends, markets and needs, he said, adding that it’s important to interact face-to-face with dealers as well as end-users.

“You may be hanging around in one of the shops waiting to see the buyer or the store owner, and you meet a consumer in the showroom. I always like to talk to that consumer and understand why he came in, find out what he was looking for and get a sense of what’s going through his mind. That’s hard to do when everything is virtual.”

On the other hand, the pandemic has inspired new ways to connect. “The level of communication on a regular basis has gone up tremendously,” Demers said. “We found that we don’t necessarily need to go see and touch a territory two times a year—to do what we’d call a milk run— just because that’s what we always did in the past. It’s more important to figure out what needs to be done and determine why we are going.”

This means any travel going forward will be a bit different, he explained. “It will be more laser-focused. I don’t know that a lot of dealers or consumers are going to want to see a lot of people faceto-face for some time until we’ve settled into whatever the new normal is going to be.”

The trade shows that were sacrificed last year were also an important part of VOXX’s visibility—and hopefully will back on schedule when it makes sense. “The days of shutting the office for an hour, going to lunch or dinner, talking about a program or price and cutting a deal—that has definitely dropped off, too,” Demers said, noting there just isn’t the same level of personalization involved in the sale right now.

While the wheels are still turning in terms of sales, he said a large focus for the near future will be how dealers and their employees gain access to training: “There will be a lot less in-person trainings available.”

Above all, Demers said the pandemic has demonstrated that strong retailers who already communicate well with their customer base will get through these difficult times. On the other hand, he added, “Dealers who didn’t adapt are definitely feeling the pinch. My guess is the dealers who were already making changes will continue to make it through. Then you have another set of dealers who will unfortunately die off slowly.”

For VOXX, the new year brings new opportunities. Demers said the company already had a good direction before acquiring Directed. “When Directed came on board, we focused on folding the two companies together and making it seamless for our customer base,” he explained. As VOXX continues to release new products, and now works with Directed, Demers added, “We are looking at all the synergies, taking products and making them work with other products. Just think of the connected car: With all the assets we now have at our disposal, we can look at developing new products and new integrations.”

VOXX has been working on a new product for the last 18 months called the VOXX Power System, which Demers explained is an on-board jumpstart for a vehicle. “It wires into your battery and gets a trickle charge from the battery while the vehicle is on and in motion. It’s basically like having a portable jump pack at your disposal that’s charged at all times.” The Power System provides power-on-demand.

If the battery dies, he said, “From a security standpoint, you don’t have to ask someone to jumpstart your vehicle or call AAA. This takes vulnerability out of play. We ship that product in the first quarter of this year.”

Demers got his start in the 12-volt world selling ads at a magazine called Mobile Electronics Specialist—which at the time was a competitor of Installation News. After that, Demers went to work for John Phillips, who then started a small amplifier company called Phillips Sound Labs. Eventually, Demers got a job at Audiovox as the west coast regional.

As the new year begins, he noted he’s very grateful for the positive highlights in 2020. “I would like to thank my team on both the Directed and the VOXX sides for coming together,” he said, adding that the two companies started out as competitors, “and seeing them come together was admirable. We were able to exchange a lot of war stories and compare notes, and we learned a lot.”

Demers also noted the brand loyalty he’s witnessed in Directed’s dealer base. He acknowledged the likelihood of hesitation among dealers when VOXX first brought on Directed, as people wondered “what would happen to distribution, what would happen to the product—and the answer to that is nothing,” he added. “We’re leaving them the same.”

Demers went on to thank Directed dealers: “Thank you for trusting us and hanging in there with us. We’re going to continue to get in a good stock position going forward.”