The Changing Role of Marketing
 by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

Marketing is a profession.  You can get an undergrad degree in Marketing from a college or university, although you don’t necessarily need one to call yourself a Marketer.  As a degreed Marketing Professional, I understand why a degree in marketing is not required in the public sector, as is required in the accounting and law professions.  Marketing is a young profession, having only been around formally for about 40-50 years.  Colleges and universities have always, and probably still are, wrestling with the definition and meaning of marketing.  Community Colleges offer an associate degree in business administration (ABA).  Junior colleges offer a bachelor’s degree in business administration (BBA).  The University of Connecticut offers a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and yet at Yale University it would fall under the Bachelor of Arts category.  Is marketing a specialty, an art or a science?  I guess it would depend on how you applied the skill set you were trained for.

My Bachelor of Science Degree in Marketing covered courses in marketing, management, accounting, finance, business law, economics, sales management, research, pricing, consumer behavior, computers, calculus, planning & strategy, promotion, and advertising.  As you can see, most of the courses in my major were focused on the management of these disciplines.  In order to get practical experience using some of the marketing tools we use in business, I had to take elective courses in literature, photography, and an independent study in consulting.  Today it would be graphic arts, digital design, computer programing, social media, app creation, website construction, and sales courses.  There is a fine line between being a marketing professional and a marketing technician, in the diving industry today.

Becoming a degreed Marketing Professional can put you on a path to become a Marketing Director, Vice President of Marketing, or the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of a large company.  The pay is outstanding, and it could be an excellent career for you.  But it’s a little different in the small business world.   As a small business owner or someone who works in the diving industry, the universal business focus is on sales.  The highest paid people in the diving industry are not the company directors or managers, but the sales reps who sometimes make more than their company General Manager.  Sorry to disappoint you.  That’s just the way it is.  So how does that affect the role of modern-day Marketing professionals?

My philosophy has always been that marketing paves the way for sales.  Marketing professionals are trained in product management, customer behavior, market composition, and communications.  My job has always been to assist in the development of programs, products and services that potential customers need, want, can afford, and are ready to purchase.  When our products are ready for launch, we communicate our offering to the target market.  Historically, it is then up to the company sales representatives to make contact with the customer and close the sale.  For that, they are well paid.

The COVID pandemic changed all that.  Before the pandemic, Sales Reps spent time on the road making sales calls and attending trade and consumer dive shows to sell their products.  The Sales Reps were the industry trade show warriors and face-to-face sales professionals.  During the pandemic, many of the dive shows were cancelled and it was not safe to visit dealers on the road.  Without sufficient face-to-face time with the buyers of dive equipment, training, travel, and lifestyle products, industry sales declined.  Marketing professionals picked up the slack and explored virtual conferences and zoom calls, but nothing was able to take the place of face-to-face contact.  We needed to improve or change our digital messaging and communications.

During the pandemic, marketing professionals did improve their digital communications and refined their call-to-action inclusions in their marketing messages.  We still paved the way for sales but took it one step further and asked for the sale in our marketing message.  The change is growing sales by making marketing professionals responsible for the flow of products all the way from conception to consumption.  In effect, the change has streamlined the sales process and given marketing professionals the opportunity to participate in sales commissions.  The interesting point of all of this is that using modern marketing technology is making marketing professionals better at their job and it could also mean that sales representatives can become more effective at doing what they do by using digital technology to argument their face-to-face functions.  The new outcome results in a more efficient sales process and an increase in the flow of goods and services through the channels of distribution.

So, how does a marketing professional become the go-to-person at a business that specializes in diving?  First of all, it does not matter whether the company is in the diving equipment, dive training, dive travel, or diving services business.  The same concept applies to all.  My first step would be to choose which sector you want to work in.  Then you have to learn everything about the programs, products, and services the company produces and sells.  That’s called product management.  Next is to determine what type of person or business would buy your products and then do the research to build your database of prospective clients.  That’s called Customer Management, which includes customer acquisition, customer retention, and customer database maintenance.  If you have been in the business for any length of time, you should already have an extensive database of perspective clients and have an existing business relationship with many of them.  The third part of your sales strategy is to find out how your clients want to be contacted and by what media sources they read, listen to, or follow.  Creating a sales message with a persuasive call-to-action message is now the most important thing you do.  As a marketing professional, you should already be familiar with how to create compelling sales messages, although you may have to learn more about graphic arts and text messaging.  You may have to learn more about the use and placement of text, images, and graphs.  As I said, there is a fine line between what you need to know as a marketing professional and what you need to do as a marketing technician.

Since dive shows are still on the decline and less buyers are attending industry trade shows, sales and marketing professionals must improve their digital messaging and always include a call-to-action option within their message.  We no longer have the luxury of asking the client to wait until they see us in person to make a purchasing decision.  The important aspect of our job is to educate our clients about new products and services and then give them the option to make a purchasing decision immediately.  We don’t have to wait until the one trade show of the year to show off our new products and make a sale.  Nor do we have to rely on an annual visit to our dealers to show products and ask for an order.  Instead of waiting for up to 12 months to make a sale, we need to learn how to get in synch with our clients’ buying cycle.  The 21^st Century Marketing Professional just added “Salesperson” to their list of qualifications.   We can now close the sale we used to just pave the way for.

This is an exciting time to become part of the Global Diving Business Network.  For more information, contact Gene Muchanski, Executive Director of the 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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