DEMA Show 2014: Detailed Marketing Analysis Now Available...

[RJP]

Have you ever bought a car from a manufacturer?QUOTE]

How did you know I drive a Tesla?

I knew someone would go there...

:d

Of course direct sales of luxury automobiles in high end malls is a pretty good example of innovation. Short Hills store seen here... until those scoundrels at the NJ Auto Dealer Association got them shut down.

http://preservefreedom.org/new-jersey-bans-the-sale-of-tesla-electric-cars/

 

[mjrob]

What do you think this is? A car show or a boat show? Well it's not.

Drivers are the customers of car manufacturers. Boaters are the customers of boat manufacturers. But this is scuba. Scuba dealers are the customers of most scuba manufacturers.

FORE!

Sadly, this is true. For the most part, scuba manufacturers don't realize the customer is the end user--the consumer. Opening DEMA to the consumer has been suggested for years and, like most good ideas, it's been totally ignored by "the powers."

 

[tridacna]

I went to DEMA last year as a consumer. (Wrangled a pass from a vendor friend). Was the most fun that I ever had at a trade show. Two days of checking out the coolest stuff. So much better than the regionals stuffed with non-SCUBA fillers and junk. Highly recommended to other divers if you can do the same...

 

[dreamdive]

I was working the AddHelium booth and I agree with Wookie that although we were not overrun, we had quality contacts. I believe it was Wookie who pointed out to me that DEMA so close to Thanksgiving did not help, as some people may have been reluctant to travel.
DEMA allows us to interact on a more personal note with manufacturers, as well.
We had a phantastic turn-out to all of our three lectures on Gradient Factors/Decompression and Deep Dive Consideration/CO2. Considering the complimentary feedback we got from a lot of people tells us that they got something out of it.

 

[RJP]

I was working the AddHelium booth and I agree with Wookie that although we were not overrun, we had quality contacts. I believe it was Wookie who pointed out to me that DEMA so close to Thanksgiving did not help, as some people may have been reluctant to travel.
DEMA allows us to interact on a more personal note with manufacturers, as well.
We had a phantastic turn-out to all of our three lectures on Gradient Factors/Decompression and Deep Dive Consideration/CO2. Considering the complimentary feedback we got from a lot of people tells us that they got something out of it.

Quality vs Quantity seems to be the theme among people who "had a good show" which is actually encouraging. Too many people mistake activity for productivity.

I say this is encouraging because it indicates that whether or not you have a good show is actually within YOUR control. For the weak organizations - from either a product or a marketing standpoint - that's a challenge. They have to decide whether they want to continue the wailing and gnashing of teeth over what "the industry" or "the trade association" or "their agency" or "their suppliers" aren't doing for them... or they can take the responsibility for THEIR future into THEIR OWN hands.

 

[Wookie]

Cool. So who do you cater to?

Is this a dilemma or opportunity? Can you appeal to both or do you cut one group loose?

We're sort of a mid-range boat patterned after a northeast wreck boat.

We aren't as inexpensive as Blackbeards, but we are a bunk boat. We have a large deck head, but no ensuite cabins. You will get full fills, rebreather support, and we run quite a few tech trips, but we don't carry your gear, or lower it to you in the water or carry it to your station, unless you just did a trimix dive.

We tend to dive 50-100 miles from help, so we carefully screen the customers (using the above criteria). We go places other folks don't. We try to look for folks who want an adventure instead of those wishing to see mandarinfish. It's hard to please both.

 

[RJP]

We're sort of a mid-range boat patterned after a northeast wreck boat.

As someone who spends most of their time on/under northeast wreck charter boats, the above was EXACTLY my experience on the Spree. (As a marketer I wanted to let Frank state his "brand promise" for himself without me getting it twisted in any way.)

If you don't know northeast diving, you need to understand that it's more of an ethos than a level of service. Northeast dive ops don't provide a lot of handholding (none, actually) because we expect that as a competent diver:

1.) You don't need assistance.
2.) You don't want assistance.
3.) If you do need or want assistance... you'll ask for it.

If you want great diving, with warm towels, hot toddys apres dive, fresh-baked mango scones on fine china, a mint on your pillow, and to be put in and taken out of the water as directed by some 20-something kids with clipboards and gold epaulets on starched white shirts... call Peter Hughes or Wayne Brown.

If you want great diving and don't mind bringing your own towel, making your own bed, drinking cold beer from a can, eating baked ziti, cleaning and drying your very own souvenir mug, and being treated like a competent adult with respect to when, where, how deep, and how long you're in the water by a bearded guy in a tee-shirt and his wife... call Frank Wasson.

 

[Laurie S.]

Back in the 1970s, and maybe early 1980s, DEMA was open to the public. My husband, an MSDT, attended such a show. He was rather surprised at the restriction of the current show. For my part, I have attended three SEMA shows in Las Vegas (Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association), which were three times the size of DEMA. There were levels of attendees, including public, and the cost was the same for all (about $50). It always was a packed house in all three convention centers, and the show runs about six days. My thoughts about the DEMA show was that it was way overpriced and poorly designed. Only a few booths had product to sell, whereas at SEMA you can buy at almost any booth. Attendance seemed very poor in comparison to even the Scuba Show in Long Beach, which I have attended twice. I doubt we'll be back, but we'll definitely go to Long Beach.

 

[tridacna]

I knew someone would go there...

:d

Of course direct sales of luxury automobiles in high end malls is a pretty good example of innovation. Short Hills store seen here... until those scoundrels at the NJ Auto Dealer Association got them shut down.

Why Did New Jersey Ban the Sale of Tesla Electric Cars?

I was there this morning. You must have taken that picture a while ago. No more car on display. Just the undercarriage...

Tesla service is very close by to me. A more understated facility you will never see!

 

[widget]

Sadly, this is true. For the most part, scuba manufacturers don't realize the customer is the end user--the consumer. Opening DEMA to the consumer has been suggested for years and, like most good ideas, it's been totally ignored by "the powers."

Indeed, I have attended over 20 Dema shows and I have always said there is a place for both trade and consumers at the show. Many industries do it, its hardly rocket science, 2 days trade 2 days public or whatever combination is decided upon.

Unfortunately the Dema / scuba ship is sinking fast, not enough people with buckets prepared to bail and too many holes to plug, without vital new blood walking in the doors wanting to dive, the pie is stagnant, and manufacturers, dealers and training agencies are now solely focused on just saving the market they have from been poached by their competitors.

Will opening Dema to the public be the saving grace, I dont know, but it sure as hell aint going to make things worse.