Pioneer Electronics said it has completed an eight month effort to clean up unauthorized discounting of its car audio brand online.
Hazim Jainoor, speaking at KnowledgeFest in Dallas last month, said Minimum Advertised Pricing (MAP) of the brand is now stable on Amazon, eBay, Best Buy and more.
The company hired multiple third party agencies to monitor and enforce MAP, he said.
“Now we have a good group of distributors, independent dealers and key accounts conducting business ethically and adhering to our policies,” Jainoor said.
Pioneer is now focused on marketing promotions and it continues to invest heavily in research and development. Jainoor said the company is planning “revolutionary new technology for the aftermarket.”
Pioneer just extended its June sale to run through October 1. Its “Season of Saving” promos offering $150 or $100 discounts on some radios is expected to be an annual event, Jainoor said, similar to how certain luxury car brands hold annual holiday sales events.
Pioneer is also offering a free SiriusXM tuner with its DMH-WT3800NEX radio in conjunction with a SiriusXM current promotion.
Photo: Jainoor in a demo vehicle (his own) at KnowledgeFest Dallas 2023.
Agreed! I spend countless hours building sub boxes & occasionally switching head units or amplifiers out & it’s been the one true therapeutic pleasure in my life as opposed to fixing as many cars as fast as possible all day as a flat rate technician. Car audio is a fun or sometimes not so fun but always rewarding hobby for many
Shrinking pie, fewer cars and difficult insulation have made independent dealers life tough, and thats without online sales. But Map is just that an advertised price.
We wouldn’t have this problem if refrigerator dealers didn’t have these products when brands went into box box they only moved numbers around.
My bet is big box stores send back more defective products then a mom and pop store that dosnt sell carry out.
AMAZON shouldn’t be offering any car audio.
Its not a DIY product anymore. AND its hard to track down the dealer as well most online stores won’t take returns and the customer cannot send it back to the manufacturer. Rob Wimpy had it right with electromedia. You sell online your cut off.
Audio is always a DIY thing, it’s the best part about audio u don’t have to be a pro to do it, I think it would be ridiculous to have to go to a sound shop that is 5x the cost for the same product, like rcas I just need a goof set I don’t need to pay the dealer 20$ to have the privilege of buying parts from them
I’VE BEEN AT THIS FOR 50 YEARS, FRIENDS. Nothing changes unless manufacturers want it to change. Over-distribution has been the nemesis of this industry for decades. We @ Soundcrafters almost never sells at MAP. We refuse to participate in the race to ZERO.
M.A.P. Morons Ain’t Profitable
Interesting… I noted that the Pioneer customers complaining, have been customers for many years and complaining about Pioneer’s failure to follow through on such claims for as many years.
You can’t just clean the house once, this issue will keep coming back especially if you use distributors. This is an on going struggle as we have been using third party agencies as well but also work on this daily on our own for years now. The market gets clean and one day you see a shift again, a few cents here a few cents there, as Amazon awards the low price such goes the race for the buy box. We have found that this generally occurs 85-90% of the time from those buying from distribution and not direct accounts. I suspect this is due to lack of conversation from the distributor sales person to the customer about MAP and how that works as they tend to just clerk the sale and see their commissions growing, they are not concerned with protecting the brands that they offer. We have a new policy coming into place in Q4 and will be working to have it 100% implemented by Q1 2024 removing all 3P Marketplace sellers from distribution and only allowing a selected list of direct customers to be able to sell on the platforms while its a large undertaking to get in place we do feel it is the only way to control MAP in todays digital retail environment.
We have been a Pioneer dealer for over forty years and have heard this same thing so many times before. We will wait and see. Is the Wholesale House still a distributor?