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NEWS
AAMP of America has announced its upcoming 20th anniversary in July 2007. The anniversary marks two decades of AAMP of America’s renowned customer service and commitment to 12-volt dealers and installers with its premier Stinger, Peripheral Electronics, Best Kits and Harnesses, and Sound Quest Electronics brands.
Over the upcoming year, the company reports that it will celebrate the event by focusing on those installers, dealers, and retailers that have supported the company since its inception.
Micah Ansley founded the company in 1987 with a small loan from his parents, Gerald and Joyce Ansley. Drawing on his 10 years of industry experience, Micah had one mission for AAMP: to be the one place where 12-volt dealers and installers went for the products they needed, and to get them those products with same-day shipping and top-notch customer service. To do this, AAMP opened three warehouses in the first two years — in Clearwater, Florida; Springfield, Missouri; and Las Vegas, Nevada — to ensure that customers throughout the U.S. received their orders no more than two days after placing them.
This commitment to customer service produced huge sales in the early 1990’s, and catapulted AAMP to number 33 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing, privately-held companies in 1992 and again in 1993. Just as significant, in 1990 AAMP created Stinger and began manufacturing its own high-performance car audio accessories for the specialist market.
Starting with just a handful of items, Stinger now boasts more accessories than any car audio company with over 500 SKUs. Industry-first products like its hybrid capacitors, dry-cell batteries, and expandable fuse blocks have helped make Stinger the accessory of choice by car audio competitors worldwide. Since 1996, the company has won thirteen awards for its product designs, including the prestigious CES Innovations Award.
In the mid-90s, AAMP added Peripheral Electronics and Best Kits and Harnesses to develop products that interfaced aftermarket head units and other components with factory systems. While Peripheral Electronics focused on the interfacing technologies, Best Kits provided dash kits that covered a wide range of applications. These kits minimize the number of SKUs dealers have to order while allowing customers to replace their factory radios or CD changers without impacting the look and feel of their factory dash.
The first company to interface line output converters and CD changers with factory systems, Peripheral Electronics has pioneered OEM Integration with other industry-firsts like its Class 2 Databus and OnStar Interfaces. More recently, Peripheral Electronics has developed cutting-edge solutions for iPods and MP3 players, game systems, and Bluetooth phones—speaking directly to those consumers whose on-the-go lifestyle is driven by these popular mobile electronics devices.
Sound Quest Electronics, AAMP’s mobile audio and lighting accessories brand, also continues to play an important role in AAMP’s success. Its high-quality and inexpensive wiring, power management, and lighting products provide a critical tool for dealers looking for huge profit potential without increasing their costs.
For Micah Ansley, still the company’s President and CEO, AAMP’s 20th Anniversary is an opportunity to celebrate both past successes and future possibilities.
“We’ve accomplished a lot,” Ansley states, “and there’s still so much to do. As the industry changes, so do the needs of our customers—the dealers and small retailers, the installers. The bottom line is, we have to keep meeting those needs better and faster than our competitors.”
AAMP’s future plans include a strong focus on the emerging home audio market. As home systems become more sophisticated, demand grows for the powerful aftermarket accessories that support them. Already, AAMP of America Home division has released a full line of new products for the custom home installer alongside its existing line of home speakers, wiring, cabling, and other accessories.
AAMP will also be launching breakthrough new Peripheral OEM integration products like its Automotive Multimedia Gateway. The gateway allows for connectivity for iPod and MP3 players as well as HD Radio and Bluetooth for hands-free cell phone and audio streaming. In addition to enabling full control of all aftermarket devices from the factory head unit, it also retains original system features such as satellite radio.
AAMP is also well underway with the expansion of its redefined and redeveloped Stinger PRO and HPM lines, the most powerful and extensive lines the company has ever created. Stunning aesthetic and technological modifications have been made to all Stinger PRO and HPM capacitors, interconnects, battery terminals, fuse holders and distribution blocks, and power and speaker wire. Stinger has also rolled out a new unified branding campaign that includes retail-friendly packaging and a dynamic, distinctively urban look and feel that speaks both to consumers and dealers.
New Best Kits dash kits are also continually being added, further evidence of AAMP’s longstanding commitment to the mobile audio accessories market. These kits include applications for late-model Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Lexus, Nissan, Suzuki, and Toyota vehicles.
Ansley acknowledges that ultimately the key to AAMP’s success is the superb customer service he envisioned for it twenty years ago. Today, this service includes same-day shipping from three warehouses and an online ordering system with 24-7 ordering and tracking, instant price and availability, up-to-the-minute account status, and access to past invoices for authorized users. In 2006, Mobile Electronics retailers recognized AAMP’s customer service by voting it the best of any mobile audio accessory company in the country.
Ryan Goeller, Vice President of Car Concepts—a specialist car audio dealer in Salt Lake City, Utah—agreed that AAMP’s customer service is second-to-none in the industry.
“We’ve sold certain AAMP of America products almost exclusively for over eight years,” says Goeller. “They’ve always gone above and beyond to get us whatever we need. And if there’s something they don’t have, they’ll get it for us. That kind of service shows tremendous loyalty to the single-outlet, independent retailer—loyalty that’s unsurpassed in the industry.”
Shawn Morrison, owner of Car Tunes in Clearwater, Florida, also believes that AAMP’s commitment to its customers has driven the company’s success. As AAMP’s first customer, Morrison said that that commitment is just as strong today as it was 20 years ago.
“AAMP has always been there when we need them,” adds Morrison. “Whether they’re taking another order or answering a tough install question, they get it done with great service. And the fact that they’re a one-stop shop means fewer calls and less headaches. In the end, there’s no better partner than AAMP of America.”
Micah Ansley is also quick to point out the sixteen-year average tenure of AAMP’s salespeople, another distinction that sets it apart from its competitors. According to Ansley, this longevity has helped solidify the critical customer relationships that form the foundation of AAMP’s success.
“When we started, the sole focus was on getting our customers the products they needed and getting them there fast,” says Ansley. “Now, we’re their total business solution—designing the products, making the products, and shipping the products. We’ve done it with innovation and hard work. We’ve done it by dedicating ourselves to the industry. But in the end, it’s our customers—the thousands of them all over the world—that keep us going. We do everything we can to serve them at the highest possible level. It’s how it’s always been, and how it will always be.”
www.aampofamerica.com
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