The market has changed and if the shop has not changed with it then they will be in trouble. OEM integration and video(of course including alarms and such) are what keeps the bays in my shop packed. They do not have slow days although they are on a little ritzy side of town in scottsdale.

 

carsponsorship.com

 

I was part of adassa audio for a while...

 

I work at Circuit City and the roadshop is always full...We probably get more headunit installs then anything else. Remote starts were big during Christmas though.

 

Alright, glad you brought this up. I run the installation department at an auto shop in the surrounding Detroit area, now unless your neer us your SOL, but on the slim chance you are, we do offer sponsourships, 5 a year, and currently 3 spots are full for 2008, all ya have to do is fill out an application for it, agree to a few details, get your car inspected and sign a contract. Not neer us, go to your local shops and ask around, there are alot who have teams to promote their products. As long as your willing to put some decals on ur car and do some promotional work, and assuming ur car is decent, they usually give ya discounts. Ours is free labor and employe pricing on parts. Anyways, good luck

 

CC and BB arekilling quality local audio shops.

Generally if someone wants something cheap and really doesn't care about sound they can hop in the car, drive to CC or BB, and get a HU out the door installed by some monkeys for $99. If the customer is gullible enough to beleive the unknowledgeble sales people he might get something that is more expensive but only slightly better. Some people think that BBand CC sales know what they are talking about and will think they can get an amazing competition audio system for $500 becuase they add an HU, some 6x9's and some alpine type R's.

I used to frequent a number of shops and I paid a premium for their expertise because they were truely knowledegable and had a number of trophies in the corner. The owner would guide me to buy the best product, not the most expensive and would let me listen to just about any setup I could think of in a customer's car he had built. With the online forums and shops, you can get the expertise of someone that knows there stuff on a forum, and then go buy the equipment online for dirt cheap. Unless you are willing to pay a premium to support local business, which most 16 year old kids that buy car stereos aren't, then they get what they can afford off the web.

After moving, I'm in a new town and don't frequent any shops. I just buy my equipment from the web.

 

Unfortunately one of the key aspects to sponsorships and getting sponsorships is properly writing a marketing proposal and unfortunately 99% of the people are way to lazy to do this upfront. Our whole SEMA vehicle program operates of off sponsorships and every year I write a nice 6 page document with past info, current info and future expectations of the vehicle. The writers WHO, What, Where and When.
I see so many people whom are like.. gimmy gimmy gimmy, and the minute you ask them to write something up and submit it you never hear from the again.

I actually enjoy this process because it weeds out just about everyone.