Marine Electronics
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The National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA), an organization representing over 1,400 marine manufacturers, has announced positive results of its long-term boat marketing program. The program, called the Grow Boating Initiative has resulted in a 14 percent increase in boating participation since 2005.
According to Thom Dammrich, president of Grow Boating, Inc. and NMMA, “When we developed the Grow Boating Initiative, we realized it would require long-term support in order to see real growth. In its first three years, Grow Boating efforts accomplished exactly what we set out to do — increase participation to help spur increased sales over time. In fact, we stemmed a 10-year decline in boating participation with consecutive increases in 2006, 2007 and 2008. With nearly 67 million adults participating in boating during 2009, this is a 14 percent increase over 2005 participation of 58 million adults.”
The Grow Boating initiative has used not only a wide variety of different methods to generate interest in boating, but also has diligently tracked the results of its efforts. The organization reports that 19,267 boats have been purchased by those that have received its “Get Started in Boating” DVD. Even more impressive is the fact that 14,000 of those boats were purchased by first time boat owners. But that’s not all. With an average boater spending over $130,000 in a lifetime, these new boaters are expected to eventually add over $1.84 billion in sales for the boating industry.
Among other tangible results, the NMMA reports that the initiative has resulted in 50,000 consumers asking to be contacted by manufacturers and dealers. As well, the program has generated over 500,000 direct referrals for manufacturers and dealers.
The Grow Boating Initiative’s web site, Discoverboating.com, has also been a traffic success. So far over seven million people have visited the information packed site. That site, along with its sister site, SailAmerica.com, provide boaters just about everything they need, not only to get started in boating, but also to become expert boaters.
Although the NMMA has been pleased with the success of its initiative, the organization wants to see more. Presently the NMMA is at the crossroads as to how it will proceed with the Grow Boating Initiative. Dammrich noted that “It will be critical for our industry to make a decision on how to move forward with the Grow Boating Initiative and a national Discover Boating campaign as we look to rebuild coming out of the recession. The U.S. population is expected to grow 50 percent over the next 40 years, providing the industry with opportunity for growth if we can effectively promote the boating lifestyle on a consistent long-term basis.”
It is an open question as to how the NMMA will proceed with a new marketing program. Because its main focus is on recreational boating any marketing or political plans will more than likely be oriented towards the consumer market. But that doesn’t mean it can’t play a political card through its Washington lobbying operations. Besides the boating climate in Washington being the best in decades, there are a large group of boaters, both recreational and commercial, that see the boating transportation infrastructure as underserved when compared to other transportation modes.
