Kenwood Announces Launch Of New Authorized Online Retailer Program

April 20, 2010 - PRLog -- Keith Lehmann, Senior Vice President of the Consumer Electronics Sector for Kenwood USA, said “Our industry is ever-changing, and an important part of this change is the degree by which the Internet affects our business.  According to The NPD Group’s Retail Tracking Service, the mobile electronics specialty channel kept its share of the business, including portable navigation devices, relatively flat from 2007 to 2009, while the e-commerce channel gained over 6 percentage points of dollar share.  We believe the reason for this share growth is the convenience of the Internet and the trust demonstrated by more consumers who would purchase products online.  We also believe that this trend can breed chaos and confusion unless firm merchandising and selling guidelines are implemented and enforced by the brand.  This new program will be welcome relief to our authorized retailer network that has been challenged by the online presence of Kenwood products being sold by unauthorized agents and at ridiculously low prices.”  

The program requires that all Kenwood dealers wishing to sell Kenwood products online must have an Authorized Internet Retailer agreement on file which is separate from the Master Authorized Retailer agreement and specifically addresses the different merchandising and selling practices that are common with online sales.  Kenwood’s Minimum Advertised Pricing (MAP) policy applies to all stated pricing on a dealer’s website including “in-cart” pricing.  Kenwood has clarified its transshipping restrictions policy to specifically include dealers who sell to unauthorized agents offering Kenwood mobile electronics products on the Internet, and dealers who violate these policies will face a progressive enforcement schedule that includes purchase restrictions, reduction in program discounting and possible cancelation of the dealers’ authorized retailer status.  

To help in these matters Kenwood has retained the services of Net Enforcers, an intellectual property enforcement and brand protection agency with a proven ability to scrub the Internet, find offending websites and report all copyright, trademark and authorized distribution violations to Kenwood.  

“Kenwood knows that putting agreements and policies into place means nothing without enforcement,” explained Lehmann.  “As part of our Leadership 2010 Initiative, we will aggressively enforce our policies and guidelines with the purpose of restoring and maintaining integrity to the process of merchandising and selling Kenwood products on the Internet.”

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Founded in 1961, Kenwood USA Corporation is a leading developer and manufacturer of audio and video products for home, car, and personal use. Offering more than 250 products. Kenwood is one of the top three selling brands of audio and video in the USA.