Growing Boating: Part 3
Encouraging boating to non-boaters should be a priority for the marine industry.
'Starting them young with education and exposure through schools and community programs.'
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Greg Haines, The Haines Group Managing Director (Sales and Marketing) Greg Haines has a background in promoting the lifestyle. Haines' ads have moved away from the "product and price" formula so prevalent in the marketplace, to showing the potential experiences - whether that's arriving in style at the Opera or open sea fishing - that your boat can deliver.
Greg says that promoting the lifestyle is essential, as is getting people out on the water to experience it for themselves.
"It's outdoors, stress free, the opportunity for family bonding, meeting new people," he explains.
But the real imperative, is to "get bums on seats".
"Visual advertising is a start but the key element is to have them EXPERIENCE it - get them into boats through on water days and other events. This is currently done through many marine retailers throughout the year but a national campaign with the assistance of marine industry bodies would be of great benefit."
Another idea is to compile "How-to guides" for potential customers or first time boat buyers. "As an industry, we could publish guides that would offer assistance and information as to how to choose the right boat, with a strong focus on buyer-beware on imports, Australian manufacturing standards, after sales service, warranty, resale. We also need to consider industry-wide finance options and training such as licensing, skills, safety."
In the US, the Grow Boating initiative placed emphasis on several aspects of marketing, media and practical activities to extend the boating lifestyle to non-boaters. The Grow Boating vision is to sell more boats to non-boaters, encourage construction of better boats, improve customer service and protect continued public access to the waterfront.
The marketing arm of the Grow Boating initiative, "Discover Boating" boasted several marketing highlights for 2007, including:
. Advertising included a combined 7,000 television commercials, 30 full-page advertisements in 12 major publications, and banners placed at 400 websites
. A four-minute short film entitled Good Run was produced in cooperation with general Motors
. 940 stories spotlighting the boating lifestyle were published in major media markets
. An on-the-water media tour held in New York introduced national editors of lifestyle magazines to boating
. The DiscoverBoating.com site had a total of 3.2 million visitors, 59 percent more than the previous year
. Discover Boating reached 11,241 people attending National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) boat shows
. DiscoverBoating.ca was successfully launched to promote boating in Canada 
Continued access to the water is vital to the future of the recreational marine industry. Grow Boating formed a water access alliance that has five key components, permitting, brownfield development, government planning, communications, and coalition building.
In 2007, Grow Boating supported legislative efforts like Water Resources Development and Keep Our Waterfronts Working Acts in Congress. In May of 2007, Grow Boating sponsored the first-ever national conference devoted to water access issues.
Part of the Grow Boating effort is focused on promoting the certification programs developed by the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA). Certifications are now available for boats, yachts, boat trailers, personal watercraft and marine engine oils.
Certification involves a through application process, on-site inspections, and technical support for the manufacturer. Certification helps assure consumers of product quality and is seen as ultimately improving the boating experience.
Over $1.3 million was spent in 2007 advertising the certification campaign. 598 marine dealers were enrolled in the program during 2007, a 24 percent increase from the previous year.
Grow Boating uses a number of venues to keep stakeholder updated on project efforts. These include the Grow Boating Update emailed to 24,000 boating industry representatives and development of the new Grow Boating Television program introduced in December.
Take a look at the full gamut of schemes, programs and its 2007 Annual Report at www.growboating.org
by Jeni Bone 
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Melville, WA
