Outboard Market Share In Coastal Markets - Moderated Discussion Areas

  ContinuousWave
  Whaler
  Moderated Discussion Areas
  ContinuousWave: The Whaler GAM or General Area
  Outboard Market Share In Coastal Markets

search | FAQ | profile | register | author help

Author Topic:   Outboard Market Share In Coastal Markets

masbama posted 07-12-2014 11:10 AM ET (US)
I live in Mobile and I would guess that Yamaha has 70% of the outboard market with the others dividing up the remaining 30%. I wonder if this is the norm for most coastal markets?
Jerry Townsend posted 07-12-2014 01:00 PM ET (US)
Several years ago, I was fishing for salmon in Canada, from the west side of Vancouver Island. At one marina, the predominant engine, and nearly 100%, was Johnson/Evinrude. ----- Jerry/Idaho
jimh posted 07-12-2014 03:01 PM ET (US)
Does "coastal" mean saltwater?
I was in a marina on Sanibel a few years ago. Among outboard engines there it was 100-percent Yamaha.
jcdawg83 posted 07-12-2014 03:19 PM ET (US)
On the Georgia/South Carolina coast, I would estimate 70% Yamaha, 20% Evinrude, 9% Suzuki. Maybe 1% Mercury and usually on either older boat or new boat manufactured by Brunswick.
jimh posted 07-12-2014 03:21 PM ET (US)
We were in North Carolina at Southport, on the AIWW. I was very surprised to discover that almost all of the black-cowling engines I saw were SUZUKI outboards.
jcdawg83 posted 07-12-2014 04:07 PM ET (US)
Jim, Mercury has almost no market share on saltwater boats in the Southeast, at least in the areas I go (Georgia, South Carolina and North Florida). I see some on lakes, but almost none in coastal areas. Suzuki is coming on strong, really seeing more of them in the past 5 years or so. A dealer told me they were good engines and less expensive than Yamaha. Evinrude is getting back some lost market share with the E-tec, but they are still suffering from the hangover of the last days of OMC. Lots of people are hung up on wanting a Japanese motor due to the perceived quality advantage.
contender posted 07-12-2014 05:08 PM ET (US)
I was in Homer Alaska a couple years ago I have to say it was a tie with Yamaha and Evinrudes, Honda coming up in 3rd and Mercury on the bottom. The sad thing is there is only a Mercury dealer in town. I go to the out islands (Bahama's chain) twice a year, again they run Yamaha's and Evinrudes and now some Suzuki's are showing up with one or two Merc's. On Great Guana Cay (there 3 years ago) there was a Mercury grave yard. I question a lot of the people on the island why no Mercury's, they told me at around 400 hrs a lot of them let go and have problems. They use boats over there how/like we use cars, they get ran and ran a lot. I never see them flushing the engine and they sit in the water 85% of the time.
bluewaterpirate posted 07-12-2014 05:30 PM ET (US)
Sitting on my dock in Ocean Isle Beach, NC for the last two hours 40 % Yamaha 35 % Merc and the rest Zukes no ETEC's.
bloller posted 07-12-2014 07:56 PM ET (US)
I see about an equal share of modern outboards with a slight edge to Yamaha. I see just as many old carbed two strokes though. New outboards are very expensive
masbama posted 07-12-2014 08:52 PM ET (US)
The etecs around here are making a small comeback even though no boat dealer in this two county area sells boats with pre-hung etecs.
boatdryver posted 07-12-2014 10:58 PM ET (US)
In our small salt water marina 1 hour North of San Francisco there are about 25 power boats, all outboards. 17 of these are Boston Whalers, 13 of which are older classic 16 ft hulls.
All but one of these older Whalers have been repowered with Etecs. The other is repowered with a Yamaha 4 stroke.
The only Mercury outboards are on the four newer Boston Whalers.
No Hondas or Suzukis. There is no Suzuki Dealer in the SF Bay area (about 7 million people).
JimL
Dave Sutton posted 07-12-2014 11:30 PM ET (US)
Running my trawler down the intracoastal from Rhode Island to Florida last autumn, I did a very informal transom-count of the boats on lifts and at docks along the route. I was about 75% Yamaha, with the balance spread evenly among Merc, Evinrude, Suzuki, and Honda. Of the "High Quality" boats almost all were Yamaha powered. Mercs seemed to be on stereotypical "cheap boats" and newer Whalers. Older Whalers had generally been repowered with Yamahas. It's pretty obvious that Yamaha is the sales leader, and that Brunswick/Merc has a hard time selling engines that aren't attached to one of their hulls.
Highest count was 76 Yamahas in a row before I saw one other brand on a transom. That was in coastal North Carolina.

Dave
.
seahorse posted 07-13-2014 09:16 AM ET (US)
It's funny that coastal market share is the topic as a couple of marine industry trade magazines recently had articles about this.
The head of Mercury in an interview said they are hard at work trying to increase their saltwater market share. Even though Yamaha is #2 in US sales, they are #1 by a large margin in the saltwater segment.
An article by a Suzuki exec mentioned that they want to increase their US market share to reach 10%.
From the information gathered in the industry Evinrude is #3 and Suzuki is #4. Though I do not have not seen the numbers, my guess is Honda at #5 and Tohatsu brings up the rear followed by a small number of non-major brands of outboards such as Briggs and Stratton, Coleman, and Lehr.
Jefecinco posted 07-13-2014 10:36 AM ET (US)
Interesting thread. I pretty much agree with Masbama for the Mobile Bay and Eastern Shore area. We do see a huge number of bass boats and the Mobile Bay Delta is a strong bass fishery. On my side of the Bay (East) we see a lot of Mercury engines, especially on bass boats. On the other boats Yamaha is the leader followed by Evinrude/Johnson and there are a good number of Suzuki.
Further south in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach Yamaha also leads. Meurcury engines are mostly seen on ski/wake board/bow riders and late model Boston Whalers but otherwise they are rare. I'm seeing a lot of Suzuki engines and they seem to be increasing their share each year. Evinrude/Johnson are more prevalent than Suzuki but not by a significant margin.
In both areas we see a few Hondas but the numbers are insignificant.
Surprisingly I see more Boston Whalers than any other boat down here at the beach area where we now do most of our boating. SeaRay is also very popular and we see a lot of their cruisers in the 30 to 60 foot class. MarineMax is the local dealer for both brands and they sell aggressively.
Butch

Dave Sutton posted 07-13-2014 10:40 AM ET (US)
"The head of Mercury in an interview said they are hard at work trying to increase their saltwater market share"

Probably not going to happen. For a few of reasons:
1: Historically, Evinrudes were superior saltwater engines, and Mercs were high power to weight ratio fresh water engines. This was certainly the case in the 1960's when my memory of these things started. As a result sales dealers for Mercury engines along the coast were not nearly as common and market penetration was very low. As Evinrude (OMC) began its decline, Yamaha was very proactive about capturing dealers and either supplementing or replacing Evinrudes at those sales points. Result? Lots of Yamaha dealers along the coast, and still no Mercury dealers. Add that to the carried over perception of superior quality and Yamaha had it's table well spread.
2: Currently, Mercury engines are seen mainly on "cheap package boat transoms" with the `correlation in the mind of the higher level consumer that they are budget engines designed for a less critically informed sales market. If you are buying an Edgewater, would you like it to have the same engine on it as your neighbors Bayliner? No, you're buying a premium quality boat and you want to have a premium quality engine on the transom. It's arguable regarding the actual quality of the engines, but the perception is certainly there. And Merc has not helped by having a variety of lines of engines, none of which can be sorted out by the casual onlooker without a scorecard. "Oh, that's one of their package boat cheapies, and that's their high-tech one? Hmm... they both look the same to me...." is the average buyers perception.

So "Good Luck" to Mercury. Between Yamaha already having the lions share of the market, and a new technology from Evinrude that will make them a very visible and attractive powerplant for new boat installations, Merc is going to be playing catch up for a very long while. The Brunswick niche is selling a lot of cheap boats packaged by cheap engines. That works great in the lakes and works OK in low criticality salt water applications, but for the more sophisticated salt water fisherman they have painted themselves into a perception-corner that isn't easy to get out of. Perhaps they shouln't bother and should stick to what they do best: Mass marketing of whatever they can sell at Bass Pro Shop.
Dave
.
seahorse posted 07-13-2014 01:31 PM ET (US)
Dave,
One thing that was interesting at the Milwaukee intro of the new G-2 Evinrudes was a comment by one of the BRP execs who said that they were going after Yamaha, and they did not worry about Merc as a competitor.
King PV posted 07-13-2014 02:40 PM ET (US)
My last twenty years has been spent in freshwater, prior to that, all salt in Hawaii and Seattle areas. I will state that no matter how "great" the line of outboards are, friendly service after the sale can not be discounted as not being a contributor to motor sales. One happy Yamaha customer who has a good running motor, is gunna spend at least a little time in the Yamaha dealership buying items, questioning salesmen, parts guys and service techs. If the dealership has his stuff together, all of that positive experience will reinforce his belief he bought the right product and he wiil share that experience with his friends, co-workers and anyone who will listen, Happy and content boat owners are a loyal lot!! Yamaha products are good! Not all Yamaha dealers are as good as they could be, but the ones that are can secure a strong foothold in their market area. Then the Yamaha dealer wins, Yamaha wins, the customers win and the "other" manufactures, ...... don't win so much....
I always think it funny that Evinrude, over the years, has "gone" after Yamaha rather than Mercury. After all, Evinrude lost alot of their dealers after the prior FICHT and 2002 fiascos. Those dealers started selling Yamaha and Honda. Evinrude needs to get more quality, large scale, successful dealers. PERIOD!! However, existing dealers already have aline of engines that work for them. Adding another line (Evinrudes) just dilutes sales away from that other brand they currently have. If you sell Yamaha outboards and a customer comes in desiring a four stroke just like his buddy has, are you going to talk him out of the Yamaha and into an Evinrude....?? No way!! Only a fool would upset that senario!! Evinrude needs 1) Great engines that don't require repeat trips to the dealerships with problem after problem.. (perhaps they have that now) and 2) They need to concentrate on specific market areas. And give dealerships incentives to sell their product over the other products they currently sell. Those incentive can only be ... money!! That's the only thing that matters to a owner/operator of a succesful dealership. As long as he doesn't shoot himself in the foot by selling lots of Evinrudes at the expense of his Yamahas!! The battle isn't with retail customers, it's against already successful dealerships.
Dave Sutton posted 07-13-2014 09:55 PM ET (US)
"Dave, One thing that was interesting at the Milwaukee intro of the new G-2 Evinrudes was a comment by one of the BRP execs who said that they were going after Yamaha, and they did not worry about Merc as a competitor"

Absolutely. I was the one he was talking to. We discussed this at length and they essentially were simply blowing off Merc, knowing that they are not even in the running in the repower and high end boat marketplaces. Yamaha is their target. And Yamaha is no second-rate firm. The technology race might be Evinrudes now, but it's going to be an interesting race in the long term.

Dave
.
lakeman posted 07-14-2014 07:35 AM ET (US)
I was in Hondarribba Spain a month or so ago. Lots of newer Mercury engines around a few older Yamaha's and a few other brands. I was really surprised at the number of Mercury engines. However no Boston Whalers were spotted.
Hilinercc posted 07-14-2014 11:06 AM ET (US)
I'm Bluewater Pirate's neighbor in Holden Beach NC, and he's right, we've always had alot of Yammers in our area because you can't throw a rock here in any direction and not hit a Yammer dealership. But we also are eaten up with Carolina Skiff type boats with Suzy 4 strokes, Theyre EVERYWHERE!. There's an outfit called Chatlee Marine that sells these near Sanford NC and they have billboards all over. They sure must sell a bunch.
There are not many Etecs in our area because nothings easy about getting one, we have no dealers close by.
kwik_wurk posted 07-14-2014 08:21 PM ET (US)
Just in Neah Bay, WA (which is the far nor-west most corner of the continental US on the Pacific), and the bag was really mixed.
Engine mix: 35% Yami, 30% Merc, 15% Honda, 10% Suzuki, with maybe 5% Etec (I think I saw three).
First almost all boats are trailer'd as there are no 'dealers' for quite a distance and this is the a small commercial fishing town. (No grocery stores, one gas station...)
Out in the NW there are a ton of aluminum boats (18'-30') made by smaller outfits, and hence a variety of engines. -- I would say 40%-50% of the new salt water recreational fishing boats are aluminum hulled. On inland waters more like 75%. And these aren't low cost boats either (like Smokercrafts), so it's not a cost thing.

Hop to:

Contact Us | RETURN to ContinuousWave Top Page

Powered by: Ultimate Bulletin Board, Freeware Version 2000
Purchase our Licensed Version- which adds many more features!
© Infopop Corporation (formerly Madrona Park, Inc.), 1998 - 2000.

Author	Topic: Outboard Market Share In Coastal Markets
masbama	posted 07-12-2014 11:10 AM ET (US) I live in Mobile and I would guess that Yamaha has 70% of the outboard market with the others dividing up the remaining 30%. I wonder if this is the norm for most coastal markets?
Jerry Townsend	posted 07-12-2014 01:00 PM ET (US) Several years ago, I was fishing for salmon in Canada, from the west side of Vancouver Island. At one marina, the predominant engine, and nearly 100%, was Johnson/Evinrude. ----- Jerry/Idaho
jimh	posted 07-12-2014 03:01 PM ET (US) Does "coastal" mean saltwater? I was in a marina on Sanibel a few years ago. Among outboard engines there it was 100-percent Yamaha.
jcdawg83	posted 07-12-2014 03:19 PM ET (US) On the Georgia/South Carolina coast, I would estimate 70% Yamaha, 20% Evinrude, 9% Suzuki. Maybe 1% Mercury and usually on either older boat or new boat manufactured by Brunswick.
jimh	posted 07-12-2014 03:21 PM ET (US) We were in North Carolina at Southport, on the AIWW. I was very surprised to discover that almost all of the black-cowling engines I saw were SUZUKI outboards.
jcdawg83	posted 07-12-2014 04:07 PM ET (US) Jim, Mercury has almost no market share on saltwater boats in the Southeast, at least in the areas I go (Georgia, South Carolina and North Florida). I see some on lakes, but almost none in coastal areas. Suzuki is coming on strong, really seeing more of them in the past 5 years or so. A dealer told me they were good engines and less expensive than Yamaha. Evinrude is getting back some lost market share with the E-tec, but they are still suffering from the hangover of the last days of OMC. Lots of people are hung up on wanting a Japanese motor due to the perceived quality advantage.
contender	posted 07-12-2014 05:08 PM ET (US) I was in Homer Alaska a couple years ago I have to say it was a tie with Yamaha and Evinrudes, Honda coming up in 3rd and Mercury on the bottom. The sad thing is there is only a Mercury dealer in town. I go to the out islands (Bahama's chain) twice a year, again they run Yamaha's and Evinrudes and now some Suzuki's are showing up with one or two Merc's. On Great Guana Cay (there 3 years ago) there was a Mercury grave yard. I question a lot of the people on the island why no Mercury's, they told me at around 400 hrs a lot of them let go and have problems. They use boats over there how/like we use cars, they get ran and ran a lot. I never see them flushing the engine and they sit in the water 85% of the time.
bluewaterpirate	posted 07-12-2014 05:30 PM ET (US) Sitting on my dock in Ocean Isle Beach, NC for the last two hours 40 % Yamaha 35 % Merc and the rest Zukes no ETEC's.
bloller	posted 07-12-2014 07:56 PM ET (US) I see about an equal share of modern outboards with a slight edge to Yamaha. I see just as many old carbed two strokes though. New outboards are very expensive
masbama	posted 07-12-2014 08:52 PM ET (US) The etecs around here are making a small comeback even though no boat dealer in this two county area sells boats with pre-hung etecs.
boatdryver	posted 07-12-2014 10:58 PM ET (US) In our small salt water marina 1 hour North of San Francisco there are about 25 power boats, all outboards. 17 of these are Boston Whalers, 13 of which are older classic 16 ft hulls. All but one of these older Whalers have been repowered with Etecs. The other is repowered with a Yamaha 4 stroke. The only Mercury outboards are on the four newer Boston Whalers. No Hondas or Suzukis. There is no Suzuki Dealer in the SF Bay area (about 7 million people). JimL
Dave Sutton	posted 07-12-2014 11:30 PM ET (US) Running my trawler down the intracoastal from Rhode Island to Florida last autumn, I did a very informal transom-count of the boats on lifts and at docks along the route. I was about 75% Yamaha, with the balance spread evenly among Merc, Evinrude, Suzuki, and Honda. Of the "High Quality" boats almost all were Yamaha powered. Mercs seemed to be on stereotypical "cheap boats" and newer Whalers. Older Whalers had generally been repowered with Yamahas. It's pretty obvious that Yamaha is the sales leader, and that Brunswick/Merc has a hard time selling engines that aren't attached to one of their hulls. Highest count was 76 Yamahas in a row before I saw one other brand on a transom. That was in coastal North Carolina. Dave .
seahorse	posted 07-13-2014 09:16 AM ET (US) It's funny that coastal market share is the topic as a couple of marine industry trade magazines recently had articles about this. The head of Mercury in an interview said they are hard at work trying to increase their saltwater market share. Even though Yamaha is #2 in US sales, they are #1 by a large margin in the saltwater segment. An article by a Suzuki exec mentioned that they want to increase their US market share to reach 10%. From the information gathered in the industry Evinrude is #3 and Suzuki is #4. Though I do not have not seen the numbers, my guess is Honda at #5 and Tohatsu brings up the rear followed by a small number of non-major brands of outboards such as Briggs and Stratton, Coleman, and Lehr.
Jefecinco	posted 07-13-2014 10:36 AM ET (US) Interesting thread. I pretty much agree with Masbama for the Mobile Bay and Eastern Shore area. We do see a huge number of bass boats and the Mobile Bay Delta is a strong bass fishery. On my side of the Bay (East) we see a lot of Mercury engines, especially on bass boats. On the other boats Yamaha is the leader followed by Evinrude/Johnson and there are a good number of Suzuki. Further south in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach Yamaha also leads. Meurcury engines are mostly seen on ski/wake board/bow riders and late model Boston Whalers but otherwise they are rare. I'm seeing a lot of Suzuki engines and they seem to be increasing their share each year. Evinrude/Johnson are more prevalent than Suzuki but not by a significant margin. In both areas we see a few Hondas but the numbers are insignificant. Surprisingly I see more Boston Whalers than any other boat down here at the beach area where we now do most of our boating. SeaRay is also very popular and we see a lot of their cruisers in the 30 to 60 foot class. MarineMax is the local dealer for both brands and they sell aggressively. Butch
Dave Sutton	posted 07-13-2014 10:40 AM ET (US) "The head of Mercury in an interview said they are hard at work trying to increase their saltwater market share" Probably not going to happen. For a few of reasons: 1: Historically, Evinrudes were superior saltwater engines, and Mercs were high power to weight ratio fresh water engines. This was certainly the case in the 1960's when my memory of these things started. As a result sales dealers for Mercury engines along the coast were not nearly as common and market penetration was very low. As Evinrude (OMC) began its decline, Yamaha was very proactive about capturing dealers and either supplementing or replacing Evinrudes at those sales points. Result? Lots of Yamaha dealers along the coast, and still no Mercury dealers. Add that to the carried over perception of superior quality and Yamaha had it's table well spread. 2: Currently, Mercury engines are seen mainly on "cheap package boat transoms" with the `correlation in the mind of the higher level consumer that they are budget engines designed for a less critically informed sales market. If you are buying an Edgewater, would you like it to have the same engine on it as your neighbors Bayliner? No, you're buying a premium quality boat and you want to have a premium quality engine on the transom. It's arguable regarding the actual quality of the engines, but the perception is certainly there. And Merc has not helped by having a variety of lines of engines, none of which can be sorted out by the casual onlooker without a scorecard. "Oh, that's one of their package boat cheapies, and that's their high-tech one? Hmm... they both look the same to me...." is the average buyers perception. So "Good Luck" to Mercury. Between Yamaha already having the lions share of the market, and a new technology from Evinrude that will make them a very visible and attractive powerplant for new boat installations, Merc is going to be playing catch up for a very long while. The Brunswick niche is selling a lot of cheap boats packaged by cheap engines. That works great in the lakes and works OK in low criticality salt water applications, but for the more sophisticated salt water fisherman they have painted themselves into a perception-corner that isn't easy to get out of. Perhaps they shouln't bother and should stick to what they do best: Mass marketing of whatever they can sell at Bass Pro Shop. Dave .
seahorse	posted 07-13-2014 01:31 PM ET (US) Dave, One thing that was interesting at the Milwaukee intro of the new G-2 Evinrudes was a comment by one of the BRP execs who said that they were going after Yamaha, and they did not worry about Merc as a competitor.
King PV	posted 07-13-2014 02:40 PM ET (US) My last twenty years has been spent in freshwater, prior to that, all salt in Hawaii and Seattle areas. I will state that no matter how "great" the line of outboards are, friendly service after the sale can not be discounted as not being a contributor to motor sales. One happy Yamaha customer who has a good running motor, is gunna spend at least a little time in the Yamaha dealership buying items, questioning salesmen, parts guys and service techs. If the dealership has his stuff together, all of that positive experience will reinforce his belief he bought the right product and he wiil share that experience with his friends, co-workers and anyone who will listen, Happy and content boat owners are a loyal lot!! Yamaha products are good! Not all Yamaha dealers are as good as they could be, but the ones that are can secure a strong foothold in their market area. Then the Yamaha dealer wins, Yamaha wins, the customers win and the "other" manufactures, ...... don't win so much.... I always think it funny that Evinrude, over the years, has "gone" after Yamaha rather than Mercury. After all, Evinrude lost alot of their dealers after the prior FICHT and 2002 fiascos. Those dealers started selling Yamaha and Honda. Evinrude needs to get more quality, large scale, successful dealers. PERIOD!! However, existing dealers already have aline of engines that work for them. Adding another line (Evinrudes) just dilutes sales away from that other brand they currently have. If you sell Yamaha outboards and a customer comes in desiring a four stroke just like his buddy has, are you going to talk him out of the Yamaha and into an Evinrude....?? No way!! Only a fool would upset that senario!! Evinrude needs 1) Great engines that don't require repeat trips to the dealerships with problem after problem.. (perhaps they have that now) and 2) They need to concentrate on specific market areas. And give dealerships incentives to sell their product over the other products they currently sell. Those incentive can only be ... money!! That's the only thing that matters to a owner/operator of a succesful dealership. As long as he doesn't shoot himself in the foot by selling lots of Evinrudes at the expense of his Yamahas!! The battle isn't with retail customers, it's against already successful dealerships.
Dave Sutton	posted 07-13-2014 09:55 PM ET (US) "Dave, One thing that was interesting at the Milwaukee intro of the new G-2 Evinrudes was a comment by one of the BRP execs who said that they were going after Yamaha, and they did not worry about Merc as a competitor" Absolutely. I was the one he was talking to. We discussed this at length and they essentially were simply blowing off Merc, knowing that they are not even in the running in the repower and high end boat marketplaces. Yamaha is their target. And Yamaha is no second-rate firm. The technology race might be Evinrudes now, but it's going to be an interesting race in the long term. Dave .
lakeman	posted 07-14-2014 07:35 AM ET (US) I was in Hondarribba Spain a month or so ago. Lots of newer Mercury engines around a few older Yamaha's and a few other brands. I was really surprised at the number of Mercury engines. However no Boston Whalers were spotted.
Hilinercc	posted 07-14-2014 11:06 AM ET (US) I'm Bluewater Pirate's neighbor in Holden Beach NC, and he's right, we've always had alot of Yammers in our area because you can't throw a rock here in any direction and not hit a Yammer dealership. But we also are eaten up with Carolina Skiff type boats with Suzy 4 strokes, Theyre EVERYWHERE!. There's an outfit called Chatlee Marine that sells these near Sanford NC and they have billboards all over. They sure must sell a bunch. There are not many Etecs in our area because nothings easy about getting one, we have no dealers close by.
kwik_wurk	posted 07-14-2014 08:21 PM ET (US) Just in Neah Bay, WA (which is the far nor-west most corner of the continental US on the Pacific), and the bag was really mixed. Engine mix: 35% Yami, 30% Merc, 15% Honda, 10% Suzuki, with maybe 5% Etec (I think I saw three). First almost all boats are trailer'd as there are no 'dealers' for quite a distance and this is the a small commercial fishing town. (No grocery stores, one gas station...) Out in the NW there are a ton of aluminum boats (18'-30') made by smaller outfits, and hence a variety of engines. -- I would say 40%-50% of the new salt water recreational fishing boats are aluminum hulled. On inland waters more like 75%. And these aren't low cost boats either (like Smokercrafts), so it's not a cost thing.