Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/264625
www.BoatingIndustry.com 6 | Boating Industry | March 2014 AT THE HELM JONATHAN SWEET jsweet@BoatingIndustry.com Boating Industry EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Jonathan Sweet (jsweet@boatingindustry.com) SENIOR EDITOR: Tom Kaiser (tkaiser@boatingindustry.com) MANAGING EDITOR: Liz Keener (lkeener@boatingindustry.com) ASSOCIATE DIGITAL EDITOR: Nicholas Upton (nupton@boatingindustry.com) SENIOR ART DIRECTOR: Dodi Vessels PRODUCTION ARTIST: Kelsey Houle (khoule@epgmediallc.com) PRODUCTION MANAGER: Angela Schmieg VICE PRESIDENT/MARINE, POWERSPORTS, BEVERAGE: Amy Collins NATIONAL SALES DIRECTOR: Kathy Johnson 480-988-3658 (kathyjohnson@boatingindustry.com) SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER, EAST: Chris Pelikan 954-964-8676 (cpelikan@boatingindustry.com) SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER, WEST: Wiley Poole 805-473-8400 (wpoole@boatingindustry.com) PRODUCTION SPECIALIST: Cherri Perschmann GROUP SENIOR SALES SPECIALIST: Bernadette Wohlman CEO: Mark Adams SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT/CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER: Gerald Winkel SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT/AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT: Joanne Juda VICE PRESIDENT/OPERATIONS: Barb Hammer BOATING INDUSTRY (ISSN #1543-4400) is published nine times per year – January, February, March, April, May, June/July, August/Sep- tember, October/November and December – by EPG Media, LLC, 3300 Fernbrook Lane N #200, Plymouth, MN 55447. 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Reproduction in whole or part is prohibited unless expressly authorized by publisher. For more information on e-prints or reprints from Boating Industry, contact Bernadette Wohlman, 763-383-4400 x2464 Printed in U.S.A. PRIVACY POLICY: We recognize that your privacy is very important to you and we're committed to helping you protect it. You should know that we will never intentionally share your name, address and other personal informa- tion with anyone for their use if you have asked us not to do so. When you subscribe to Boating Industry, please tell us if you don't want your name and address shared with other reputable companies or if you don't want to receive our marketing offers. We'll mark your account for a three year pe- riod so that it will not be selected for products and/or services offers which you've told us you are not interested in receiving. If you change your mind, just get in touch with us and ask that we include you in future offerings. You can ask to not be included in future offerings at any time and it'll be taken care of promptly. Please contact us at Boating Industry Mail Preference Service, P.O. Box 5858, Harlan, IA 51593 or call us at 866-238-3237. Please note that this policy does not apply to e-mail marketing. We will not send you commercial e-mails unless you have authorized us to do so. IT WASN'T INTENDED that way, but as we were wrapping up this issue I realized there was a bit of a theme going. Whether it's in senior editor Tom Kaiser's look at the latest pontoon trends, managing editor Liz Keener's article on crafting a marketing plan or my piece on creating new profit centers, there's a lot this month on focusing on the fun of boating. Again, take pontoons as an example. Who would have thought 10 years ago that pontoons would be the booming segment? Why are pontoons selling so well? Because they're fun. Because you can sit on them and have a conversation. Because they are a place to gather your friends, your family, whomever you want and spend time together. From the tropical oasis of Parks Marina in Iowa to the living-room-on-the-water pontoon boats selling at a record pace, it's clear that when we focus on fun, we're connecting with consumers. It's part of the reason Discover Boating has been so successful with its efforts the last couple years. And those tools are readily available to you as a dealer or manufacturer, too (see more on p. 20). Unfortunately, we as an industry haven't done a good enough job of that lately, selling our message of fun. It's easy to understand why, after all: massive sales declines don't exactly encourage a party atmosphere. It's telling that two of the biggest players in our industry have been spending time talking about this lately. At MarineMax, the nation's largest boat dealer, selling the "why" of boating has become a huge part of its rebranded marketing efforts. As CEO Bill McGill has said, it's not about the boat, it's about the lifestyle. Instead of looking at other dealers as the competition, MarineMax looked at the competitive lifestyles – the other activities people do instead of boating. Brunswick CEO Dusty McCoy also talked about building on the lifestyle appeal of boating as the company tries to balance the cost vs. value equation of boat ownership on Brunswick's recent earnings call. The best companies recognize it's about getting people on the water. Legendary Marine, two-time Top 100 Dealer of the Year, started the Legends Boat Club. Parks and Gage Marine (two of the dealers featured in this issue) have a fleet of cruise vessels to get folks out on their local lakes in Iowa and Wisconsin. In Seattle, Lake Union Sea Ray launched a successful test ride campaign around the metro area. All of these efforts have paid off with new buyers and new boating enthusiasts. So how are you going to show them the fun? Bringing the fun back P06-BI14MAR-AtTheHelm.indd 6 2/7/14 10:05 AM