By James Chevrette and Amy Gilroy
Social media posts stating that Garmin will change the name of JL Audio to Garmin Audio on April 24 have been clarified by a Garmin spokesperson.
According to Garmin, the JL Audio product name remains, but the products will be found on the Internet under Garmin.com and Garmin social media.
Carly Hysell of Garmin told CEoutlook, “The name of the JL social channel is changing, but not the product names which will continue to be part of the JL Audio family. This change is happening as we expand our audio offerings on social and Garmin.com and begin the transition to move JL Audio and Clarion Marine products to Garmin.com so that all Garmin manufactured products are found together on one site and can be viewed/purchased globally long term.”
We also expect to learn more on April 24th.
Late on Monday, a picture on social media of a speaker grill with the words “Same products. Same content. New Name. JL Audio is becoming Garmin Audio on April 24,” was posted on social media. That picture can no longer be found on JLAudioInc on Instagram or Facebook. But that image is now replicated on many car audio related social media sites.
The post touched off a wave of disappointment by car audio dealers, both large and small on social media.
JL Audio is considered one of the top brands for car audio specialists. Dealers expressed that it offers great products with protected distribution and pricing and good margins, and it has been represented by “great people” who work with dealers to meet their needs.
JL Audio is probably the most respected and reliable Car Audio brands industry to date! To hear of an acquisition of them by Garmin or any other company just makes me sad. I see 50 years of making Top shelf car audio going down fast. I fear for the industry and what it means for car audio going forward , and the employees of JL Audio , as their dedication to keep the brands reputation the upmost focus for 50 years! Happy Anniversary JL Audio- Prayers for smooth transition and for the Art of Excellence to remain at the forefront of the company’s success. Garmin – leave the company alone , and appoint someone high up in The Car audio industry ( JL Audio Co.) as CEO and let them continue to “ Rock on “.
You would have to be seriously dense to purchase a brand that owns a percentage of the market, then deletes that name; I’ve never come across anything from Garmin that suggests that level of market ignorance.
“.. same content..”
I’d guess that they were attempting to notify website visitors that jlaudio.com will become garminaudio.com or something like that.
That’s a terrible idea in my opinion.
The JL Audio name is Legacy, Not Garmin Audio.
The Garmin “acquisition” of JL was a shock. The company has made several changes that directly affect its dealers, among which is selling through distribution. Unfortunately this will most likely degrade the Jl name. Since the topic is a name change, when they bought Jl, they bought the name, intellectual rights, patents, tooling etc… not only would a name change hurt them, imagine how much it would cost to change all of the packaging, badging on speakers, amps, and accessories, letterhead, etc…all the way down to the sign on the building!
Jl has a very good name in our industry, and has been well represented over the years. It’s a great product! Hopefully, garmin wont take them the way of pioneer premier, Sony mobile ES (back now), eclipse,….
The list goes on!
It’s a sad day in the world of 12V.
This is a great example of a bunch of “suits” in a corporate office surrounded by their financial bean counters in made a decision in the death of a legendary name and brand.
May I suggest if you have a flag in front of your store or your rep office you drop it to half staff on April 24th thru 30th due to Garmin’s corporate greed. It amazes me how short sighted and the lack of respect of the brand by the Garmin Corporate Boardroom who put to death the JL Audio name.
Other than saving a buck…someone explain to me what “value add” does the name Garmin gives JL Audio products?
They had no idea what they bought..or how to exploit it.
Andy, Lou, Jeff, JL Team and reps, JL Audio deserved a better send off than this.
Thanks for the memories. It was a great ride.
Dan Jeancola
There is no precedent in Car Audio history for any smaller company to be acquired by a larger one, which didn’t “go South,” eventually — but the ‘jury is still out’ on some of the more recent acquisitions, so time will tell. But in this case, it sure doesn’t look very promising.
It makes little sense to ask consumers looking for ‘Cadillac’ products, to seek them on ‘GMC.com’ — but it seems clear this is Garmin’s intended purpose on this. Regardless of their agenda, or long-term strategy, no ‘savvy’ company is going to squander the core value ‘asset’ of JL Audio, which they paid millions for a ‘call’ brand, given their obvious focus on OEM and Marine categories.
But this ‘ham-handed’ gaffe, continues a dubious trajectory of cavalier attitude towards the core JL car audio realm and customer (which they have made clear their intention and obvious lack of interest in). So there can be little doubt of Garmin’s clear future desire to further their relationship with Amazon.
Leading brands in 12V realm have come and gone before, so this is certainly not something novel, and other brands will no doubt grow to ‘fill this void’ in the market — as business, much like nature, “abhors a vacuum.” So there is no doubt more to this story, some of which will be revealed in the next couple weeks.
I personally think this is a terrible marketing idea or plan. When Harman International bought Pyle Industries in January 1985, Sidney Harman left all the key people and the famous “Pyle Driver” name intact to take full advantage of status, customer base and previous success generated by our company. All Pyle branding remained the same on packaging and literature with a small notation we were a division of Harman International. Of all the key brand names Harman owned at that time (JBL, Infinity, Harman Kardon and others), Pyle was one of the most successful and profitable companies in the entire group. About 11 years into the relationship, the corporation decided to “bring” Pyle into the Harman Consumer Group of companies and insert their own management people into our company in key positions. While I’m sure they thought they knew everything about how our company operated at that point to continue being successful, they did not take into full consideration how we ran the company and the long standing relationships we developed through the years with our parts suppliers/vendors, our reps and most importantly, our customers. They found out very quickly and sold the company a few years later to Klipsch who was in the home market, not car stereo. Klipsch was not successful either and in short order closed down our prized manufacturing facility in Huntington, IN who was actually making product for JL Audio in their early days in the industry and sold the Pyle and Pyle Driver name brand and rights to Sound Around in Brooklyn, NY. While the Garmin/JL Audio situation might be somewhat different, I have a feeling that this could not turn out the best for the JL customers and reps in the long run as I’ve seen this movie before.
Very interesting observations. Regarding your statements about Harman, I would add that since Samsung acquired Harman, they have done a very good job of leaving the Harman identity intact, in both the OEM, consumer / lifestyle, and automotive aftermarket divisions. I would hope that Garmin could take a page from that book regarding JL. I am sitting on the sidelines and monitoring everything, but more importantly, waiting for some type of communication from JL as to what will be the future of our business relationship. I would like to keep it going so I hope they can provide information to help me make a decision sooner rather than later.
The average consumers cares not who owns JL Audio; it is a brand, so is Garmin. Consumers I face widely relate Garmin with a little navigation device they stick to their windshields. If Garmin Audio becomes the brand, it will find its headstone in short order. Should JL Audio remain the brand, dealers will survive the corporate riff raff. Garmin is an AWESOME company that knows business, just not ours.
Still not a great idea. Nobody goes to Stelantis’s websites to search for Ram Trucks.
Albeit a horrible marketing blunder in social media times, the brand clarification is here: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BNqmxyNJb/
Having said that, no one at all mighty Garim is listing to the field (which has been non-renewed as of 8-1-25). Make no mistake; the non-renewal is in Garmin’s favor vs. other options.
We can all stand in the church tower and scream but no one in Kansas will hear you! Garmin will do as Garmin wishes. They bought it and can do as they please. Unfortunately, that doesn’t include several critical legacy attributes that made the brand the brand it is today. Maybe they just bought the control of a competitor? Maybe they are empowering the efficiencies that they already have to maximize the bottom line? It’s hard to imagine that they will experience the success that the brand has already claimed.
There will be plenty of second guesses, and it’s not going the way it was portrayed to us (but, it never is). Good luck to everyone involved.
JL Audio‘s real value is their intellectual property and patents. That’s what Garman purchased. The name is secondary to the purchase.
It really makes me wonder if the original plan WAS to change the name to “Garmin Audio”, but then that one simple post about it sent such a wave of negativity through the industry that they had to backpedal immediately.
And if that isn’t what happened, whoever made/worded that post did an awful job. I legitimately thought it was a joke or late april fool’s thing.
At least the JL Audio name will remain a thing, regardless of what actually happened behind closed doors.