As part of Alpine USA Marketing Team in the early stages, we were constantly reminded by Japan how powerful the influence of the US market was on Japan HQ. In fact, the USA Alpine group was required to head to Japan at least 3X per year to report on all of our marketing, branding and sales promotion activities in the USA.

Actually, around the world, there were collectively 15 key markets looking very closely at Alpine USA and adopting many of our programs. One extremely powerful investment that strengthened the Alpine brand globally was an overarching training program that covered installation knowledge, project application and all of it focused on a basis of hands-on experience. It was called Global Alpine Installation Technology (GAIT). This program, created by Rich Coe – Alpine’s AVP Technology, even brought subwoofer and component speaker installation, including specific audio tuning to markets around the world.  

By the end of the GAIT period (1990), I believe there were 15 + global Alpine affiliates embracing this new direction. And because of this, Alpine’s Global top line revenue grew in product categories that were traditionally not strong for off-shore suppliers. GAIT created powerful brand credibility and trust around the world.