Johnson Outdoors

Designing and manufacturing electronics products for boaters and fisherman is a tough, competitive business. Marine electronics like autopilots, sonars, radars and radios often last for years and are considered big ticket items by most consumers. Such competitive pressure resulted in ventures like Lowrance, a publicly held company merging with Simrad, a competitor with a large customer base in Europe to form a new company called Navico. With the merger in place, Navico was positioned to provide mid-market Lowrance products and higher end Simrad products globally. During this same period, Humminbird was acquired by Johnson Outdoors (JOUT), a publicly traded outdoor company which began completing head to head with this new conglomerate with its own version of high-tech fish finders and autopilots. …show more content…
Navico is still trying to position their partner relationship with another company, Motorguide to compete head to head with Johnson Outdoors. Johnson Outdoors approach to build a coalition leverages a deep connection to their customers and by connecting its customers to its family value system.

Partnership Drive Market Innovation
Humminbird has always been an innovator in fishing electronics and Minn Kota, another Johnson Outdoors company, is well-known for quality trolling motors for small boats. Engineers from both companies came together to create an integrated autopilot/ trolling motor called a Terrova I-Pilot that enables small boat owners to have boat control and navigation features typically found on high-end autopilots used on yachts, ships and military vessels. This matrix highlights comparable features and pricing:
Features Typical Autopilot I-Pilot / Terrova
GPS Enabled Yes Yes
Tracks Routes Yes Yes
Maintains heading Yes