Dive Industry Association, Inc.

Marketing Series:
Understanding Customers
by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

When I ask business owners to tell me what their biggest needs are, many times they will tell me that they need more customers.  Although that may be true to some degree, when I dig down a little deeper, I find out what they really want is more sales.  And the reason they want more sales is because they equate more sales with more revenue.  If you have ever thought that your business needs more customers or more sales, I know how you feel.  Many people have felt like that before.  What changed their minds was what they found out about the different types of customers.

Getting a little basic, there are three types of customers; current customers, former customers, and future customers.  There are three things we do with customers; acquire them, maintain them, and recapture them. And by the way; The reason we want customers is because we love what we do so much that we want everyone in the world to share our passion.

Current Customers: When talking about the three types of customers, we usually talk about current customers first because most businesses already have some number of customers. Current customers are the people who have purchased programs, products, or services from us in the past twelve months.   We make reference to consumers when we talk about people who purchase products.  We call them customers when they buy from us.

Customer Journey: Every customer has a buyer’s journey.  If your new customers are pleased with their purchase they may become a repeat customer, if that applies to your type of business.  Enthusiastic repeat customers become evangelistic customers or what we call lifestylers. Business owners should recognize and facilitate the customer buyer’s journey from customer to repeat customer to lifestyler.

Maintaining Customers: Customer maintenance is critical to the success of every dive business and its sustainability.  Creating satisfied customers is the key ingredient.     A business must sell a sufficient number of profitable products to a sufficient number of profitable customers to stay in business.  That gives entrepreneurs a great latitude in how they run their business.  It also gives them plenty of options and strategies pertaining to the number of products they sell and the number of customers they can properly serve at any given time.  Before any thought is given to looking for new customers, it is a good idea to take a hard look at the current customers you have.  A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Every business should have a customer contact database.  You should know how many current customers you have.  You should know who your customers are, what they have purchased from you and when, and have their contact information handy so you can stay in touch with them on a frequent basis.  There are many ways to store customer contact information. Depending on the number of customers you have and the size of your business, you should choose a computerized program that allows you to collect, organize, sort, and extract specific data to use in some type of outgoing sales and marketing campaign.  The important thing to remember is that you can’t organize and use data you haven’t collected and stored. 

Point of sale programs with a customer relationship management application works well for retailers.  For other types of companies, accounting programs with invoicing and CRM capabilities can help you stay in touch with your customers.  Email management platforms like Google Workspace, Microsoft Outlook, and Constant Contact all do an excellent job at collecting, storing, organizing, and sorting customer contact information that can be sent to targeted customers, individually or in groups. Marketing Automation Software (MAS) like HubSpot is used by marketing professionals to keep the lines of communication open between a buyer and seller.  At the bare minimum, a Dive Industry Professional should have their current customer’s contact information on a spreadsheet such as Microsoft Excel or Google Workspace Sheets.  Spreadsheets are easy to set up and use.  They are flexible to work with, and the data can be downloaded from and exported to other applications easily and reliably. 

Customer maintenance includes learning more about your customers and their recreational needs.  It’s all about forming a friendly business relationship with your customers and treating them as your recreational partners.  They are using the diving skills you taught them and are hopefully diving with the equipment you sold them.  Are they traveling with you on your sponsored dive trips?  And have you invited them to attend your regional dive show with you?  What have you done this year to keep your current customers engaged with diving and specifically, with your business?  Do you sponsor a dive club and keep your customers active and engaged in diving?

Advantages of Current Customers: The first thing to remember is that your current customers are only yours on a temporary basis.  They are only your customers while you are meeting their recreational needs.  If you want to keep them as customers, you have to treat them right and make addressing their needs a top priority.  This builds loyalty and keeps them from becoming your former customers.  Or worse, your competitor’s current customer.

Current customers are easy to maintain.  You’ve already paid the acquisition cost.  You have their contact information and their purchasing history.  You know what they’ve bought, and you should know what they need.  You’ve already created the market for diving equipment, additional dive training, and new dive travel.  Don’t lose the market you built.

Former Customers: Former customers are people who bought from you once but haven’t bought from you in the past 12 months.  There could be a number of reasons why.  Maybe they moved, got married, had kids, or just stopped diving.  You would know that if you had kept in touch with them.  If life is the same with them, maybe all it takes is for you to reconnect with them again.  It could also mean that something is wrong with your products or your after-sale service.  It could be that your former customers no longer have a need for your product or have found a competitor who fills their needs better.  Looking in the mirror and honestly analyzing your company and your products can be a very painful experience to undertake.  But if you do find something that needs to be addressed, and can be corrected, the benefits will outweigh the effort.

Recapture Your Former Customer: Unlike the Prodigal Son, your former customers may not just return home on their own and show up at your door.  It’s most likely that you will have to write, call, email, or visit them.  But all is not lost if you had recorded their contact information in your database in the first place.  (I know. That was a dig).  I have always made it a point to connect with former customers on a limited and periodic basis, and I can testify that the process works well.  Not always, but often enough to make it worth the effort.  Many times, our former clients say, “Thanks for getting in touch with me.  I’ve been meaning to call you.”  With that, a recapture takes place and a Prodigal Son or Daughter returns.  And yes, we celebrate that.

Advantages of Former Customers: The are numerous advantages to working with your former customers.  They have already done business with you before and know who you are.  There is no acquisition cost.  They already have some type of professional relationship with you.  You have their contact information, and you know how to reach them.  You should have their sales history in your POS system.  You should have a general idea as to where they currently are in their recreational customer journey.  You know what they have and you know what they need.

Make Recaptures Possible: There are many reasons why former customers become current customers again.  Staying in touch with your former customers is one reason.  Improving your business, carrying better products, diversifying your product line, offering products and services that are more in line with your customers’ lifestyle are just a few things that will get an old customer back in the door. To increase your customer traffic, I would make it a point to give your customers a reason to do business with you again.  And then communicate that with them. 

A good way to target former customers for conversion from former customer to current customer is to make that conversion a priority at your business.  As soon as a customer goes 12 months without making a purchase, transfer them from current customer status to former customer status, in your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software and your Marketing Automation Software (MAS).  Conduct a quick survey to inquire why they have not purchased from you in 12 months.  Maybe some of the answers you get will help you do things that will improve your business.  As you make improvements in your operation, be sure to update all of your former customers on the improvements you’ve made.  Recapturing former customers is not about telling them you want them back.  It’s all about improving your business and offering them the products and services that will make them want to come back and do business with you again.  If you have truly improved meaningful aspects of your business, you’ll be back in the ball game of meeting your former customers’ needs again.

Future Customers: It should now be clear why I left future customers for last.  If you have done an outstanding job of maintaining your current customer base and recapturing your former customer base, you may not need or have a capacity for new customers.

To be perfectly honest, most businesses do have an ongoing need for new customers.  I make a distinction between new customers and more customers.  Dive businesses that have a professional customer management strategy in place will prioritize acquiring new customers and have a list of preferred personas and prequalifications.  We’ll get into that in more detail later.  Dive businesses who are interested in churning out as many customers as they can get in the door will prioritize only in acquiring more customers.

Advantages of New Customers: All businesses have a certain customer turnover. You should know what yours is.  In the diving business, as in other businesses, people die, move, lose their jobs, get married, have children, change locations, change their recreational priorities, or lose interest in diving all together.  We can simplify customer turnover by understanding that customer needs change.

As a rule of thumb, businesses lose about 25% of their customer base every year.  That is the main reason we must always be looking for new customers to fill our customer pipeline. The first thing you need to measure is your customer turn rate.  What is yours?  If you have a customer satisfaction program that tracks and measures customer sales performance, your company can significantly decrease your customer turn rate.  There are new ways to deal with customer turn rates, but let’s first talk about the traditional disadvantages of looking for new customers.

Disadvantages of Finding New Customers: Acquiring new customers is the most expensive and time-consuming process of increasing your customer database.  The funny thing about that, is that most of the dive businesses in the recreational diving industry spend more time, money, and manpower looking for new customers than they do servicing the current customers they already have.  The disadvantages or challenges, as I call them, are numerous.  Finding new customers takes research, promotion, advertising, marketing, exhibiting, and asking for referrals.  Many times we don’t know who our future customers are and it is most likely that they don’t know who we are. 

Depending on the stakeholder group in the diving industry you identify with, your customer acquisition process may differ.  When you break down the components it really is easy to put together a strategy for finding the right kind of customers for the programs, products and services you sell.   Like any hunter will tell you, the most important thing is that you know what kind of customer you are looking for.  An old saying in marketing is, “If you try to sell to everyone, you’ll end up selling to no one.” 

Acquiring New Customers: You can learn a lot about the type of future customers you want by knowing more about the current customers you have.  Your current customers are doing business with you because of something.  What is it about them that made them want to be divers in the first place?  What was it about you that they liked?  It is a good idea to build an ideal customer persona and use that as your average standard for customer selection.  As in any average, it’s a good thing to move to the left and right of your average standard.  Your customer persona common denominators may be geographical, demographic, psychographic, or gender related.  You should also consider social, economic, and professional similarities in your current customer base.

In the final analysis, it is always a good thing to plan your acquisition strategy on your acquisition cost, return on investment, and projected customer lifetime value.  Your customer acquisition campaigns should include detailed planned outcomes, achievable actionable items, and measurable key objectives that give you a sufficient return on outcome (ROO). 

In future articles about customer strategy, we can discuss the buyer’s journey and purchasing funnels. Consumer Science covers more than just getting more customers in the door.  It covers issues like getting the right customers to begin their buyer’s journey with your company and going through a well-thought-out purchasing path.  A purchasing path that identifies their needs and satisfies their recreational growth in a systematic manner. It’s about tying in Product Management issues that develop the right product for the right customer in an attempt to match products with people.  It’s about how to understand and execute 21^st Century Dive Industry Marketing.  Are you ready?

# # #

Marketing Series:
Inbound vs Outbound Marketing
by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

Marketing is the art and science of connecting people with products.  Marketing is the process of moving products from conception to consumption.  Marketing is everything we do to manage the flow of goods and services through channels of distribution from producer to consumer.  Marketing’s purpose is to bring buyers and sellers together. 

There are many components to the marketing process.  In the diving industry we deal with product management, strategic planning, market research, customer behavior, competitive analysis, advertising, communications, promotion, sales, packaging, delivery, and information technology.  And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

A Degreed Marketing Professional working in the diving industry needs to have a firm understanding of all the components that make up the marketing mix.  I prefer to profess that Degreed Marketing Professionals need to master all of these components, continually, consistently over time because they are all interconnected and interdependent upon each other.  The need for annual professional business development training goes without saying, for all Marketing Professionals, degreed or not, working in all of the stakeholder groups of the diving industry.  The business of diving and the technology we use to manage our companies changes too rapidly not be stay currently informed and updated.

To better understand the marketing process, we need to look at the three major sectors of the process.  Product Management – Customer Management – Communication Strategy.  Although Marketing plays a large part in all three sectors, it’s the Communication Strategy that brings Products and Customers together. In marketing, we are communicating between buyers and sellers about products.  One-directional sales, marketing, promotion, and advertising messaging does not work effectively in the 21^st Century.  Communication by definition is a two-way process. 

Marketing in the diving industry has changed dramatically in the past six years since the global pandemic.  Changes in consumer behavior have had a lot to do with that.  So has the change in the average age of the majority of consumers.  Consumers buy differently today.  They do more research prior to purchasing than their parents and grandparents did.  Unfortunately, many of the diving businesses in the market today have not modernized their sales and marketing departments.  That’s not criticism, it’s just the way it is.  Many old timers believe that if something isn’t broken, don’t fix it.  The trouble is, without measuring their sales and marketing performance, they don’t know that things are broken.

Marketing in the 21^st Century is exciting.  Armed with the knowledge of our industry history combined with the education we are getting about 21^st century marketing tools and technologies, we are able to identify strengths and weaknesses in our current industry and foresee possible opportunities and threats to new ways of doing business.  My marketing toolbox looks like something out of an old traditional wedding rhyme.  Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.  We are looking at more than marketing tools and technologies, we are looking at marketing messages, vehicles, and platforms.  We are now looking at more than what we are using, we’re looking at how we are using them. Another exciting change in marketing is the way we integrate outgoing and incoming messaging.  It’s the successful hybrid application of inbound and outbound marketing that makes two-way communications and increased conversions possible in today’s business environment.

Before the invention of the internet, marketing and advertising were considered active marketing.  In other words, marketing and sales professionals would be actively trying to reach the consumer to make sales.  As websites became a standard form of advertising, we called it passive advertising because consumers could now seek out companies and products they were interested in.  As websites became more sophisticated, technology developed ways for buyers to contact the sellers directly.  Analytics made it possible for business owners to track customer journeys from contact to contract.  We now call that inbound marketing.

Outbound Marketing: There are many ways to participate in what we call outbound marketing today.  It’s the process of sending out messages to an intended audience.  It could be in a print format, in some type of digital configuration, or in the face-to-face mode.  We call it outgoing because it originates from the seller and is intended to reach a potential buyer.  It could be a one-way directional message, which means we never know if it has reached our intended audience.  When we think of advertising and promotional campaigns of the past, we think of billboards, radio, television, newspapers, and magazines ads.  I remember learning 40 years ago that a company had to run an ad seven times before it reached its intended audience.  And still there was no way to tell if it reached your audience, or if any sales resulted from the ad campaign.  That type of one-way messaging has been radically changed, updated, and improved by modern marketing tools and technologies.  Don’t get me wrong, outbound marketing is still used but in a much more modern way.

Modern Outboard Marketing: Outboard marketing campaigns have gradually refined themselves over time.  The first step was to change one-way messaging into two-way communications.  Outgoing messages can include a call-to-action or link in the message that readers could choose to take the next step in their purchasing journey.  Direct contact using a hot link can set up a dialog between a buyer and seller and begins the communication process.  A link to a marketing platform can capture contact leads and be read by analytics.  Analytics measure contact behavior and pre-planned data.  Analytics allow us to define contacts, engagements, and consumer data history.

Inbound Marketing: They used to say that if you build a better mouse trap, the world will beat a path to your door.  Well, it doesn’t and it never has.  But if you Build a better marketing platform the world will beat a path to your inbox.  We are attracting more website visitors and automatically importing them into our Customer Relationship Management (CRM), using our Marketing Automation Software (MAS) platform.  We are able to follow up with our new contacts and develop relationships with them.  Because of inbound marketing we are converting inbound traffic to sales.  The customer journey from contact to contract is the most straight and narrow pathway for successfully achieved planned outcomes that I have ever experienced in business.  Welcome to the world of CMS, CRM, and MAS.

# # #

Making Businesses Better Not Bigger
by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

With a new diving season starting in September, August has always been a time when dive industry businesses get their products ready for production or distribution, conduct their sales meetings, and prepare their sales force for a September launch.  At this point in time, dive businesses should already have finalized their marketing plans and decided who they are as a company, what they are selling next year, and who they are selling too.  Marketing Departments can then roll out their strategies and exhibit plans for Surf Expo in September and Dema Show in November.

I recently had an opportunity to participate in a marketing survey for a major diving industry vendor.  I can’t say for sure if it was a marketing analysis survey or a marketing rebranding survey.  It really didn’t make a difference to me from a professional marketing perspective, because a marketing analysis always comes before any marketing rebranding effort.  Only after a company has determined where they currently stand competitively, can they begin to formulate a rebranding campaign for growth and success.  To even think about rebranding before you have measured and analyzed your current competitive position, would be putting the cart before the horse.  Or an operation before the diagnosis. 

My opinion on conducting a marketing analysis is to first define what your business was started for and why.  What are your core competencies and what is your purpose and mission.  The products you sell should be in support of your purpose and mission and the grand majority of your revenue should be coming from the sales of those products.  If your top revenue generating products are not in line with your advertised purpose and mission, then your company has somehow, some way gotten off course.  This may be one reason to repurpose or rebrand your company so that its revenue stream and intended purpose and mission are in line. 

Should your company leadership and the majority of your customer base want you to be true to your original purpose and mission, the best solution may be to make your business better at what it does and grow stronger, rather than diversifying too widely and growing competitively weaker.  There should be a great deal of thought and planning with senior management and company executives, when making decisions between depth and width of product lines and even with customer personas.  There are many factors to consider before finalizing your strategic plans or marketing rebranding efforts. The results may vary widely, and in many cases, the consequences may be irreversible. 

What Business Are You In?  When you know deep down that you are in the business of doing something specific, every decision you make should be in support of that specific purpose.  When a company is true to their specific purpose, that purpose becomes their calling card, and how they perform that purpose becomes their unique selling proposition (USP). 

Who are you in Business For?  Knowing who your true customers are is probably the most important aspect of your business.  Companies that are customer centric build their company and their reputation around the people they serve.  When Product Managers in our industry are working on expanding their product lines, their first thought is how it will benefit their targeted customer base and other consumers like them.  The key to building better businesses is by continually improving your customer satisfaction department.  Satisfied customers become loyal customers, who in turn become repeat customers, who in turn become life stylers. People who have not done business with you before will find out about your satisfied customers and become prime candidates to be converted into new customers for you. 

Profitable Growth: Not all growth is good.  The preferable business growth should be controlled and profitable.  If you focus on building a better business, there is a higher probability of the business getting bigger.  If the goal is to build a bigger business, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will become better.  In fact, history shows us that uncontrolled growth often leads to business failure and bankruptcy.  

Ways to Make Your Business Better: Make product management and customer management the cornerstones of your business.  Staying within your core competencies, continually improve the products you create, distribute, and sell.  That will give your business a good reputation for quality products.  Continually track your ideal consumer persona and monitor your customers’ journey with your company.  Create a customer satisfaction department that nurtures initial customers into repeat customers and life stylers.  When you build the best products that you can, for a customer base that you are familiar with, your growth strategy can be planned in small increments, within acceptable standard deviations from your current path.

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.

# # #

Marketing Series:
Basic Marketing Vehicles
by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

Marketing vehicles are used to carry marketing messages.  They are the means by which we use to communicate with each other.  As business professionals, we use them to communicate with suppliers, vendors, employees, colleagues, clients, and customers.  Marketing vehicles are the tools we use to reach people.  We reach them in different ways, using print materials, digital text and images, sound waves, and especially in face-to-face formats.  Navigators have used radar, sonar, and laser beams for years to communicate.  Heck, we even used smoke signals in the deserts and drumbeats in the jungles.  What do you use to reach people of interest?

Using marketing vehicles isn’t something that is new to Dive Industry Professionals.  But with the advancements in modern-day marketing, I think we have gotten a little off track with choosing and utilizing the proper marketing vehicles for specific, targeted messaging.  Today might be a good time to review some of the basics in marketing vehicles and then progress to the more modern and sophisticated vehicles later down the road.  I believe it is important to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the different messaging vehicles and perhaps shed some new light on old ways of doing things.

Basic Print Formats: Some of the most basic print vehicles are business cards, flyers, brochures, catalogs, post cards, first class printed mail, product packaging, newsletters, magazines, books, and billboards.  New to the scene are car wraps used in advertising.  A great advantage of print medium is that it can be scanned, digitized, and uploaded at a place and time that is most convenient to you.

The Business Card: Printed business cards have been around for a long time and are still used quite extensively in the global diving industry.  In my opinion, they are still one of the most useful and cost-effective forms of advertising and contact information exchange.  I believe that every Dive Industry Professional needs to have a sufficient supply of printed business cards in their marketing arsenal.  If you are new to the industry and you have just become a Dive Industry Professional, the first marketing tool you should invest in is a printed business card.  Dollar for dollar, printed business cards are the most versatile and useful business tool you can use.  First of all, the purpose of a business card is to introduce yourself and give the receiver multiple ways to contact you.  Whether you prefer using the print or digital versions of the business card, you need to be familiar with the versions that are prominently used in your industry.

Digital Business Cards: Digital business cards are a great alternative for in-person sharing of information.  Factors to consider are the initial cost, scaled pricing, lead capture and data storing, uploading, downloading, and CRM compatibility. 

Contact Information Options: You can choose the points of contact that apply to you and your business.  Your name and company should always be on the card.  People deal with and buy from people.  Optional points of contact on your card may include your address, phone number, fax number, email address, and web site.  Only include the points of contact that you want the receiver to contact you at.  Keep the text simple and easy to read.  Keep the images simple, recognizable, and relevant.

Printed business cards don’t all have to be old-fashioned and outdated.  Since they are still used as an introductory tool, you can add your picture, company logo, or QR code.  It all depends on what your desired call-to-action is.  Do you want the card holder to call you, send you an email, click on a link, or just record your contact information in their database for future use?  Some people prefer to keep text, images, and objects on a single side, and some prefer to use a front & back format.  Your choice.

Business Card Uses: Business cards are extensively used in face-to-face marketing, especially at shows and events where you interact with members of the trade or with consumers.  If you are exhibiting at a trade show, your business card should always be prominently displayed and available at your booth, even when you are not present.  Unless of course you want hundreds of missed opportunities to introduce yourself.  Exhibitors should always leave their business cards in their booth before, during, and after show hours.  Many industry professionals, like me, will look for your business cards two hours before the show begins and especially during the show if you happen to be busy with another attendee. That’s why they call business cards The Silent Salesperson.  Don’t miss the opportunity to make a new contact.

Giving your business card to the people you meet is only 50% of the business communication process.  If everyone has your contact information they can make contact with you in the future.  But what if they don’t contact you?  You’ll have to contact them if you can.  That is why it’s important to get their contact information in return.  The advantage of business cards is that you can sort them out later and record them in your databases according to your customer/vendor classifications.  Having a current contact database is the first requirement of target marketing.  Which CRM are you currently using?   Is it working for you?

Business Cards in Direct Mail: Direct mail is still a popular method of communication, although effective direct mail is now all about integrating with electronic mail and inbound marketing techniques.  If you are sending direct mail to new contacts, be sure to slip in your business card.

Digitizing Business Cards: Anything that is printed can be scanned.  We scan business cards all the time and use them in articles and advertisements.  So, if you are a Member of ours, your 2-cent business card can become a free $50 advertisement.  That should pay for a box of business cards for you!  And to add to the flexibility of printed business cards, we normally hot link the URL of your company website that is on your business card to connect the reader directly to your website, article, blog, advertisement, video, or shopping cart.  Now that is what I call flexible.

Shortcomings of other Digital Apps: I’m all in favor of using modern-day marketingtools and have made a successful career as a Business Consultant learning, using, and recommending modern marketing tools and technologies to dive industry professionals in our industry. Some of the new technologies that have been created in recent years have helped our profession access, organize, manage, and use consumer data very effectively and quickly.  However, current consumer data apps are not a “one size – fits all” solution.  You can’t leave your cell phone on your exhibit booth and expect 10,000 attendees to walk by and scan your QR Code.  If I am databasing 8,500 dive businesses and 200,000 diving instructors, I don’t want all that data on my cell phone.  There are better ways to achieve that outcome.

Obstacles & Roadblocks to Progress: There are a few things that are preventing dive industry businesses from achieving their full economic potential and efficiencies.  1) Too few Dive Industry Professionals spending sufficient time running and managing their dive businesses.  The average dive business entrepreneur would rather focus on the teaching, diving, and travel aspects of their business rather than managing their business.  2) Too few Dive Industry Professionals participate in ongoing professional business development.  It takes time and commitment to learn new business tools that can make your business more professional, productive, and profitable.  3) Unfortunately, many of the junior level marketing professionals in our industry use the tools and technologies they are familiar with instead of learning the tools their customers use.  They are too focused on programs they understand instead of learning and mastering the tools and technologies their customers use to make purchasing decisions. It’s all about mastering customer centricity. It’s all about keeping buyers and sellers on the same wavelength by using a marketing vehicle they are both familiar with and use frequently.

Achieving Outcomes: Marketing tools and technologies (marketing vehicles) are designed to achieve outcomes.  There are many marketing tools and technologies that can help us do that.  Rather than label a marketing vehicle as new or old and good or bad, we should look at its pluses and minuses.  What can it do, and what are some of its limitations?  What situations would warrant its use and be helpful, and under what circumstances should we avoid it?  Collecting customer data on your cell phone or getting their business card will do you very little good unless you have an efficient way to store the data in a useable software application that can be organized, segmented, and used (extracted).

By starting off with the basic printed business card, a Dive Industry Professional can learn to gather, store, organize, and extract relevant customer data that can be imported into a professional CRM (customer relationship management) application.  From that point, you’ll be able to scale, refine, and utilize your customer management campaigns.

# # #

The Diving Lifestyle
by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

The definition of lifestyle is the way a person lives his or her life.  It’s more than what we do or who we are.  It’s the way we do what we do.  It’s the way we incorporate all of the aspects of our lives that include our passions, preferences, and priorities, into a consistent identifiable pattern of living.  For me, the Diving Lifestyle is my version of living the dream.

The Diving Lifestyle may be different for each and every one of us in the Global Diving Community but the overall common lifestyle that we share should be the image or industry persona that people imagine when they think about Scuba Diving.

A Lifestyle Image is something that an industry creates and maintains on a consistent basis over time.  Creating a positive lifestyle image that motivates people to want to become scuba divers is something that we should collectively be participating in as dive industry professionals.  As Industry Planners and concerned Dive Industry Professionals we should take on the responsibility of creating and reinforcing a positive, fun, upbeat image of scuba diving as a recreation.  We can start by asking the people around us what they think of scuba diving and other diving related activities.  You would be surprised at what some of them say. The two most frequent comments I get from people when I mention scuba diving are about sharks or the fact that their grandfather is a scuba diver.  As an industry, we have got to do a better job at promoting our favorite recreation in the eyes of the public.

Start from Scratch: There is no time like the present to start with an empty canvas and paint a picture of an enviable diving lifestyle for the future.  There are so many good things about diving.  And I mean all kinds of diving, not just scuba diving.  Diving is an adventurous recreation.  It’s a fun, outdoor, watersports activity.  One’s lifetime watersports adventure can begin with swimming lessons in a controlled environment, and progress to snorkeling, freediving, and scuba diving as we learn to appreciate the many physical, psychological, emotional, and social aspects of diving and diving related activities. 

Diving as a Stepping Stone: Diving is a steppingstone to a lifetime of adventure and fulfillment.  For me, diving has always led to other activities. As a High School student, swimming and snorkeling led to certification as a scuba diver.  Then it led to public service in a civil defense diving team and then as a public safety diver.  Scuba Diving led to U.S. Naval Training as an Underwater Swimmer, Scuba Diver, Air & Mixed Gas Hard Hat Diving and becoming a Diving Supervisor and Hard Hat Instructor.  Becoming a NAUI Scuba Instructor opened up an entire new world in the diving industry for me, and the rest is history.

Other Diving Related Activities: I like to look at the broad-brush strokes that a diving lifestyle paints on life’s canvas.    Diving can lead to a lifetime of global travel and adventure.  Divers normally become seasoned travelers, which leads to a wealth of education and experience.  Through our constant contact with the marine environment, we become environmental ambassadors and guardians of marine life across the globe.

Identifying as a Diver: As an industry, we need to celebrate the fact that we are Divers.  We need to dress the part and act the part.  Diving is special.  So are we.  But can you recognize us in a crowd?  Sure, the Navy SEAL’s have their Tridents, the Women Divers Hall of Famers have their gold diver pin, and the Our World Underwater Scholarship Society Scholars have their Rolex Watches.  Well, I hope you at least have a nice Citizen Dive Watch, a Bottom Crawlers Dress Shirt, and some identifying diving jewelry from Big Blue by Roland St John.

Promoting The Lifestyle: The diving industry does a great job at the first three things we do to create lifelong diving enthusiasts.  We teach people how to dive, sell them the equipment they need to dive, and we take them diving.  But turning certified divers into life-long divers (lifestylers) means we have to keep them active in the diving community.  That means we have to sell the Lifestyle.  Apparel, jewelry, books, magazines, dive shows, dive clubs, social media channels, etc.  There is more to the diving lifestyle than diving equipment, training, and exotic dive travel.  The 21^st Century Dive Store should have an apparel boutique and lifestyle center.  Offering merchandise for the active diver keeps store traffic flowing.  Look what apparel sales have done for the surfing industry.  Actually, that’s even small compared to the successful transformation of bait shops to Retail Marine Centers that took place in the fishing and boating industries. 

Retail Paradigm Shift: The most exciting transformation I see today in the diving industry is the paradigm shift in retail dive sales.  Progressive dive retailers are identifying ideal customer personas and tracking their customer journeys from initial interest to lifestyler. They do that by starting with a swimming program and following through with snorkeling, free diving, scuba diving, and technical diving.  Then they branch off into other diving and diving related programs, products, and services, and keeping that momentum going for a lifetime of engagement.

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.

# # #

The Purpose of Engagement
by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

The word “engagement” means different things to so many different people.  It is also referred to differently according to the generational group you identify with.  I looked up the word “engagement” and found 100 different meanings and applications for engagement.  Although I think that most people in the diving industry correlate engagement with involvement (active participation and interest), I think we should take engagement to its next and maybe its ultimate level of “conversion”, which is desired action taken.

Correctly choosing what engagement means to Dive Industry Professionals can put those of us who work in the diving industry on a much clearer, direct pathway to achieving successful outcomes.  But before we do that, we need to define who we want engagement from. 

In January 2023 we wrote an article, Becoming an Engaged Dive Industry Professional, which lead to creating a 12-part series on how every dive industry professional could Learn, Engage, Grow, and Lead in the Global Diving Industry.  The positive effect we had on dive industry professionals, I think, has been significant.  For three years now we have been working with Dive Industry Professionals to get them more engaged in the industry by sharing what we have learned about 21^st Century marketing tools and technologies, helping them achieve their measurable planned objectives.

Researching and applying actionable solutions to existing industry challenges over the past year has given our company great insight into the power of working with actionable solutions, planned objectives, and measurable key results.  In less than a year, we have experienced the best outcomes from the DEMA Show, Surf Expo, and 2 consumer Scuba Shows than we have had in the last 25 years.  I believe our Association is now capable of reaching a trade membership exceeding 1,000 active & engaged members.

We now seek Industry engagement from three groups that make up the Global Diving Community.  Each group requires a different approach to achieving our separate planned objectives.  The marketing tools and technologies that are required to access and implement our programs will vary according to the size and complexity of our target markets.  The three groups we are currently working with are the Global Diving Business Network, currently engaged Dive Industry Professionals, and currently engaged members of the Global Diving Community.  Notice that I used the word “currently engaged” when referring to industry professionals and dive community members.  Dive businesses currently in the global diving business network are by default engaged. Non-engaged businesses are either out of business already or are unfortunately close to that point.

The Global Diving Business Network: Diving businesses in this sector are the producers, distributors, and sellers of diving equipment, diving services, training, travel, and lifestyle products.  Of the thousands of dive businesses we follow, the most engaged businesses are the ones who currently exhibit at diving and watersports trade and consumer shows.  Of course, there are more, but it is easier to work with groups of currently engaged businesses who are actively looking to sell their programs, products, and services.  We currently work with diving businesses that see the value in face-to-face marketing.  As our success and influence grows as a trade association, we will continue to develop additional ways of bringing buyers and sellers together.

Dive Industry Professionals: This sector is made up of individuals who work part-time or full- time in the diving industry.  They are trade professionals who work in manufacturing, training, travel, and the service industries that specialize in diving and diving related programs, products, and services.  They are also the workers and volunteers in the non-profit sector that does the important work non-profits are famous for.  We have been working to help dive Industry Professionals become and stay more engaged in our industry.  The industry benefits from actively engaged professionals.

The Global Diving Community: This sector includes the people who are actively engaged in diving as an activity.  They are the people who buy and use the programs, products, and services the Global Diving Business Network produces, distributes, and sells.  The global diving community includes all types of diving and diving related activities.  To begin with, I would classify them as watermen and waterwomen.  People who enjoy the outdoors and those who enjoy travel and adventure might also be good classifications.  In retrospect, the global diving industry tent could be as big as you want to make it.  The key point to consider is the extent of their engagement.  Our focus as an industry is to get and keep the global diving community actively engaged in diving and diving related activities.  Our principal challenge at this moment in time is to define the size, location, and activity level of the global diving community.  Capturing and maintaining a database base of this size and complexity requires more sophisticated marketing tools and technologies than we currently have available to us.

Understanding Consumer Engagement: There is an estimated six million active divers worldwide.  Says who?  Where did that number come from?  No one in the diving industry knows, nor do they have any proof one way or the other.  If you say there are six million divers in the global diving community, then my question to you is what marketing tool did you use to measure that outcome? Can I see your list?  I thought so. 

Walking On Thin Ice: The current trend in the diving industry is to sell to the end user.  Reminds me of when my Dad used to ask me if I’d jump off a bridge if everyone else did?  Well?  Of course not.  One would have to measure the risk and quantify the cost and calculate the return on investment.  You might even ask yourself why you are contemplating something so radical?  Unless you know something the rest of us don’t know.  How many potential customers worldwide are there?  How many are active and currently engaged in the activity?  How many have unfilled needs that are still unmet?  What is the lifetime value of each of the unfilled individuals?  Who are they?  Where are they (geographically)? Where are they currently on their customer journey?  How close to conversion are they?  What is your new customer acquisition cost? What is your net return on investment?   My final comment is, Is there a more cost-effective way within our current industry channel of distribution to achieve more sales, growth, and conversions?  Do we have a system that would include more current trade professionals, working together to achieve planned industry outcomes that results in more sales, growth, and maximum sustainability in our industry for years to come?

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.

# # #

Marketing Series:
Mastering Face-to-Face Marketing
by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

One of the best forms of marketing is face-to-face marketing.  It is also the oldest form of marketing that has been used in the diving industry for seventy years now.  With the accepted use of face-to-face marketing, you would think it is well understood and practiced seamlessly throughout the industry.  But that’s not the case.  Although some dive marketers use it very successfully, some think it is too costly, time consuming, and unproductive.  Some even think because it is an old idea, it is therefore no longer relevant in the modern-day marketing paradigm.  Let’s examine some of the components of a face-to-face marketing campaign and I’ll let you decide for yourself.

There are many different types of face-to-face campaigns.  I like to compare the advantages and disadvantages of Business to Business, Business to Consumer, and Consumer to Consumer.  I bet you never heard of C-to-C selling before?  I just made it up.

Business to Business Selling: A popular B-to-B selling method occurs when a sales rep visits their accounts for a sales call.  Studies have been done to show how capitally intensive this method is. Sure, it can be effective, but it does take a lot of time, money, and manpower to execute.  A more realistic and cost-effective way to succeed at B-to-B selling is by exhibiting at a Trade Show.  The event takes place in 1-4 days and has many advantages.  Large numbers of accounts visit with their vendors, reestablish relationships, receive updates on programs, products, and services, and write orders on the spot.  New Dealers can be acquired by exhibiting vendors at their booths.

The Dive Industry Association has been recommending another way to acquire new dealers and sell to current dealers, at consumer dive shows.  When local dive store dealers attend their Regional Dive Shows, they find out that their vendors are exhibiting at the show.  I don’t know why these vendors think that only end users of their products are attending the shows?  By adding a small trade-focused component to their booth, they can do B-to-B business with their current customers and hopefully gain new dealers.

The same argument holds true for other watersports trade shows.  Exhibitors at the Surf Expo have been under the impression that only sporting goods dealers (big box) buy their snorkeling line at the Surf Expo.  In recent times, there has been a focus on Freediving and Spearfishing Dealers at Surf.  My argument is that Florida has 24% (207 dive stores) of all the Dive Retailers in the United States.  That is a pretty big market to exclude, when you are spending so much to exhibit at a very well-attended trade show.

Another twist on business-to-business marketing can be conducted by equipment, training, or travel vendors with their regional dealers, using FAM trips.  As a FAM Trip Leader, I have experienced the relationship bonding that takes place when a vendor escorts a group of Qualified Retail Buyers on a 5–7-day familiarization trip.  In my opinion, this is face-to-face selling perfected.

Business to Consumer Selling: B-to-C selling is hotly debated in the diving industry for a number of reasons.  The major stumbling block is that the diving industry has not yet come to grips with customer centricity.  Sure, we all want to reach that elusive six million diver market, but as the band Counting Crows, in their song “Mr. Jones” says, “We all want to be big stars, but we don’t know why and we don’t know how.”

Thank God for Dive Industry Planners.  I believe the key to reaching the global diving consumer market is to understand diving consumers and consumer behavior.  It’s not all about you and your product, it’s mainly about consumer needs, wants, and desires.  It’s about building a Global Diving Business Network that produces the goods and services consuming divers need, want, and are willing to purchase.  It’s about meeting their needs so they can actively participate safely in diving and diving related activities.

The first step in developing successful business to consumer campaigns is to understand the difference between marketing and selling.  Producers (vendors) of diving and diving related programs, products, and services spend a lot of time, money, and manpower marketing, advertising, and promoting their company and their products.  They may call if brand marketing, but we call it for what it is…spending money on advertising with no call to action for the consumer.

The diving industry is made up of buyers and sellers of diving and diving related programs, products, and services.  The global diving community relies on the global diving business network to provide them with diving equipment, diving services, training, travel, and lifestyle products so they can safely and enjoyably participate in diving and diving related activities.  The diving industry relies on a workable channel of distribution to manage the flow of goods and services from producer to consumer.  Ou Industry Marketing Professionals oversee the exchange of goods and services from conception to consumption.  The Dive Industry Professionals in our industry support and work in both the supply and demand sides of our economy.

As the diving industry’s premier Membership-Trade Association, the purpose of the Dive Industry Association is to bring buyers and sellers together.  Our objective, therefore, is to build the marketing bridge that connects buyers and sellers.  It is our call to action to research, study, create, and manage successful, cost-effective ways of communicating, marketing, and selling through the supply and demand chains of our industry.

There are many ways to reach the general public.  Some are traditional and some are new because of the age of digitized data, images, and objects.  We are at the cross-roads of traditional and digital now and hopefully will be able to develop and recommend a channel of distribution that is amiable to all components in our supply and demand chains.

Consumer to Consumer Selling: Consumer to Consumer?  What do you think Opinion Leaders are?  How about influencers?  Does your company have any Product Ambassadors?  Welcome to the day and age where face-to-face meets word of mouth and social media influence all at once.  Combine a word of mouth and social media campaign with a call-to-action, and you’ll have the potential to increase your brand recognition and sales conversions using 21^st Century marketing tools.

Hybrid Marketing Solutions:  If you are using a 20^th Century approach to face-to-face marketing campaigns, you may be disappointed in the results.  Instead, think of face-to-face as the final part of an integrated marketing campaign.  A 21^st Century approach utilizes a Customer’s Purchasing Journey format.  A customer’s purchasing journey begins as a non-customer and ends with a positive conversion, which we call a sale.  A customer’s journey is also referred to as a conversion chain.  It starts off with getting a person’s attention in your product or your company and moving them along a path that includes impressions, visits, becoming leads, demonstrating interest, and after following a call-to-action, becoming a customer.

Using modern-day marketing concepts, it is recommended to start a customer’s journey using inbound marketing vehicles that allow your future customer to learn about your company and your product before they meet you in person.  Digital marketing vehicles help prepare your customers that you plan to meet in a person-to-person scenario, such as a sales call or dive show, to become familiar with you ahead of time.  This way, meeting them at a dive store or dive show will not be a cold call.  My favorite magazine advertisement of all times was conducted by McGraw Hill Magazines.  It starts off with “I don’t know who you are.  I don’t know your company.”  And it ends with “Now – what was it you wanted to sell me?”  They showed us that sales start before your salesman calls.

Inbound marketing cuts down on the time to a successful conversion in a face-to-face scenario.  Your potential customer is already familiar with you, your company, and your product.  They may have even progressed from first time impression, through qualified marketing and qualified sales lead.  All that is left for you to do is break the ice upon meeting them and moving on to close the sale.

Sales Reps that exhibit at trade and consumer shows know that making appointments with their current customers prior to seeing them in person is extremely beneficial.  The same things goes for scheduling meetings with new clients for trade show floor time.  Don’t make the mistake of spending thousands of dollars exhibiting at trade or consumer dive shows and not scheduling appointments with potential customers.  Having a booth at a dive show that attendees are not aware of gives you only about 3 seconds of time to get a passing-by attendee to notice you and stop at your booth to engage.  With proper prior planning, face-to-face marketing can be very successful for you and your company.

# # #

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

The main purpose of Industry Planners is to identify industry challenges and create a plan to overcome them.  Last month’s editorial talked about Defining the Global Diving Community. Once we define the universe we work in, it’s easy to see the individual components for what and who they are.   Through observation and research, planners can identify an industry’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.  Knowing what is right and wrong with the recreational diving industry is not the end goal.  It is only the beginning of what we call an opportunity to take corrective action.

The month of May is historically the official beginning of the scuba diving season.  Obviously, many things have changed in the last 20 years in the recreational scuba diving industry, but rather than rehash the problems, trends, and paradigms of the past, let’s look at the Global Diving Industry from the current perspective of a recreation that is recovering and self-correcting itself after the historical economic downturn caused by the covid pandemic.  There is no question that the diving industry is improving today and is starting to grow again.  However, growth looks a little different than it did in the past.  That might be the good news.  The bad news is that we are bringing some of our negative baggage with us into the new economic recovery.

The diving industry can grow and will succeed in the future if Dive Industry Professionals understand and learn how to control and work around fragmentation, segmentation, and integration.

Fragmentation: The global diving industry has always been fragmented.  It still is.  In my opinion, that has been the industry’s biggest downfall.  Fragmentation is the breaking down of a single unit.  The unit could be a company or an industry.  Fragments are pieces of a whole and do not usually work together.  Fragmentation causes us to work alone in silo models, and it results in duplication of effort across the industry spectrum.  The diving industry, as a single entity, should never condone fragmentation and should always promote unity.

Segmentation: Segments are pieces of a whole.  Segmentation is the process of researching, studying, and processing pieces of a unit as it applies to the whole.   It makes good business sense to work with segments of an industry to learn more about their role in and contribution to the whole.  The diving industry has many segments, or stakeholder groups as we call them.  You can think of equipment manufacturing, dive training, and dive travel as important segments of the industry.  You can also think of swimming, snorkeling, freediving, spearfishing, scuba diving, and technical diving as important segments of the recreational diving industry.  It doesn’t matter how you use segmentation to help you define or work with various segments in the diving industry.  The important point to remember is that all of these segments are part of a bigger whole.

Integration: Integration is the process of bringing together components, systems, and segments into a functioning entity.  Integrating various segments is more than a collection of unrelated businesses or concepts.  Integration is all about individual segments that work harmoniously together to produce a common outcome.  Much like the human body that is made up of many organs and body parts, an industry is an entity that is made up of many individual businesses that work together to supply programs, products, and services to consumers who need, want, and can afford them.

How Integration Applies to the Diving Industry:  I can think of three ways where integration would help the diving industry to grow in the 21^st century. The first way is stakeholder integration.  The second is market integration.  The third is shows & events integration.

Stakeholder Integration: The old way of doing business in the diving industry was to focus on what your stakeholder group was designed to do.  Teaching diving, selling gear, and selling travel were isolated events, performed by separated, disengaged stakeholder groups.  This is 20^th Century silo behavior. The 21^st Century model is to adopt an industry-wide paradigm that recommends a Learn to Dive – Buy Your Gear – Go Diving – Stay Active approach.  This new way of creating active scuba divers gives all stakeholder groups a role to play in the customer journey of a recreational diver.   Dive Industry Teaching Professionals teach a person to dive.  Dive Industry Equipment Advisors help the newly enrolled diving student to select and purchase their gear.  Dive Industry Travel Advisors arrange travel plans for the diving community participants.  Dive Industry Lifestyle Advisors keep people active in the global diving community.

Diving Segment Integration:  Using the word SCUBA to describe the Diving Industry is so 20^th Century thinking, or as my friends say, “So last Tuesday.”  Even calling us the diving industry is becoming slowly outdated.  We are watermen and waterwomen.  We all have water as our common element, but our tribe engages in swimming, snorkeling, freediving, scuba diving, rebreather diving, technical diving, and lifeguarding, water rescue, and mermaid diving.  How about water polo and underwater hockey?  Where do they fit it? 

The 20^th Century way would be to fragment these segments and start their own niche community.  Actually, the Technical Diving Community and the Freediving Community have started that process with their own niche Trade Shows & Events.  Which is OK to some extent but is starting to show signs of limitation and lack of impact.  The 21^st Century model would be to combine marketing efforts and an integrated budget when and where possible.  Dive resort destinations are making incredible progress with integrating many different watersports segments in their business.  The diving industry should make this a high priority to develop ideas, plans, and strategies to generate ideas along these lines.

Shows & Events Integration: Dive Shows & Events are coming back.  We have been following the exhibitor numbers for over twenty years and have mapped the highs and lows of trade and consumer dive shows.  Knowing that shows and events are more than just exhibitors, we also look at and record seminars, sponsors, and total attendee numbers where we can.  We know what components make dive shows successful or not.  Now all we have to do is get show producers to think out-of-the-box and try some new ideas.  Call me Don Quixote, but I think we can do it.

Integrating Shows & Events: Shows & Events are big business.  They are capitally intensive to own and operate, but says Rhonda Abrams, in her book, Trade Show In A Day, “Trade Shows Work.”  I agree with Rhonda.  Trade shows do work, but they only work if the exhibitors and attendees are properly matched. 

There are three types of shows & events in the diving industry.  The trade show, the consumer shows, and the professional development conference.  The trade show features wholesale exhibitors in the exhibit hall who sell to qualified retail buyers.  A consumer show features exhibitors in the exhibit hall who sell to the attendees.  A professional development conference is where the attendees are there primarily for the educational seminars and workshops.

My 21^st Century model would have sections of like-mind exhibitors in the exhibit hall.  The sections would be diving equipment, training, travel, services, apparel, and non-profits, amongst others.  The exhibit hall would also have a technical section, an underwater imaging center, and a business technology section.  Much like what we have today.  The seminars and workshops would also be what we have become accustomed to.  Specific seminars for specific target groups of divers, instructors, retailers, and business staff personnel.

The difference I would propose to the show producers in the 21^st Century would be to add a consumer component to our Trade Shows and a wholesale component to our Consumer Shows.  The reason being is that this approach is consumer-centric and in line with the way modern day wholesaler and retailer buyers make their purchasing decisions today.  I recently surveyed Qualified Retail Buyers in a territory where a consumer dive show was planned.  When asked if the retail business community was going to attend the dive show in their territory they responded no, because it was a consumer show and therefore had nothing that was of interest to them.  Even though there were hundreds of their vendors who were exhibiting at the show, they didn’t feel like the show had value for them.  Unfortunately for the show producers, by not including the local retailers in their show plans, they did not have the support of the local retailers and their customers for that matter.  Consequently, the local retailers made plans for classes and trips during time the show was scheduled, which meant that fewer consumers made plans to attend the show.

My suggestion is to invite Dive Retailers of the local diving community to their shows & events.  Exhibiting vendors could schedule sales rep meetings with their local dealers.  By adding a trade component to a consumer dive show, the show producers would be in a position to add significant seminar space for professional trade development. An integrated trade and consumer dive show is a great way to enhance regional market penetration and increase market share, at a fraction of the addition cost.

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.

# # #

Marketing Series:
Marketing Messages & Vehicles
by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

Marketing is an art and science that we use in the business world to accomplish many things.  Businesses are created to produce programs, products, and services that people purchase for their everyday needs and wants.  Marketing facilitates the exchange between buyers and sellers.  You can say that marketing was created to connect people with products.  The science of marketing goes much deeper than that, but for right now, this is a good start.

To be a Master at Marketing, one has to understand products, people, and that which connects the two.  From a Product Management perspective, marketers deal with things that are produced, from conception to consumption.  From a Customer Management viewpoint, we have to understand consumer behavior and the buyer’s journey from desire through purchase.  Only after mastering the components of production and consumption, supply and demand, and buyer and seller needs can Degreed Marketing Professionals put together strategic plans that bring the two sides together.

Marketing as a Bridge:  I like to look at sellers and buyers, or as we call them, producers and consumers, as two mountains separated by a valley.  I look at professional marketers as bridge builders who connect buyers to sellers.    Marketing is the bridge we build that connects buyers & sellers.  Traveling on our bridge are marketing vehicles that carry marketing messages to stimulate commerce.  The professional marketing trade is responsible for learning how to create effective marketing messages and selecting the proper marketing vehicles to deliver the messages.  Many of the marketing messages we produce are created using 21^st century marketing tools and technologies. And what good would a marketing message be if it couldn’t be delivered in a timely manner to our perspective audience?  Marketing vehicles are tools and technologies that deliver messages to our audience, the prospective buyer.

Marketing Vehicles: Marketing vehicles are designed to carry a plethora of messages in different formats.  It is common in business to use formats that can accommodate print, digital, audio, and face-to-face marketing messages.  While some vehicles are better suited for specific formats, some are actually effective in multiple formats. The choice of which marketing vehicles to use should be based on the buying habits of your prospective customers.  What do they read?  What do they listen to?  Where do they go to get information when they are considering a purchase?  Where do they buy?  When do they buy?  Why do they buy?  These are all things you need to know so you can choose a marketing vehicle they are familiar with and use in their Buyer’s Journey for programs, products, and services you sell.

Marketing Messages:  A professional marketing message is always about the product.  The audience for your message is always the customer.  That’s what marketing does.  It connects people with products.  Don’t kid yourself into thinking otherwise.  You’ll save yourself a lot of pain and discomfort if you realize that businesses are formed to produce products that can be sold.  Businesses market their products to create conversions.  The ultimate conversion is a sale or a donation or the acceptance of an offer.

Company Centric vs Customer Centric: The single most important paradigm shift in marketing is the centricity of the producer-consumer equation.  When the age of consumerism began shortly after World War II, producers created products they believed consumers needed, wanted, and were able to afford.  They hired a Sales Force to move products from their full warehouses to their franchised dealers and onto the final consumer.  Salesmen were trained on features & benefits of their products.  Everything was centered around the producers and their products.  The type of advertising at that time is what we call push advertising.  The sales message originated from the producer to reach the consumer.

Types of Push Advertising: Advertising that was popular in the 20^th century was print, radio, television, billboards, and face-to-face selling.  Print advertising dominated as the most popular marketing format for small businesses in the diving industry.  Popular print ads took the form of business cards, brochures, catalogs, and posters.  Direct mail, newspapers, magazines, point-of-sale material, and the Yellow Pages were common vehicles for print advertising.  Print advertising is still popular in the diving industry today, but its effectiveness and potential return on investment must be continually measured, analyzed, and re-strategized for cost effectiveness.

Changing Centricity: The invention of the small computer and the digitization of data has changed the marketing and advertising professions forever.  Dive Industry Marketers, who have adapted in a continually changing business environment these past few years have been able to survive constant change and have learned to actually use it to their advantage.  The first major change in dive industry marketing is that the producer-consumer relationship has become more customer-centric.  Thanks to the introduction of marketing as a profession, the focus is now on the consumer.  Products are designed and produced with input from consumer research.  We no longer train a sales force to push products on an unengaged consumer base.  Our Product Managers in the marketing department interact with potential customers as product advisors.  When customer-desired products are ready for shipment, customer-centric marketing messages are based on satisfying customer needs.  Our marketing and advertising campaigns have changed from a push strategy to a pull strategy.

Inbound Marketing: Prior to the covid pandemic a new marketing paradigm was taking hold of the way businesses market their products to consumers.  In the age of information digitization, consumers were becoming highly skilled at researching things they wanted to purchase.  It got to a point where most consumers were doing more and better marketing than the producers were.   Progressive marketers wanted to be in a position where they could influence a customer’s purchasing decision when they were ready to convert from prospect to customer.  They began mapping customer purchasing paths and became familiar with the various stages that a consumer goes through in their buyer’s journey.  Successful marketing professionals are able to track a consumer’s progress from first contact through becoming a customer lifestyler.   Even if the conversion process is not a quick one, individualized marketing messages can be tailored to the prospective customer throughout their conversion path.

Choosing a Marketing Vehicle: The number one rule of choosing a marketing vehicle to carry your message is choosing the vehicles that your target customer is familiar with and typically uses.  Remember, being a customer-centric marketing professional, you want to use marketing vehicles that appeal to the customer, not just the ones you are familiar with.  The biggest problem the diving industry has been with young, inexperienced marketers how think that all consumers are on their social wavelength.  Obviously, that is not the case, and it will take many years of trial and error to teach them otherwise.  When using new tools and technologies you want to make sure your prospective customer is on the receiving end of your message.  Become a lifelong student of consumer behavior and you will always have a heads-up on communicating with your target audience.

Hybrid Marketing Campaigns: Your professional toolbox should have many tools in it.  Different marketing campaigns for different target customer groups call for the use of different marketing tools and technologies.  Depending on when, where, and with whom you are trying to achieve your marketing outcomes, you may have to use different marketing messages and marketing vehicles to achieve the conversions or outcomes you planned for.  It all depends on your audience.  I think it is wise to use both inbound marketing and outboard marketing campaigns.  There are times when a simple business card works and there are times when you need to use the power of a professional content management system (CMS).

Take the time to learn about the various marketing vehicles that are currently being successfully used in the diving industry and learn how to create simple and effective marketing messages that are measurable.

# # #

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.

# # #