Skullcandy Saves Time and Protects Pricing Integrity with Wiser’s Automated MAP Monitoring

Background

Skullcandy, a leading global audio brand, designs high-quality headphones, speakers, and accessories that resonate with music lovers worldwide. As a multi-million-dollar company, Skullcandy’s success relies on protecting its brand value and ensuring consistent pricing across its extensive reseller network.

However, their manual approach to enforcing Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) policies presented significant challenges, including labor-intensive processes, rising warranty costs from counterfeit products, and strained relationships with authorized sellers. To address these pain points, Skullcandy partnered with Wiser to implement an automated MAP monitoring solution, saving time, reducing violations, and safeguarding an estimated $35 million in at-risk revenue annually.

Challenge

Maintaining MAP compliance in a competitive and dynamic market posed several obstacles for Skullcandy:

• Resource-Intensive Manual Processes: Skullcandy tracked MAP compliance for SKUs manually, requiring an estimated $30,000+ annually in labor. All communications were managed through email, making the process cumbersome and time-consuming.
• Unauthorized Sellers Undercutting Prices: Unauthorized sellers were pricing products as much as 50% below MAP, damaging relationships with authorized sellers and eroding brand value.
• Counterfeit Product Returns: Skullcandy honored a two-year warranty for all products, including those purchased from unauthorized sellers. This policy led to increased costs, brand risk, and difficulty in tracking product origins due to practices like re-boxing or removing serial numbers.
• Missed Revenue Opportunities: MAP violations across the SKUs monitored by Wiser revealed up to an estimated $35 million at risk annually.
• Inefficient Trend Monitoring: Skullcandy lacked the ability to monitor MAP trends, track price drops, and enforce violations with streamlined workflows and automated alerts.

Solution

Skullcandy implemented Wiser’s comprehensive MAP monitoring solution to address these challenges and improve enforcement:

• Automated MAP Monitoring: Wiser’s platform continuously tracked MAP compliance across 80–150 SKUs, capturing violations with timestamps and screenshots, significantly reducing manual labor.
• Streamlined Communication Workflows: Skullcandy leveraged templated email workflows to simplify communication with violators, reducing the reliance on manual copy-and-paste methods.
• Real-Time Alerts and Insights: The platform provided real-time alerts for MAP violations, enabling Skullcandy to identify problematic sellers quickly and take corrective action.
• Trend Analysis and Reporting: Wiser’s dashboard allowed Skullcandy to monitor MAP trends over time, track price drops, and assess compliance patterns across authorized and unauthorized sellers.
• Private Investigative Services: Skullcandy utilized Wiser’s investigative services to address unauthorized sellers, reducing counterfeit products in the market and mitigating warranty risks.
• Custom Reporting: Wiser designed custom reports to help Skullcandy track net-new Amazon reviews, ensuring seamless quality monitoring for new product releases.

“The power in Wiser is its ability to precisely determine selling prices on a continuous basis without placing the burden on our team.”

Kyle Losik

Skullcandy

Results

Skullcandy’s partnership with Wiser delivered measurable outcomes that transformed their approach to MAP enforcement:

• Significant Time Savings: Automated workflows reduced time spent on manual processes from an estimated 12 hours per week to a fraction of that, enabling the team to focus on higher-value activities.
• Improved MAP Compliance: Wiser detected MAP violations from hundreds of vendors, empowering Skullcandy to take action and minimize unauthorized pricing discrepancies ranging from 10-30% delta from MAP.
• Revenue Protection: Addressing MAP violations mitigated potential losses, safeguarding an estimated $35 million in annual revenue at risk due to pricing inconsistencies.
• Streamlined Compliance Workflow: A three-strike enforcement system with automated alerts and actionable evidence improved efficiency and accountability.
• Reduced Warranty Costs: Identifying and addressing unauthorized sellers helped mitigate costs associated with warranty claims on counterfeit or improperly sourced products.
• Brand Preservation: Reduced counterfeit product returns and improved compliance upheld Skullcandy’s reputation and customer trust.

Conclusion

Skullcandy’s collaboration with Wiser highlights the transformative impact of automation and data-driven insights on MAP enforcement. By streamlining workflows, reducing manual labor, and addressing unauthorized sellers, Skullcandy protected its brand integrity, reduced costs, and preserved critical reseller relationships.

Armed with real-time alerts, actionable data, and investigative support, Skullcandy is better positioned to maintain pricing consistency and mitigate risks associated with MAP violations. This partnership underscores the value of leveraging technology to optimize operations and drive long-term success.