When Garmin announced its intent to purchase JL Audio last week, it identified a key goal of the merger.
Garmin President and CEO, Cliff Pemble wrote that the purchase of JL Audio, “will create new opportunities to provide premium audio features across a broad range of our markets and products.”
An obvious fit would include offering JL Audio as a premium audio brand for automotive OEM.
As we noted earlier, Garmin is a Tier 1 supplier to the car companies. It provides OEM displays and control platforms for infotainment functions. Garmin could now promote JL Audio as a premium audio brand along with its OEM platform to create a complete package.
JL Audio has a solid rating in terms of consumer recognition, according to S&P Global. It ranks the top audio brands “perceived as premium” (in order) as Bose, Sony, JBL, Dolby, Panasonic, Pioneer, Phillips, Harman Kardon, Kenwood, Alpine, Beats Audio, and Bang & Olufsen. JL Audio is in the center of the ranking, as number 25 out of a total of 50 brands. But it is in good company, with Bowers & Wilkins, ranked number 24 just before it and Mark Levinson ranked number 26. Bowers & Wilkins supplies BMW, Volvo, Maserati, McLaren and Polestar cars and Mark Levinson is found in Lexus vehicles. (See S&P Global study here)
Premium OEM audio overall is a bright spot in the entertainment market. Global premium car audio is expected to grow by 10 percent CAGR (compound annual growth rate) from 2023 to 2030, according to Coherent Market Insights.
S&P Global said in May, “Car buyers want better sound systems, and they are willing to pay more for higher-quality audio. As a result, premium sound isn’t just for luxury brands anymore.” S&P Global found that over 70 percent of consumers want a premium audio system in their next car. In response, automakers are offering premium audio at many vehicle price points, not just in luxury cars.
We asked a leading industry analyst Roger Lanctot of TechInsights his thoughts on Garmin promoting JL Audio as a premium OEM brand. He said, “If you look at the strategy of Visteon or Panasonic, or Harman, they have a portfolio of brands. If you were Garmin, you didn’t really have a [full] story to tell, so I would buy that argument…. It would indicate an intensification of their commitment to automotive.” He said smartphone sales are down, the aftermarket is a relatively small market, “Clearly the big opportunity is to work directly with the OEMs.”
This may be good news for the aftermarket as many OEMs continue to invest in their retail presence in order to burnish their brand. A strong JL Audio in the aftermarket promotes JL Audio as a desirable OEM premium brand.
An Interesting Op-Ed which really should be stated as such since Garmin nor JL AUDIO have ever stated in the single press release from Aug 7 “An obvious fit would include offering JL Audio as a premium audio brand for automotive OEM.”
These were the words and the opinion of the writer. This isn’t news. Its speculation and fantasy based on coulds and maybes along with poor sentence placement immediately after a legit quote.
Let’s hope they dont put in cheap paper cone speakers
And call it high-end like has been done in the past with brands like infinity. Oem’s need to make a point not to let the bean counters control the added cost to a car,
Let’s face it pickup trucks are pushing 90k dollars
There is an extremely high profit range oem’s are making but sales are dead on many domestic brands.
Manfactures have priced themselves out of the market on trucks for the most part.
Gone is the day of a basic utility truck to use for business uses.
There was always the opportunity to work with OEMs, GM asked way back in 2005.
Great info – thanks for sharing!