Marketing: Are we ok, or do we need help?

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Julieofthesea

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Hello Industry Friends,

I'm working on starting a marketing agency for the scuba industry. I'm curious to see if anyone has feedback for me.


  • Do you think this is a service needed in our industry?
  • Would you take advantage of a system that could help you get more customers and improve your visibility on the internet?
  • Is there a specific area of marketing that is a big mystery to you?
  • What marketing tactics work best for your business?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks, Julie
 
Most any business has a need for marketing. I'm not in the industry; just a rec. diver. If I were in the industry, I'd want to know more specifics about what you're offering...

International, national or local marketing?

Mainly online or other venues? Web site design, magazine or t.v. ad design, etc...?

Mainly gear/dive shop type selling, dive trips, dive courses, what kind of products?

Selling from private sites, or via online superstores like Amazon & eBay?

What kind of pricing for a package might we be talking about?

Marketing is so broad, I'd think a business man would want to know roughly whether you offer services pertinent to the product, venue and target audience he's selling to, in his region, and roughly what the cost would be. It's often said/joked about that Dive Instructors are poor, Dive Masters even poorer, and the best way to make a million dollars with a dive shop is to start with 2 million, so a lot of your potential customers won't have very deep pockets.

Unless you're marketing to the big businesses.

Richard.
 
Who is DEMA's client? What does DEMA market? To whom?
Who would your client be? What would you market? To whom?

Who is the scuba industry's customer?
Who is the scuba industry's competition?
Who bears the responsibility to market scuba diving?
To whom?

What is a "marketing agency" in your mind? Are you talking about a consultancy or an ad agency? Your web link mentions "visibility" as what you will do. What does "visibility" mean vis-a-vis marketing? Your post above says you want to work with "the larger businesses in the industry" but your link says "dive centers, resorts, and liveaboards."

I work for one of the largest ad agency holding companies in the world. I used to work for a large consulting firm. Other than being a DM and dive boat crew member I don't really work in "the scuba industry" directly. But in truth, there is no "scuba industry" to speak of. And their lies the problem...
 
So you want to focus on the big guys in the industry? In theory DEMA already does that. And only that from my perspective. Smaller, newer, and less known companies are lost in that focus. Those smaller entities whose focus is on the heart of the industry. The individual diver. And that is what I see as the problem. There is no industry, no market, no anything without that person who gets in touch with an instructor and asks to learn how to dive. Where is that man or woman coming from? That is where the marketing focus needs to be. On the individual. And on the myriad options they have available to them.

Focus on the big guys huh? Thanks a helluva lot. Push the hell out of big resorts that offer two day courses. Push the big name overpriced, overengineered gear that they don't need. Push the large puppy mill like certifications over smaller, more comprehensive, and in depth training that produces divers who tend to keep diving, and push the big name expensive travel options over local diving and the amazing benefits it offers to those who can't afford three thousand dollars for a week of diving.

In other words be like DEMA is now. No thanks, one is more than enough. If you were to offer affordable services to smaller companies, shops, and even independent instructors you might have something worth talking about as that would truly help everyone involved in the "industry". As it stands now smaller companies, shops, and independents are treated like the red headed step kids and that is why the so called industry is suffering.

Not to mention the compete lack of effective advertising that makes diving look like a real challenge and adventure . Instead it's portayed about the same as checkers. Safe, simple, and for everyone. In other words BORING!
Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2
 
Here is the About page for DEMA if you're not familiar DEMA.org
While DEMA does "market" the industry, I think they mean the collect information on the demographics that marketers can use. The "Be A Diver" campaign does a nice job of packaging marketing materials that dive centers can co-op. Most dive centers couldn't afford produce a high quality commercial. DEMA has done this for them. It's a great way offer of support.

RJP says there is no "scuba industry." I thought this was a forum for the scuba industry. I was hoping to get feed back from people who owned businesses that sold scuba diving activities or products. It's interesting to hear everyone's impressions.

Jim, I like that you said the focus needs to be on the diver. SO TRUE. I think I could help dive centers use the internet to attract more customers with educational blogs (like yours). Target newsletters and social media that builds relationships. If we could get more people to learn about the wonders of diving I think more people would do it. I can tell that you are passionate and value personalized service. Nice!
 
…Jim, I like that you said the focus needs to be on the diver. SO TRUE. I think I could help dive centers use the internet to attract more customers with educational blogs (like yours)…

I believe there is a much larger problem for marketing to address: Retention. Unfortunately the article isn’t online yet but I believe it nails the biggest single cause of the high drop-up rate in the industry.

Diver Magazine, Volume 38 Number 8, Dive training Today. A Perspective by Bret Gilliam
 
RJP says there is no "scuba industry." I thought this was a forum for the scuba industry. I was hoping to get feed back from people who owned businesses that sold scuba diving activities or products. It's interesting to hear everyone's impressions.

The existence of a forum doesn't create the industry. It merely signifies the existence of "an affinity group" honestly. But I don't say this to be glib; I know you don't think the forum creates an industry... but the idea that there's an "affinity group" rather than "an industry" is the very essence of the problem. Let's look at the definitions of these two

An "industry" is a particular sector of business(es) concerned with the output of a specified product or service. eg the automotive industry, the steel industry, the foodservice industry, etc.

An affinity group is a group of people, often informal, formed around a common interest or shared experiences. Examples include such things as social clubs, activist groups, hobby groups, etc

Sure, there are several businesses that loosely align around a scuba diver, but effectively the "scuba diver" is merely a common target audience of several smaller business types that each have something to sell to members of that target audience. The only thing that these disparete things have in common is a customer.

You would never look at restaurants, cooking schools, supermarkets, cutlery manufacturers, hot-dog carts, pasta companies, appliance manufacturers, and the place on highway 33 that sells dinettes and kitchen tables and lump them all together into a group called "the eating industry" would you?

Would you combine beauty salons, woman's clothing, cosmetics, Lean Cuisine, laundry detergents, tampon manufacturers, and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology into something called "the female industry"?

So why look at dive resorts, training agencies, LDSs, gear manufacturers, instructors, tourism associations, liveaboards, speargun companies, and flashlight makers as comprising a "diving industry"?

I know it sounds silly, but the folly underscores the issue. Would Burger King, Doritos, Albertsons, Corningware, The Culinary Institute of America, the guy selling kebabs on the corner of 42nd & 5th, the Florida Citrus Board, and "Bruce The Dinette King" all band together to promote eating? (And please, don't anyone say "that's a stupid analogy... people have to eat to survive" because that's not the point.)

The problem is, there really is no one who benefits from "marketing diving" from a "create more divers" standpoint. (Before you say "that's not true" I'll admit that there's an exception that virtually proves the rule, which I'll discuss below.)

Think about it this way...

If you're Atomic, do you need to create more divers...
... or do you need to steal market share from AquaLung, Scuba Pro, etc, and then get existing divers who rent to buy their own gear, and existing divers who own their own gear to upgrade their gear?

If you're PADI, do you need to create more divers...
... or do you need to steal market share from NAUI, SSI, etc, and then maybe get more existing divers to pursue additional training?

If you're the Bonaire Tourist Board, do you need to create more divers...
...or do you need to convince current divers that Bonaire is a better destination than Cayman Islands?

If you're Aggressor Fleet, do you need to create more divers...
... or do you need to get more divers to take liveaboard trips, and get those people to come on your boat instead of Explorer Ventures, and get more current liveaboard divers to take more than one trip a year?

If you're The Plaza Resort, do you need to create more divers...
...or do you need to convince people coming to Bonaire to stay with you instead of Buddy Dive, and to sign up for extra nights, and come back next year?

If you're Tobin from DSS, do you need to create more divers...
...or do you need to convince more people buying plates and wings that your's are better than DR's and Halcyon's, and maybe convert BCD divers into BP/W divers?

As mentioned further above, there is one possible exeception to my suggestion that "no one benefits from creating new divers" and that exception is the LDS and independent instructors.

But here's the crux of the problem...

The people with the MOST money and marketing know-how (gear manufacturers, training agencies, tourism boards, etc) have the LEAST vested interests in creating new divers.

By contrast, the people with the MOST vested interest in creating new divers (LDSs and instructors) have the LEAST amount of resources and marketing know-how.

If there was a "a diving industry" the solution would be a good trade association. Such an association would take money from everyone who shares the common target audience of "divers" and embark upon a campaign of creating more divers. They would also help everyone understand and manage/leverage/overcome social, political, legal, regulatory, environmental, and technological issues and opportunities that prevented/encourged the creation of new divers and/or limited the diving opportunities of existing divers.

In theory, this is easy. In reallity, such an organization cannot exist. Why?

DEMA, ostensibly a trade association charged with the interests of "the diving industry" is over-represented by gear and travel. So beyond, the fact that it is a trade association representing "an industry that doesn't exist" it is dominated by the interests of parties who don't have any real interest in creating new divers. Strategically, having an association who's stated goals are inconsistent with the business goals of it's membership is a strategic non-starter anyway... but also accounts for lip-service programs like "Be A Diver" which is a campaign that I would frankly be embarrased to be associated with, from a strategic, creative, and tactical execution standpoint. (And trust me, I've been associated with some real doozies over the past 25 years.) I reviewed the entire marketing and media plan back in 2007, and I'm sure if you search my username and "DEMA" you can find my various, specific critiques of the campaign.

I need to get in the car to drive home, but will rejoin the conversation. I've spent considerable time (and a fair bit of money) trying to figure out how to combine my profession (ad agency exec) and my passion (scuba diving) and I would love to figure out how to do it. If people like me can get millions of people to treat diseases that don't really exist, buy shampoo that you don't need, pay $50,000 for a Lexus that is really a $30,000 Toyota with $7,500 worth of options, and use a certain laundry detergent because you'll be less of a good mother if you don't... we can certainly get people to want to scuba dive.

[video=youtube;el66jnuItYc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el66jnuItYc[/video]

Right now, I think I'm gonna plan a new trend.
Because the line on the graph's getting low and we can't have that.
And you think you're immune.
But I can sell you anything!
Anything from a thin safety-pin to pork-pie hat
 
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Being a scuba diver was once thought of as a prestigious accomplishment like being accepted into Harvard or Yale. Ivy League schools don't need to advertise the same way as community colleges. DEMA, training agencies, and dive shops have all followed marketing campaigns that give the message anyone can do it. Diving is no longer publicly perceived as a great adventure fraught with danger, mystery and intrigue. With that, diving has lost its sex-appeal. The sport no longer has a face as it did with Jacques Cousteau. There are no heroes in posters in dive shops like you will find in sports like mountain climbing. Participants are often middle-aged, obese, and highly critical of one another rather than young, fit and impressed by talent like in the sport of surfing. Yes, diving needs somebody to get books like The Shadow Divers made into big budget motion pictures, get agencies to create standards that inspire respect when a C-card is earned, get the accomplished out of their humble shells to take on the role of "diver as hero", and make it a youthful sport again with kick-ass skills where the adventurous can impress one another with their exploits. How one does that is probably a problem for people like you and RJP. The training agency GUE and the sport of freediving seem to be doing most of the above rather well. Manufacturers such as Light Monkey, Deep Sea Supply, Halcyon and Dive Rite tend to attract loyal customers and their products make divers look good and give them dignity. The sport has seen better days. Someone needs to turn the dive industry from being the two dollar streetwalker begging for tricks into the 2000 per night call girl turning down work.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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