Editorial – April 2026

Posted on April 18, 2026 by Gene Muchanski

Defining the Global Diving Community
by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

The first step in any journey is to establish where you are, before you begin.  Then decide where you want to go.  The rest is elementary.  Create a path from Point A to Point B and GO!

As an Industry Planner at the Dive Industry Association, my job is to focus on Building a Better Industry.  It’s a big job, but since no one else is doing it, I have my work cut out for me.  I say that no one else is doing what I do, but that’s not completely accurate.  There are other marketing planners in the diving industry, working for large and small companies that specialize in diving equipment, training, travel, and lifestyle products.  But they work for companies that have their own agenda, based on what they produce and who they sell their products and services to.  Their main purpose is to understand the market their company competes in.  Unfortunately, not every company in the diving industry can individually afford their own Industry Planner, but collectively they could.

The Dive Industry Association developed a plan 25 years ago to Build a Better Industry and since the stakeholder groups at the time were very much fragmented, we decided to build a better industry One Member at a Time.  Fortunately, we didn’t have to do it alone.  Over 500 diving businesses supported our work over 2,000 times.  Because of the hugh industry support we received, our association has been able to define, analyze, and understand our industry in order to be able to help our members navigate through the Global Diving Community, giving them the competitive edge they needed to gain and maintain sufficient market share and profitability.  Along the way, we used consistent terminology to describe the industry so that it made sense to the Dive Industry Professionals who work in the industry.  We use the term Global Diving Community to describe individuals who participate in diving and diving related activity and purchase the programs, products, and services created and distributed by the Global Diving Business Network.

Researching the buyers and sellers in the global diving community has given us an insider’s perspective to our industry’s consumer behavior.  We have a keen perspective as to who is producing diving goods and services, who is distributing and selling them, who is purchasing them and why, and who is still considering themselves as divers or diving instructors, even though they don’t dive any more and are not making any diving and diving related purchases.

As we were conducting our spring-cleaning chores last month we uncovered a number of inactive contacts (see March Editorial – Time For Spring Cleaning).  We cleaned our database and reorganized how we label our contacts.  Without going into too much detail, we followed our Inbound Marketing protocols with our CRM software platform to target market our contacts by their persona and their current point in their customer conversion path as it relates to our company.

Your company should have a general idea of what type of customers you are targeting.   A buyer persona is a profile of your target customer.  By understanding the buyer persona of the contacts in your database, you can gain valuable insight as to the types of messages you should be sending them.

Why do we have to define individuals in the Global Diving Community?  Because not everyone wants to be “sold to.”  Not everyone is your customer.  Not everyone in the world wants to hear about your “cutting edge, unbelievable, super fantastic, available in multiple colors, scuba diving fins” three times a week, every week!   That’s why!  Consumers have needs, and when they want to satisfy their needs, they will go online and search for what they want.  It’s your job as a Dive Industry Professional, working in the Global Diving Business Network, to know who these customers are, what they need, and where they are on their Buyer’s Journey.  You want to be close to them when they are ready to convert.

A Return to Relationship Selling:  It’s time for the diving industry to return to relationship selling.  For all the people who are posting their blogs, emails, reels, and videos please keep it up.  Social media is a great way to create attraction, and if it gets more people interested in diving, that’s great.  For those of us in the business-of-diving, we need to understand consumer behavior and what it takes to help a prospective diver go from contact to contract.  But let’s do our marketing intelligently this time.  Define your audience and target potential customers based on their persona and their needs.  Not your product.

An Opportunity For Dive Stores: If brick-and-mortar Dive Stores ever needed to answer the door to a tremendous renaissance opportunity, now is the time.  The business of diving is about creating relationships with your customers and learning all about their recreational needs. Keeping them close to you while they are actively going through their recreational buyer’s journey is the best thing you can do.  You are there to teach them, advise them, and mentor them.  If you build your business relationship correctly, they will be there for you when it’s conversion time.  If you are worried about your competitors or vendors selling directly to your customers, remember that you have the advantage of relationship, proximity, and recency in your favor.  That’s priceless.

Learn To Target Market:  Large diving companies who are trying, but failing, to sell directly to the end user are using the “spaghetti model” of marketing.  Throw everything at the public and see what sticks.  They believe the more contacts they have, the more business they will get.  That’s not true.  Maybe their junior marketing influencers just don’t know the difference between impressions, contacts, leads, marketing leads, sales leads, customers, repeat customers, and lifestylers?  Inbound marketers in the diving industry are smart to define their prospects according to their target personas and target market their contacts according to their needs and their position in the customer conversion process.  If any of this makes sense to you, I invite you to learn more about what we do at the Dive Industry Association.

Become a Member of our Global Diving Business Network: Annual Membership in the Dive Industry Association is $125 and includes placement in a number of Trade Directories and websites.  Our organization uses websites and directories in advertising and marketing campaigns to refer business to our members.  By joining our network, you are becoming part of a network that works on your behalf to bring buyers and sellers together for the benefit and growth of the Global Diving Community.  Download a Membership Application today.

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DIA Marketing Series

Posted on March 30, 2026 by Gene Muchanski

Marketing Series:
The Value of Marketing
by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

When we survey Dive Industry Professionals in the Global Diving Business Network about their five most important business needs, something to do with marketing almost always comes up as one of their top needs.  As a degreed marketing professional, I understand the reasons why.  The business of diving is probably the most misunderstood concept in the global diving community.  Marketing plays a large role in running a successful business in the world of diving.  For those of us who work in the business of diving, the concept, value, and mechanics of marketing has to be studied, understood, applied, and mastered in order to bring our businesses and the industry to its next level of growth, success, and sustainability.

Diving is an Activity: Diving is a popular global activity.  As an industry, we’ve come a long way from the early days of SCUBA (Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) Diving.  There are many different types of diving and diving related activities, such as swimming, snorkeling, freediving, spearfishing, scuba diving, rebreather diving, technical diving, and surface supplied diving.  These are the people who make up the Global Diving Community.  Divers use different pieces of equipment and undergo different types of training for different types of diving:  sport, recreational, educational, medical, scientific, military, commercial, and public safety.  These are the components of the Global Diving Industry.

The Business of Diving: Diving is an equipment-intensive activity.  It is also an activity that requires training and certification prior to commencement.  There are a number of businesses in various industries that specialize in producing, distributing, and selling the programs, products, and services divers need to participate in diving activities.  They are produced by businesses in the Global Diving Business Network.

The Diving Industry:  The diving industry brings buyers and sellers of diving equipment, training, travel, and lifestyle products together by creating marketplaces that facilitate the flow of goods and services from producer to consumer.

The Market: The market for diving programs, products and services consists of buyers, sellers, the items to be sold, and the place where the exchange takes place.  So marketing is everything we do to make the transaction from seller to buyer possible.  From a Product Management perspective, I like to think of marketing as the process that moves products from conception to consumption.  

The Science & Art of Marketing: When I work with clients on their marketing issues, I prefer to simplify the process by dealing with marketing related issues in a simple three-step process that addresses three components of marketing.  The components are Product – Customer – Marketing.  The three steps for these components are Product Management, Customer Management, and Marketing Management.

Product Management: Product Management delas with programs, products, and services, so let’s refer to them all as products.  Product marketing deals with the life cycle of a product from conception to consumption.  Product Management has a very important role in the supply chain.  The three components are Product – Customer – Marketing.  The marketing focus is to create products that customers need, want, and can afford.  We start with the final outcome in mind (a customer conversion) by building products for specific customer needs.   The ultimate customer conversion is a purchase.  By building the correct products, our customer conversion process time should be reduced.

Customer Management: Consumer Research is an important part of the marketing job.  Marketers spend a great deal of time building customer personas.  We recommend the use of CRMs in every marketing department. Customer Relationship Management software will assist you in defining your ideal customer persona and track your customers’ journey through their conversion process.  The three components are Product – Customer – Marketing.  The difference with customer management is that our focus is on the customer throughout their customer purchase path and lifestyle loop.  Customer centricity is a popular 21st century paradigm.

Marketing Management: Marketing plays a key role in the creation of products that have a high potential for sales success.  They are also responsible for identifying potential customers for their products.  These are marketing responsibilities, internally within the company.  When it comes to external marketing responsibilities, marketing creates messages about the product and selects various marketing vehicles to deliver the messages to select customer personas.  Basically, marketing’s job is to bring buyers and sellers together to facilitate a match between a customer and a product.  Marketing’s job is to connect people with products.

Marketing as a Bridge Between Buyer and Seller: I like to think of external marketing efforts as a bridge that connects buyers with sellers.  The consumer conversion pathway on that bridge is the roadway that marketing vehicles travel on, carrying their marketing messages about the products their company sells.  Depending on how well marketing has done their job identifying prospective consumer personas, a successful conversion may not take place on the first bridge crossing.

Marketing’s Call To Action: When the Science of Marketing was first conceived, Marketers were responsible for creating and carrying marketing messages to prospective consumers, thereby paving the way for future sales.  In today’s digital economy, there is no reason why Marketing should be restricted to only paving the way for sales.  With our understanding of the Consumer Purchasing Journey and the effectiveness of Customer Relationship Management software, Professional Marketers should be able to shorten the Buyer’s Journey with an effective inbound marketing campaign and be able to achieve successful customer conversion outcomes.  This is where marketing as a science becomes marketing as an art. 

Marketing Strategy: If you are still conducting your sales and marketing like you did in the 20th Century, it’s time to stop and reboot.  If you are looking for the next, new shiny object or silver bullet to increase your sales – STOP LOOKING.  If you are thinking about doing what you think everyone else is doing – STOP.  Everyone is not doing it, and those who are, are not getting anywhere.  It’s time for 21st century tools and technologies that will help you master the art and science of 21st century consumer behavior.  It’s about putting a 21st century GPS marketing device on the outcome you want to achieve and launching 21st century marketing tool to hit your target.

Keep Your Marketing Simple:

 

 

 

We are in the business of bringing buyers & sellers together.  Marketing is about connecting people with products.  Good marketing is about making integrated strategy look simple.  Great marketing is about using modern marketing tools and technologies to make your job easier and more productive.

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2026 Industry-Wide Dive Retail Survey

Posted on March 26, 2026 by Gene Muchanski

Dive Retail Survey – 2026
by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

In conjunction with the Dive Industry Retail Association, the Dive Industry Foundation is conducting its annual Industry-Wide Dive Retail Survey.  We are asking all Dive Retailers to download a copy of our survey, fill it out to the best of their ability, keep a copy on file, and email or direct mail a copy to the Foundation’s office in West Melbourne, Florida.  We ask that each retailer keep a copy on file so they can update and resubmit it next year.

The Survey’s History: We first published the Dive Retail Survey in 2002.  We have conducted the survey at key points in the past 24 years.  Over 80 dive stores have completed the survey since we first began.   The data we have received, compiled, and analyzed has helped industry planners better serve the needs of the Global Diving Business Network. A full, written report of the 2002 retail survey was published and is available to any retailer who participates in the survey.  A full 2026 survey report will also be published for the participants.  A general article about our findings and its significance to the Global Diving Community will be published in our marketing materials and in our monthly trade magazine, The Dive Industry Professional.

Confidentiality of the Survey: The survey questions we ask in the survey are compiled by our research team and all individual answers and sources are not shared within the industry.  We collect data to compile, analyze, and group together information into ranges, averages, modes, and trends.  As a life-long businessman, I can understand an entrepreneur’s reluctance to disclose sensitive information like business financials, especially if you don’t personally know the researcher.  But as a Dive Industry Planner and Marketing Consultant in the Diving Industry for over 40 years, I can assure you that this very important data we are collecting is simply “numbers on a page” for the research we are conducting.  Individual numbers only have meaning to us as we compile, analyze, and organize collective data that helps us understand industry averages and trends on the whole.  Your business information is safe with us as in any Consultant/Client relationship.

The Purpose of the Survey: The purpose of the survey is to establish a baseline of retail dive store activity and measure outcomes of past retail business activity.  The data collected helps our Foundation to better understand the retail stakeholder group, sets a baseline for trends and average norms in business operations, sales, service, training, and travel.  We were able to establish ranges, averages, norms, and trends for sales, certifications, and travel activities in the retail sector of the diving industry.  We collect data that supports the retail community’s industry engagement, and professional development activities.  By asking the retail sector about their five greatest needs in the diving industry, we are able to create strategic plans that contain actionable items we can implement to achieve industry goals and objectives.  Collecting data from active dive store retailers allows industry planners to measure key results and objectives to see if we are achieving our planned goals and objectives for industry growth and success.

Survey Component – Contact Information: The first part of the survey is contact information.  We verify that each dive store is currently in business, as a dive retailer.  We publish a list of active dive stores, by territory in the United States on our DIVE LOCAL website.

Survey Component – Survey Questions:  Our survey questions pertain to the size and scope of your physical location and operation.  We look at your profit centers of equipment sales & services, training courses, club, charter, and travel activities.  We ask about the size of your staff and the extent of your business preparedness and your continuing business professional development.

Survey Component – Top 5 Business Needs:  The most important part of the survey is asking Retailers about what their 5 greatest business needs in the diving industry are.  With what we know today about modern marketing tools and technologies, we have sophisticated technology at our disposal to evaluate current industry needs, but we first have to know what our customers’ needs are.  Books like Measure What Matters, by John Doerr teach us that we can’t analyze what we don’t measure.  John’s mantra is, “It takes a team to win.”  It should be our industry’s mantra also.

Our Strategic Plan: Our strategic objective for the Global Diving Industry is to get Dive Store Retailers to become more engaged in the industry.  We are asking all Retailers to complete the 2026 Industry-Wide Dive Retail Survey.  Our research team will compile the results, and organize the data into groups, modes, ranges, and averages.  Once we have compiled the results, our volunteer Retail Committee will work on a strategic plan to identify and address the most significant industry strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the retail sector.  The Retail Committee will conduct roundtable discussions to recommend possible actionable items that could achieve our goals and planned objectives.  The Team will be responsible for creating OKR’s (objectives and key results) that can be measured to ensure we are achieving our planned industry objectives.  We will continue to measure our results and course-correct as necessary.

The Bigger Picture: Conducting a Retail Survey is not the end-goal.  It is only the beginning.  The Retail Sector in the Global Diving Community is the center of the industry’s economic activity and development.  It is where the supply chain meets consumer demand.  Retail activity affects the success of the supply chain and the future of the demand chain.  For our industry to be successful and sustainable, our industry needs to have and support a dynamic retail hub.  Our Dive Retail Survey will be used to build a strong foundation for our industry to grow upon.

For more information on the 2026 Industry-Wide Dive Retail Survey contact Gene Muchanski at Dive Industry Foundation.  Phone 321-914-3778.  eMail: gene@diveindustry.org

Become a Member of our Global Diving Business Network: Annual Membership in the Dive Industry Association is $125 and includes placement in a number of Trade Directories and websites.  Our organization uses websites and directories in advertising and marketing campaigns to refer business to our members.  By joining our network, you are becoming part of a network that works on your behalf to bring buyers and sellers together for the benefit and growth of the Global Diving Community.  Download a Membership Application today.

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Editorial – March 2026

Posted on March 8, 2026 by Gene Muchanski

Time For Spring Cleaning
by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

March 20th is the first day of spring so an editorial that pontificates the virtues of spring cleaning may seem appropriate, but the diving industry deserves better than that.  Let’s take the practice of annual spring cleaning to the next level.  By doing a deep-dive on the topic of spring-cleaning, we can show you the rationality for conducting a thorough examination of your operating procedures and the multiple benefits that will result from it.

Spring Cleaning is more than an annual cleaning ritual.  It is the signaling of a new beginning – a fresh start.  Growing up in Connecticut, my family would make a weekend out of cleaning our house from top to bottom during the first weekend of Spring, after a long, hard, New England Winter.  We would work from room to room, moving all the furniture, vacuuming the carpets, scrubbing the floors, opening the windows, and airing out the house.  After we finished with the house (a three-story Cape Cod), we proceeded to groom the outside of the house and the detached garage.  We didn’t do this massive cleaning because the house was particularly dirty.  My Mother kept an immaculately clean house all year round, but we did it as an annual rite of passage.  Winter was over and we were entering into a new beginning now that spring was upon us.  With Spring cleaning out of the way, we were all psychologically prepared to enter the new season and conquer any and all of the challenges we could possibly face. 

My memories of spring-cleaning as a child have stayed with me my entire life.  As an educated adult, I can modify my spring-cleaning activities to signal the beginning of a new day, a new week, a new month, a new season, or a new year.  I use it in my personal life, in my business life, and in the diving industry as a Business Planner & Consultant.   It’s my way of starting anew, starting fresh, and starting unburdened.  Maybe I do have a touch of OCD or maybe I have just taken the advice of Marie Kondo, Tidying Up With Marie Kondo, very seriously, but I do take great  pleasure in staying lean and getting rid of as much baggage as I can before starting a new adventure.  It Sparks Joy!

Spring-Cleaning in the Diving Industry: Your business will run better if you keep it lean.  So will your career in the diving industry.  At the beginning of a new period (you choose the period), there are a few ways to make your business ready for the new period ahead of you.  First of all, your operating space needs to be clean and fresh.  This is especially challenging for manufacturing companies and retail stores, but it needs to be done anyway. The second area of concern is the business and marketing tools you use to run your business.  Take an inventory of your business machines and software programs you use to conduct your business.  Are they all functioning properly and efficiently?  Are your software programs all current?  Most companies have a logbook of their current business machines and software programs.  Each one is assigned a number and a specified location.  The third area we look at is our files.  Make sure all your computer files and paper files are in proper order and in the location they are supposed to be in.

Conduct an Audit by Department: The best way to ensure that your company has the right tools to carry out the company’s mission is to conduct a company-wide audit, by department.  Each Department Head should have a copy of the company’s Standard Operating Procedures Manual that addresses their department.  It should list all of the business tools, technologies, and supplies they need to complete their part of the company mission.  The beginning of the season is a good time to make sure that each department has what they need to conduct business.

Conduct a Trial Assessment: On an annual basis, you should conduct a trial assessment of how your business operates.  We will be covering this topic in greater detail all year long, but for now, let’s look at your business as a customer conversion machine.  If you are a dive retailer, think of the process you have set up that takes a first-time visitor to your store, from inquiring about scuba lessons to becoming a certified diver.  What steps do you take them through from telling them about your course, signing them up for lessons, counseling them on equipment purchases, teaching them how to dive, certifying them during their open water experience, and then following through with keeping them active in your local diving community.  That is called a customer conversion process, and it is strategically designed to turn a prospect into a repeat customer.  If you have customer conversion processes set up, now is the time to see that they are actually functioning in the matter they were designed to.

Creating an Exit Strategy: Every business should have an exit strategy.  Your career as a Dive Industry Professional should also have an exit strategy.  It doesn’t matter if you are planning on ever selling your business, passing it on to a family member, or closing it down.  Every business should operate under the assumption that one day it will be sold or change ownership.  To prepare Entrepreneurs for that day, we recommend creating a written exit strategy playbook.   Spring cleaning is the first step in conducting an exit strategy.  Your assessment will point out your business’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.  It will spell out how much your business is worth and what remains to be done to make it as operationally efficient as possible.  Make spring cleaning an annual ritual.  It will make running lean easier on a daily basis.

Become a Member of our Global Diving Business Network: Annual Membership in the Dive Industry Association is $125 and includes placement in a number of Trade Directories and websites.  Our organization uses websites and directories in advertising and marketing campaigns to refer business to our members.  By joining our network, you are becoming part of a network that works on your behalf to bring buyers and sellers together for the benefit and growth of the Global Diving Community.  Download a Membership Application today.

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Editorial – February 2026

Posted on February 21, 2026 by Gene Muchanski

So, What’s The Plan?
by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

Last month’s editorial was entitled Building a Better Industry.  To follow up on that topic, this month’s editorial was going to be Build a Better Business.  After a little discussion with a few colleagues in the industry, we decided to turn the editorial into a full article under our Dive Industry Network Series and write a new editorial.  Allow me to explain.

The purpose of our Trade Association is to Build a Better Industry.  An economically healthy industry that is growing and has a high degree of sustainability.  An industry that provides the best programs, products, and services for the global diving community.  An industry that is a good steward of the environment and its natural resources.  An industry that has the business savvy to operate ethically, in an organized, educated, and professional manner.  An industry that has an organized and fluid channel of distribution that professionally manages the flow of goods and services seamlessly from producer to consumer.  An industry that understands the transition of our core competencies from conception to consumption.  To build a better industry you must have good businesses that operate in it.  To have good businesses, an industry must have a Trade Association that is actively engaged in its research, education, planning, and management.  An Association that brings together the best and the brightest individuals within our industry to strategize, plan, and implement a pathway to success.   I believe we are that Trade Association.

Building a better industry and building a better business is a long-term, life-long commitment to excellence.  An editorial should be a current snapshot of what is trending in our industry as of today.  What’s new, what’s now, what’s next?  You want a better industry and a better business, So What’s Your Plan?

Planning is in the Diver’s DNA: The Learning phase of our life is a critical one.  I’m talking about the period in our life where we undergo initial learning for our career and future lifestyle.  In my ten years of initial learning, I studied diving (scuba, hard hat, mixed gases, diving instructor, diving supervisor), military operations (Submarines, Diving, Salvage, Mobile Operations, Supply), and University (Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Retailing).  In every instance, planning was stressed as a prerequisite to action. It is incomprehensible to me that divers in our industry who “plan their dive & dive their plan” don’t have a plan for the successful operation of their business or their industry.  In my opinion, anybody that has a business in the diving industry should Plan Their Work and Work Their Plan.

After 45 years of working in the planning and consulting business, I am starting to think that we have been looking at the art and science of planning in the wrong perspective.  Were we led to believe that planning was a passive activity and purely academic in nature?  Were so many people turned off to planning because they thought of themselves as people of action, and thought that planning was a waste of time?  Maybe.  I do have to give non-planners the benefit of the doubt because I’ve seen too many business consultants in the halls of academia that never had any real-world experience in business, and they treated business planning as an academic, pre-business exercise that entrepreneurs needed to undertake before they went into business for themselves.  As a life-long Dive Industry Business Planner, Business Consultant, and former Marketing Professor, I am convinced that business planning is essentially a major part of the entire business development model, but it is not an isolated exercise that only takes place prior to the opening of a business, doomed to end up unread, on somebody’s book shelf.  It’s time to redefine what business planning is and why it is necessary for the success of both start-up and ongoing businesses in the Global Diving Industry.

A New Planning Paradigm: There are many types of plans that people use in business.  In the diving business community, we tend to differentiate them as business, marketing, operational, strategic, and event planning.   I think it will serve the Global Diving Business Network best if we focus this year on planning as an integrated part of our campaigns and events.  Good planning is more than what you might have previously thought it was.  I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag right now and spoil our future article series on planning, but the act of planning is not at the beginning of a process.  It’s actually in the middle.  Planning is something you do after you decide what it is you want to do.  We call that planning with a purpose.

Getting Things Done: We are going to make planning work for us in the 21st century diving industry.  Let’s just call what we will do, “Making Things Better.”  We’ll start the process off with an assessment.  Let’s capture where we are in the present moment.  We do that by conducting research or conducting an audit.  Next, we analyze the data that is collected to determine our present position.  The next step is to create an image or description of where we would like to be.  What will we look like when the project is finished.  The challenge then becomes how to work on the difference that exists in where we are and where we want to be.  We have to create milestones or objectives that must be achieved in order to make the transition complete.  What actionable items do we have to undertake to achieve our objectives?  We will have to have measurable key results that have to be accomplished in order to achieve our objectives.  It sounds like a lot of work, but we have a plan for it.  So, can we count on you to help us with these 5 steps for making the industry better?  1) Assessment 2) Planning 3) Action 4) Measurement 5) Achievement.

Become a Member of our Global Diving Business Network: Annual Membership in the Dive Industry Association is $125 and includes placement in a number of Trade Directories and websites.  Our organization uses websites and directories in advertising and marketing campaigns to refer business to our members.  By joining our network, you are becoming part of a network that works on your behalf to bring buyers and sellers together for the benefit and growth of the Global Diving Community.  Download a Membership Application today.

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Build a Better Business

Posted on February 14, 2026 by Gene Muchanski

Build a Better Business
by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

Our Editorial last month was Building a Better Industry.  Within minutes after we published the editorial, my phone rang off the hook.  Most of the calls were short and to the point, but one call came from a well-respected Dive Industry Professional that lasted about two hours.  My friend agreed with our approach at Building a Better Industry but was quick to point out many of the current challenges facing the 21st Century diving industry.

As I explained to my colleague, as an Industry Planner I am focused on our industry’s bigger picture.  We created a trade association 25 years ago to define the organizational structure of the industry and identify the programs, products, and services that are created, distributed, and sold through the industry’s channels of distribution.  Our mission is to bring buyers and sellers together but in order to do that we need to study and document the best ways to facilitate the flow of goods and services from producer to consumer.  An industry is not sustainable if it does not have a sound organizational structure.  Much like a house, it has to be built on a good foundation.  And after it’s built, it has to be managed and refined as it grows.

As a Trade Association, our organization works with businesses in the diving industry that produce programs, products, and services for diving.  A big part of our responsibility to the producers is to identify, understand, and work with the Dive Industry Professionals who work in the industry, either on a full-time or part-time basis.  In order to help bring buyers and sellers together successfully, it is imperative that we also understand and identify the end users.  It is the end users who determine if an industry is going to survive or not.

A trade association can work with various components of the industry to study and recommend best practices for production, distribution, marketing, and economic development and growth but it’s up to the individual businesses in the market to produce the right products, at the right price, for the right customers.  To be able to do that, every business in the diving industry needs to focus on being the best business they can be.  To be considered a good industry, it is imperative that we have good businesses.  Good businesses become great businesses by continually focusing and improving on their core competencies.  Good niche markets become great markets by having industry sectors and stakeholder groups that properly integrate with each other to produce workable, profitable, and successful outcomes.  Successful outcomes don’t just happen by default.  They are planned for and executed by the businesses and stakeholder groups that have a vested interest in the success of the industry.

Make it a Priority: Building a better business starts with a decision to make it a company priority.  That applies to every business in the diving industry, regardless of whether you are a sole owner-operator, a mom & pop small business, or a multi-million-dollar corporation.  Someone has to do what the business was set up to do, and someone has to run the company that is the legal and business framework for what you do.

Allocate Resources:  Runing a business takes time, money, and manpower.  If you want to stay in business, doing what you do, then commit to allocating the necessary resources that make it possible to run a successful business.  The best strategy for allocating resources to manage your business is to make it scalable.  Allocating too much attention to running a small business could be as unproductive and costly as spending too little time managing a growing business.  Start off with a good business foundation and build your organization as it grows.  As your business grows, invest in new tools, technologies, and business practices to properly manage your growth.

Keep Adapting to Change: Building a better business is a never-ending challenge.  There is only one constant in the world of business and that is there will always be change.  Make change work for you.  I earned my degree in Marketing 45 years ago, but my business education continues to this day.  Believe me, the world of business has changed in 45 years.  It’s still changing and at an accelerated rate.  If you want to be successfully engaged in business, you have to make professional business development a constant activity in your career.  It has to be a life-long commitment and a top priority for you.

Focus On What You Do Best: Every business has their strengths and weaknesses.  It is best to build on your strengths and work with your weaknesses.  One of your strengths should be your core competencies.  If it isn’t, maybe you’re in the wrong line of work.  But if it is, then maybe that is what you should focus on. If running a business is a weakness for you, you have two viable options.  You can either learn more about business issues or you can delegate the business responsibilities to someone who understands business better than you do.  Ignoring your business problems or continuing to do things the wrong way are not intelligent options.

Learning something new is not as difficult as you think.  I do it all the time.  Where Dive Industry Professionals get bogged down is in their desire to learn something new.  They learned how to be a better diver and a better instructor because they love diving and they enjoy teaching diving.  But when it comes to running a business, some dive professionals don’t like it, may think it’s boring, or they would rather do something else with their time, money, and manpower.  And that’s OK.  Understanding how you feel about doing certain things is enlightening.  It’s always your choice to make.

Become Engaged in the Industry: You should always be building a better business but don’t be a silo entity.  Open yourself up to the concept of shared knowledge, experience, and marketing promotion.  If it is your responsibility to manage the business issues in your company, then becoming actively engaged in the global diving industry will pay immense dividends for you and your company.  There are many advantages to networking with people who are in the same boat as you are.  There is strength in numbers and there is plenty of wisdom and experience to be shared amongst colleagues.  For the diving industry to grow in the new millennium and achieve some type of reasonable sustainability for a brighter future, we need to learn how to play better with others.  The recreational diving industry is a small sandbox of fragmented businesses.  If all businesses in the diving industry would learn to play well with the other dive businesses and stakeholder groups, I am confident that our industry would grow by leaps and bounds.

Become a Member of our Global Diving Business Network: Annual Membership in the Dive Industry Association is $125 and includes placement in a number of Trade Directories and websites.  Our organization uses websites and directories in advertising and marketing campaigns to refer business to our members.  By joining our network, you are becoming part of a network that works on your behalf to bring buyers and sellers together for the benefit and growth of the Global Diving Community.  Download a Membership Application today.

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Editorial – January 2026

Posted on February 1, 2026 by Gene Muchanski

Building a Better Industry
by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

In his book, How To Win Friends & Influence People, Dale Carnegie taught us to never criticize, condemn, or complain.   I’ve lived by those words most of my adult life.   Had I studied Dale Carnegie much earlier as a child, I believe my life would have been even more meaningful and productive than it is today.  That’s not a complaint.  It’s a realization of the power of productive living that is only possible when you focus on a path forward for your life, your career, and your personal development.  It’s about having the vision and the discipline to work toward achieving goals and objectives that enable you to create the life and the world in which you want to live.   Studying Dale Carnegie is the best thing I’ve ever academically pursued and that decision has changed my life for the better.

Twenty-five years ago, the Dive Industry Association was founded in order to create a Trade Association that would Build a Better Industry, One Member at a Time.  Our Mission was designed to bring buyers and sellers together by creating a Global Diving Business Network (the Sellers) and identifying consumers of diving products and services in the Global Diving Community.  The amount of time, money, and manpower that it took to crystalize our mission has been staggering, but we are finally at that tipping point where our growth and effectiveness is recognizable to the entire diving industry.

You can only build a better tomorrow for buyers and sellers in an industry by having a vision for the future, and constructively strategizing, planning, implementing, and building a pathway to growth and success.  You don’t build a better industry by tearing down the existing foundations of our industry and rebuilding your own eutopia.  You move forward with plans that contain actionable items, that achieve short and long-range objectives, that can be measured by key results and analyzed for their successful completion.  It’s working with your peers to implement and integrate current successful paradigms in the global diving industry.  It’s about being the best person for the team instead of trying to be the best or only person on the team.

There are some individuals and organizations in our industry that always seem to be against someone, some business, some organization, or some policy.  We’ve witnessed some nasty, destructive and negative campaigns that have done more harm than good to the industry, and we’ve seen some harsh lawsuits that have been filed and won against the campaigners.  My question is not about the rationality of the negative campaigns but as to their effectiveness.  When someone asks me to be against something, I always want to inquire about the bigger picture.  If we are against something, then what is it that we want to be for?  In my opinion, wouldn’t it be better to constructively work on the thing that we are trying to create rather than just be against something?

I recently took a healthy lifestyle management course through the Veterans Administration.  For us Veterans, it’s called MOVE! Weight Management Program for Veterans.  I highly recommend it to all veterans.  Not just for weight loss, but for developing a healthy lifestyle that can in fact, change your life.  In the 16-week program I lost 25 pounds, but I didn’t achieve it by not doing something.  I didn’t just not eat, I ate the right food, in the correct portions, and combined diet with exercise.  I analyzed my calories in and calories out.  I graphed my blood chemistry and identified which blood counts were acceptable and which ones were not.  I had to set smart goals every week and think of actionable items that would achieve my weekly objectives.  I had to measure my key results to see if they were doing the job that I was planning for.  The program was a lot of work, but it rekindled my discipline and increased my motivation as I started to experience weekly successes.

The VA MOVE program was life-changing for me.  The work sparked my desire to take control of my health, and that was only the beginning.  During the course I did some more research on goals, objectives, actionable items, OKR’s, and statistics about habits.  I applied what I learned to my business, my career, and my lifestyle.  I read three more exceptional books; Good To Great, Measure What Matters, and Atomic Habits that have made a significant difference for me in my personal life and in my business life.

Never one to underestimate the power of attitude, motivation, discipline, and a purpose driven life, I have learned to strategically plan smart goals, create actionable items that achieve objectives and I am mastering the art of measuring key results to verify that I am on track to achieving my objectives.  Is it working?  Well, this past DEMA Show in November was the most productive DEMA Show I have had in 43 years.  We exhibited at Surf Expo in January and it too, was the best Surf Expo I have ever exhibited at in their 50-year history.  Last month we signed up four of the largest companies in the diving industry.  In January 2026 we had a 194% increase in sales over January 2025.  So, you tell me!  Is it the economy, the industry, events, or my attitude?  I think it may be a combination of all four.  You may want to read our article, DIA – A 25-year-old Startup.

Become a Member of our Global Diving Business Network: Annual Membership in the Dive Industry Association is $125 and includes placement in a number of Trade Directories and websites.  Our organization uses websites and directories in advertising and marketing campaigns to refer business to our members.  By joining our network, you are becoming part of a network that works on your behalf to bring buyers and sellers together for the benefit and growth of the Global Diving Community.  Download a Membership Application today.

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DIA – The 25-Year-Old Start-up

Posted on January 15, 2026 by Gene Muchanski

Dive Industry Association, Inc.
A 25-Year-Old Start-up
 by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

This April, the Dive Industry Association will celebrate its 25th Anniversary.  WOW.  Where has the time gone?  It has been my honor and privilege to study and work with some of the greatest companies in the global diving industry.  As a Dive Industry Professional, my greatest joy has been to spend my time researching our industry and consulting with some of the best people and companies in the global diving community.

Being an Industry Planner in the Diving Industry is not a career path for the faint of heart.  It takes a person who has a passion for diving, business, and people.  It’s our love for diving that compels us to learn as much about the activity as possible and put that education to use as often as we can. Every dive is a new experience, and any seasoned diver knows that the more experience we get, the better at diving we become.

Business is the same way. You have to have a passion for it.  A formal business education in a business discipline like Marketing will pay dividends you can’t possibly comprehend fully at the beginning of your diving career.  And that’s just the beginning.  Getting your business degree qualifies you as an apprentice or an intern.  It’s only through a lifetime of learning where you will master the techniques that will make you worthy of the degree you hold.  Continual professional development in business is critical for Dive Industry Professionals working in the Global Diving Business Network.  It’s imperative that we stay current with business tools and technologies that make our businesses competitive and sustainable.  In the business world, we need to keep up with the constant changes in products, markets, communications, and consumer behavior.

To be successful in the diving industry, especially as an Industry Planner, you have to have a passion for, and genuinely like people.  Serving the needs of the divers in the global diving community is why we are doing what we do.  Training agencies create diving courses that make diving as safe and enjoyable as possible.  Their continuing educational programs and professional development conferences build on their integrity and safety.  Diving equipment companies design and produce the safest equipment imaginable for underwater exploration and recreation.  Retail Dive Centers work relentlessly to teach people how to dive, outfit them with the correct diving equipment, take them diving, and keep them active in the global diving community.  The industry’s main focus is for the safety and recreational enjoyment of divers worldwide.

Having a passion for diving, business, and people goes deeper than the present moment.  Industry Planners need to be students of the industry.  Knowing what has worked for us in the past 80 years and what has not is important.  Having a vision for the future of the diving industry is critical in the global planning process.  Knowing where the industry has been, where it is now, and where it is we all would like to go is the quest we are undertaking.  The challenges, as we have found out in the past 25 years is that it takes time, money, and manpower to create and implement a workable plan of action that is capable of achieving our goals and objectives.  I believe we are at that tipping point right now.

Creating a plan for the future success of an industry is similar to creating a plan that makes a good company a great company. To me, it’s like putting together a puzzle.  You have to have an image of what the outcome looks like, before you begin.  You have to understand, or in many cases create the pieces of the puzzle that will end up in the final version.  Then you have to align the pieces in proper order so that each piece integrates with the other pieces in the finished product.  At some point in the process, planners will begin to see the progress well enough to believe that the final outcome is going to be achieved.  That’s the point I believe the Global Diving Industry is at right now.

Twenty-five years ago, the Dive Industry Association was created to “Build a Better Industry.”   The diving industry at the time was fragmented.  Industry sales were flat.  Annual numbers of initial certifications were declining.  The number of retail outlets that specialized in diving was declining rapidly.  Suppliers and vendors were operating their businesses and following their own agendas as if nothing was changing in the global economy.  While the diving industry was declining, or remaining “flat” at best, two major socio-economic changes were taking place.  Technology was advancing at an alarming pace and consumer behavior was going through a historical make-over.

People in the diving industry are not known for being early adapters.  It would be more correct to classify industry professionals as being late adapters, or slow to adapt.   We polled the businesses in the diving industry at the time and found out that a good number of diving businesses were in favor of a new Trade Association that would work with them to build a better industry.  In April 2001 we incorporated the Dive Industry Association and created the byline, Building a Better Industry, One Member at a Time.

In 2002, our Association conducted an industry-wide survey of the Retail Dive Stores in the U.S.   We asked about their organizational structure, their profit centers in equipment, training, and travel, and their marketing efforts.  We also inquired about their 5 biggest needs in the diving industry.  The data we received helped us to formulate a strategic plan to work with the retail stakeholder group and create a plan of action to address their needs.   We followed up on the retail survey by polling the diving equipment sales reps.  The results of this survey helped us to understand important issues in the industry’s supply chain.  At that point we were able to work on the components of our vision that needed to be initiated.  It was time to align the pieces of the puzzle and lay out a strategic plan that the industry could participate in and benefit from.

Working in a recreational based industry has its own unique challenges and opportunities.  Understanding the industry takes time and casual observers rarely pay attention to your work because to them, it doesn’t look like you are making any progress in solving their problems.  The same thing goes for research and strategic planning.  These are time consuming endeavors, and they are non-revenue generating by nature.  Building a vision to better your business or your industry is part science and part art.  Over the years we have been able to identify and work with the global diving community to determine their needs and create a global diving business network that meets their needs.

When our association was founded, we understandably began to focus on the trade aspects of the diving industry.  As a Trade Association we communicated with diving equipment manufacturers, sales reps, retail dive stores, training agencies, and diving businesses in the travel industry.  Ninety-eight percent (98%) of our membership came from these groups.  We developed our marketing campaigns to include direct mail, electronic mail, print media, and face-to-face marketing at shows & events to promote our members and their companies.  Our focus was on the sale of diving equipment and service, training, travel, and lifestyle products that were the main components of the supply chain.  We built an incredible database of the diving industry trade and exhibited at more trade and consumer shows than any other similar organizations in our industry.  Our membership saw the value in the services we provided, and we were delighted to have such a high annual renewal rate and loyal members.

As our marketing reach and frequency increased, so did our industry knowledge and effectiveness.  We realized that only having a good command of the supply chain from producer to wholesale buyer (dive stores) limited our market penetration and participation.  We increased our focus to include Dive Industry Professionals in our calculus.  Dive Industry Professionals include those of us who work part time or full time in the industry.  While Dive Industry Professionals don’t normally join our association as individual members, they are the people who work in the businesses we promote.  Our immediate focus changed from targeting businesses to developing business relationships with the people who own or work in businesses that specialize in diving and adventure travel.

The Dive Industry Association grew at a respectable pace for a number of years, growing steadily until the covid pandemic hit.  The diving industry came to an almost all-stop shortly after the Our World Underwater Show in 2019.  The next few years were devastating for the entire diving industry and the economic recovery that followed was slow and painful.  Many of the dive shows, both trade and consumer, cancelled their events.  Sales Reps were not calling on their accounts, and I don’t know how many scuba instructors were still teaching diving during the pandemic lock-down.  Our Association used that time wisely to bring on all of the Microsoft and Adobe software programs and training courses.  We switched our marketing from in person and print to digital formats.  We were able to increase our reach and frequency of our weekly press release service – Weekly News.   We were able to turn our association newsletter into a trade magazine, The Dive Industry Professional, and be able to create, publish, and distribute it to the entire global diving community free of charge. The ability to create and publish our Trade Directory & Buyers Guide in-house saved us thousands of dollars and allowed us to offer it to the global diving community at no cost.  Now, every buyer of diving equipment, training, travel, and lifestyle products can have their own up-to-date Buyers Guide that features our member suppliers.

As the pandemic began to wind down, the diving industry began a slow and painful recovery.  I still don’t believe that the industry has fully recovered but what I am sure of is that it has changed forever.  The industry lost a number of diving businesses, including some consumer dive shows.  The retail industry has changed dramatically, and consumer behavior has undergone a permanent change in how they shop and purchase products.  The Dive Industry Association has taken up that challenge and added certified divers to our marketing campaign focus.    After all, the reason we are in the trade business is because our trade partners hire Dive Industry Professionals, and sell their programs, products, and services to the entire global diving community.

In the last two years, we have continued our strategic growth agenda by adopting a five-point growth strategy that I have written about in the last few issues of The Dive Industry Professional.   We will continue to implement this format to achieve our goals and objectives:  1) Awareness  2) Education  3) Planning  4) Execution  5) Measure & Analyze.  As Industry Planners, we are looking at Industry Challenges that need to be addressed.  We will choose Actionable Items that can achieve our Desired Outcomes.  We will create Key Results to measure our progress at achieving our Objectives.

The good news is that our new strategy is working.  Quite well in fact.  This past DEMA Show was the best DEMA Show in my 43 years of exhibiting.  Last week we exhibited at Surf Expo’s 50th year anniversary Trade Show.  It too was the best Surf Expo I have exhibited at.  Is it the economy, the industry, the events, or our strategy?  I don’t know.  It may be a combination of all four.  As a result, we’ve added more new members and recaptured more former members than ever before.  Our annual renewal rate remains high, and we recently acquired some of the biggest names in the diving industry.  Our message of working with our business partners and Dive Industry Professionals to reach the six million certified divers in the world who buy diving programs, products, and services is resonating well with the global diving community.

After twenty-five years of studying, researching, planning, achieving, succeeding, growing, and building a better industry, I believe we are at the tipping point of becoming an overnight success.

The purpose of our Association is still to Build a Better Industry.  Our Mission is still to bring buyers and sellers together.  Our strategy is to be more inclusive in our marketing approach and to be as flexible as necessary to interpret the buying signals we get from diving consumers, so that we can support our members more effectively. Our philosophy is that if an industry has 8,000 businesses in it, its Trade Association should have 8,000 members.  Not 100.  Not 1,000.  All 8,000.  Regardless of who your customers are.  Regardless of which trade shows you exhibit at.  Regardless of how you conduct your marketing campaigns.  The best time to apply for membership is now.

Become a Member of our Global Diving Business Network: Annual Membership in the Dive Industry Association is $125 and includes placement in a number of Trade Directories and websites.  Our organization uses websites and directories in advertising and marketing campaigns to refer business to our members.  By joining our network, you are becoming part of a network that works on your behalf to bring buyers and sellers together for the benefit and growth of the Global Diving Community.  Download a Membership Application today.

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Exhibiting at Surf Expo

Posted on January 5, 2026 by Gene Muchanski

Exhibiting at Surf Expo
 by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

As a Dive Industry Professional you might want to ask, “Why is Dive Industry Foundation exhibiting at Surf Expo?”  The answer is simple.  The Surf Expo is a Trade Show that specializes in watersports and watersports related products.  In her book, Trade Show In A Day, Rhonda Abrams of The Planning Shop said, “At a trade show or expo, the primary action takes place on the exhibit hall floor.  Attendees are there to visit booths, and all non-exhibit activities are secondary.”  We exhibit to identify and meet with watersport product exhibitors and the thousands of qualified retail buyers who attend.  At a trade show, attendees are there to make purchases for their business.  Trade Shows are order-writing shows.

The Dive Industry Foundation is a non-profit, tax deductible, educational and charitable foundation.  Our mission is “Promoting Economic Development in Watersports.”  The foundation conducts primary diving industry research, consults with dive businesses on business, marketing, and strategic planning, maintains the DIVE LOCAL website, and exhibits at trade and consumer dive shows.   As a research and educational foundation, our mission is to facilitate the movement of goods and services between buyers and sellers in the global diving community.

The Surf Expo is owned and operated by Emerald X, LLC.  January is Surf Expo’s 50th Year Anniversary.  Surf Expo has always been known as the active lifestyle expo filled with watersports and board sports hardware, soft wear, and apparel vendors.  Surf Expo has been very innovative in showcasing their exhibiting categories that have included Surf, Skate, Wake, Paddle, Dive, Boutique, Shoreline Outdoor, Resort, Souvenir, Swim, Footwear, and Coastal Gift & Décor.

Surf Expo introduced a Dive Category at their September 2011 Expo. Their 2011 Exhibitor Guide stated their focus for introducing a Dive category.  “Dive – Surf Expo announces its introduction of a new product category this September – Dive.  The category launch will focus on snorkel, swim, freedive and spearfishing; recreational diving products that encompass a strong, growing market for surf, resort and watersports shops everywhere.”  Introducing exhibitors from the diving community to the Surf Expo was a great move forward, although I do not believe the industry fully took advantage of the opportunity.  At that time, snorkeling equipment was perceived to be a product line that was only sold in sporting goods stores and the equipment vendors were reluctant to exhibit their professional scuba equipment lines and their sporting goods line at the same show.  Their rationality was that retail buyers who attended Surf Expo were only interested in their sporting goods line and not their scuba pro-dive lines.  Times have changed.  Wholesale buyers have changed.

The global diving industry has changed considerably in the last 15 years.  While there has been an increase in the number of diving instructors teaching classes, there has been a decline in the annual number of newly certified divers.  The travel habits of divers have changed in the global diving community.  There is less local scuba diving activity and more scuba diving, snorkeling, and freediving activity happening at dive resorts worldwide.

Retailing in the global diving community has also undergone significant changes.  There are less dive stores that specialize in scuba diving-only but more retail operations that sell scuba diving, snorkeling, freediving, and spearfishing equipment.  Our research has indicated that the difference in perception of what is technical diving equipment, pro-dive equipment, sporting goods equipment, and recreational toys is evolving every year, in the minds of the consumer.  Consumers in the 21st Century are purchasing their diving, diving related, and watersports products from dive stores, surf shops, fishing supply stores, boating supply retailers, watersports retailers, resort destination gift shops, sporting goods stores, big box retailers, and the internet.  Buyers from each of these location types are looking for guidance in choosing the best venue to order their merchandise from.  We are here to help them do just that.

As a Trade Association, our mission is to coordinate the movement of goods and services in the industry’s channel of distribution by bringing buyers and sellers together.  We consult with diving equipment and apparel suppliers to help them identify the best venues for exhibiting their products to qualified wholesale buyers.  We work with the wholesale-retail trade to identify which venues are more likely to showcase the programs, products, and services they purchase for resale.   We offer our services as Industry Buyer Relations Managers to the buyers and sellers in our Global Diving Community.

Surf Expo is conducted in January and September every year.  The venue is the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.  One of the largest conference centers in the world.  Orlando has fabulous support from Hotels, Restaurants, and Entertainment Centers.  The area is served by Orlando International Airport and is within driving distance to at least 25% of the dive stores in the United States.  Florida accounts for 25% of the dive stores which means that it represents a sizeable portion of our industry’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in the United States.  Surf Expo is focused on being an all-inclusive Watersports Trade Show.  There is considerable space to conduct sales meetings and seminars for exhibitors and buyers.  The expo is only three days long and qualified retail buyers can register for free.  The Surf Expo is conducted by Emerald Expositions.  Surf has six Sales Category Managers to help you select the best booth space for your company needs.  Their Buyer Relations Staff works with exhibitors to connect with registered buyers that attend the shows.  Surf’s Marketing, Operations, Accounting, and Show Director Staff do everything they can to make your Trade Show Experience as seamless and prosperous as possible.

The September Expo is the perfect time of year for a buying Trade Show.  Qualified Retail Buyers from Florida and the Caribbean attend the expo to purchase inventory for the Christmas Holiday Season.  Retail Buyers from the diving community are looking for all types of diving equipment and are getting more serious about carrying apparel at their stores.  Watersport Retailers are increasingly more interested in carrying diving equipment, freediving gear, spearfishing products, and diving related apparel.  We think that exhibiting at and attending Surf Expo is the perfect way for exhibitors to increase their number of retailer customers, and for qualified retail buyers to add new vendors and product lines to your store.  It is a WIN-WIN for both buyers and sellers.

The Dive Industry Association and Dive Industry Foundation are committed to bringing buyers and sellers together to grow the Global Diving Community.  We are actively working with Shows & Events Organizers to bring a trade component to their events, shows, expos, and conferences.  We have taken it upon ourselves to be the Buyer Relations Professionals for the Dive Retail Network and their Vendors and Suppliers.  Please contact us if you need more information about exhibiting at or attending Surf Expo.  We will put you in contact with the proper Surf Expo Staff.

The Dive Industry Foundation relies on generous donations from Dive Industry Professionals like you.  Please support our research today.  For more information about the Dive Industry Foundation, contact Gene Muchanski, Executive Director.  Email: gene@diveindustry.org  Web: www.diveindustry.org

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Editorial – December 2025

Posted on December 17, 2025 by Gene Muchanski

Customer Perception vs Your Definition
 by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

They say that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.  So are perceptions.  As a Dive Industry Professional, you might think it is important to spend a considerable amount of time thinking about who you are as an industry professional and how your business is defined, so that you can communicate that idea to your potential customers, in hopes of getting them to see your business as you do.   That concept may have had some degree of validity to it back in the economic eras of the past, but I don’t think it applies as much in the 21st century.  I believe that today’s consumers are more interested in what you can do for them, rather than who you are or how you see yourself.  What you can do for your customer is more important than how you define yourself.

The age of consumerism took a new direction after World War II.  The industrial age that began in the 1900’s changed from a war-time economy to the great post-war economic boom of consumerism.  The economic focus had been on how programs, products, and services were made.  NAICS codes were developed to define industries and what specific industries made.  As the age of consumerism took hold of the economy, the economic world view shifted from how things were made to how things were sold.  Sellers of products defined themselves as wholesalers, retailers, catalog showrooms, mail order houses, and the newly created concept – suburban shopping malls.  The insatiable appetite for goods and services put consumers in the driver’s seat of the economy and market focus shifted from manufacturing to retailing.  Considering the fact that retailing is part of the supply side of the economy, and the demand side, a significant paradigm shift in supply side / demand side economics had not yet taken place.  I wonder if Historians will record this stage of global economics as the turning point?

This is the era that many of us in the global diving community are familiar with and in some respects, still cling to.  Specialty manufacturers strategically focused on selling their products to specialty retail stores such as sporting goods stores, dive stores, surf shops, boating supply stores, and fishing tackle stores. That is how resellers defined themselves back then, and the practice continued for many years to follow.   If you have been in the diving industry since the 70’s or 80’s you have seen the shift from sporting goods stores to dive shops, to dive centers, to adventure sports centers.  You may have also seen the shift from brick-and-mortar stores, to mail order sales, to internet selling.  Forty years ago, there were over 2,400 dive stores in the United States.  Today there is less than 900.

The number of sellers in any given market is proportionate to the number of buyers that rely on their goods and services.  As the number of buyers decrease, so does the number of suppliers.  The retail industry has historically been the ultimate link between the buyers and sellers of the global economy.  They are the undisputed connection of supply side and demand side economics.  It is time in our industry’s history for the retail industry to make a paradigm shift and take the lead as the major stakeholder group of the Global Diving Community.  As members of the Global Diving Business Network, Dive Retailers are the bridge that connects buyers and sellers of diving equipment, dive training, dive travel, and diving related lifestyle products.  Being both buyers and sellers in the Industry Channel of Distribution, retailers are in a unique position of strength and leadership.  They are in constant contact with the consuming public on a daily basis and should be the stakeholder group that understands consumers the best.  Their knowledge of current consumer behavior can propel their stakeholder group to prominence in the industry.

Dive Retailers, by now, should have figured out that the consuming public has taken the predominant role in the global economy.  Consumers today are more educated than they have ever been, and they know how to do their marketing research.  They know what they want, and they have developed new purchasing skills that are more compatible with their 21st Century lifestyle.   The best thing that retailers can do today is to become experts in consumer behavior.

The art and science of marketing is about moving products from conception to consumption, through channels of distribution.  The process doesn’t start with manufacturing anymore.  It begins with marketing.  Marketing is involved in product development and relies on its understanding and connection with the consumer.  As finished products work their way through the channels of distribution, it is up to marketing to know how, when, and where, the consumers will make their purchasing decisions.

Understanding customer perception is how Marketing Professionals can be successful in the distribution and sale of programs, products, and services.  Manufacturers and Retailers have historically defined who they are and set up channels of distribution accordingly.  They make decisions based on their assumptions of how their customers perceive their products and how their customers make their purchasing decisions.  The actual results could be anything from success to total failure.  It all depends on how aligned your corporate definition is to your customers’ perception.

There are many examples of ongoing conflict of perception vs definition in the diving industry.  Much of this conflict has become more apparent since the global pandemic that had a devastating effect on our economy, but the underlining causes have been in our industry for many years.  The pandemic changed the way consumers think about products and how they purchase them.  Perception and definition differences are present in manufacturing, distribution, retailing, advertising, and marketing.  Especially in trade show exhibiting.

Let’s take the example of the production, distribution, and sale of masks, fins, and snorkel.  Some producers define them snorkeling equipment, while others label them as scuba diving equipment.  Would you be surprised if I told you there is a considerable market for them as sporting goods equipment, gift shop merchandise, and pool and water toys.  If you were distributing these items, would you sell them in dive stores, sporting goods stores, free diving stores, boat supply stores, fishing and tackle shops, pool supply stores, or resort gift shops?  If you were purchasing these items for resale in your business, would you write orders at a dive show, surf show, boat show, outdoor show, or home improvement show?

Maybe it is time to stop trying to narrowly define ourselves and start telling our customers what we do for them.  If they believe that we can fulfill their needs, it really doesn’t matter how they label us.  We could be their dive shop, watersports center, sporting goods store, or outdoor adventure outfitter.  The important thing is to know is how our products can meet our customers’ needs.

Become a Member of our Global Diving Business Network: Annual Membership in the Dive Industry Association is $125 and includes placement in a number of Trade Directories and websites.  Our organization uses websites and directories in advertising and marketing campaigns to refer business to our members.  By joining our network, you are becoming part of a network that works actively on your behalf to bring buyers and sellers together for the benefit and growth of the Global Diving Community.  Download a Membership Application today.

For more information about the Global Diving Business Network, contact Gene Muchanski, Executive Director, Dive Industry Association, 2294 Botanica Circle, West Melbourne, FL 32904.  Phone: 321-914-3778.  Email: gene@diveindustry.net  Web: www.diveindustry.net

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