The Power of Strategic Thinking
 by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

The new year has begun, and Dive Industry Professionals are going about their business of making a living in their chosen profession.  Personally, I had to hit the ground running right at the beginning of the year because we were exhibiting at the January Surf Expo which started on January 10^th.   Talk about starting the year off with a bang!  As a Dive Industry Planner with a good idea of where I would like to take my organization this year, I felt comfortable with our choice to exhibit once again at Surf Expo.  I knew I wanted to do it again after a few years of not exhibiting at Surf, and this time I was sure that I didn’t want to do it alone.  A lot has changed since the pandemic.  The diving industry has undergone major changes and so has the recreational watersports industry.  The Shows & Events Industry had completely broken down and is now in the process of rebuilding itself.  The art and science of bringing buyers and sellers together is so tied into the travel industry, exhibitor venue industry, and the hospitality industry that it is a miracle face-to-face marketing has survived the last five years.  Strategic thinking and detailed strategic planning have never been more important to your business and the world economy than it is today.

Michael Gerber wrote a book years ago called the E-Myth.  He said that every business had to have someone who worked in the business and someone who worked on the business.  He could not have been more insightful or correct.  We have a natural tendency to do what we have always done before when we work in the business, however when we are responsible for working on the business, we tend to think of new and better ways to get more from our efforts.  That is why strategic thinking and strategic planning are so important.  I always get better results from my efforts when I have a strategic plan for outcomes I want to achieve, and I follow the plan methodically.  There is clarity in problem solving when you analytically think a problem through, to see all the aspects of the challenges and possible solutions before you engage in fixing them.

I don’t know if it is a sign of the times or if it is our recreational diving industry that is in flux.  At Surf Expo I spoke with a number of Dive Industry Professionals who were overly concerned with current, ongoing problems in the diving industry.  I had conversations about supply chain issues, channel of distribution conflicts, market competitiveness, lack of marketing support for Retail Dive Centers, and market creation challenges for new and existing programs, products, and services.  More than once we talked about the challenge of market creation and what needed to happen first in order to make that possible.  It’s kind of like asking which came first, the chicken or the egg.

There are many aspects of the diving industry that are in need of strategic thinking, planning, and execution.  That is what Dive Industry Association has been specializing in for twenty-three years now.  Our mission is to bring buyers and sellers together and our end goal is to get the biggest bang for the buck for our members, clients, and sponsors.  One major segment where strategic planning is absolutely necessary is in building the foundation of your business to begin with.  Many dive businesses today are built on a sandy bottom.  Maybe they skipped creating a business plan.  Maybe they entered the market too quickly or with little forethought and preparation.  Just maybe they underestimated the market or their understanding of it.  A house built on a faulty foundation is difficult to repair.

Creating a market, capturing market share, and maintaining your dominance takes systematic strategic planning.   Unless you have unlimited time, money, and manpower (and who does?), strategic thinking is the best way to achieve your planned outcomes in a step-by-step, logical manner.

I like to think of marketing as a tool that achieves planned outcomes, based on a plan that weighs the pros and cons of a strategy, and succeeds on paper first, prior to the plan’s execution.  It is much better and more cost effective to fail on paper than it is to fail in the market.   So, to me, marketing is all about planning and execution.  Wanting to be right more than wrong in the market, I prefer to strategically plan my moves to achieve planned corporate outcomes.

Building markets and market share takes strategic thinking.  But so does maintaining your market.  The biggest misunderstanding that I have seen recently in the diving industry is the lack of understanding and confusion between wholesale and consumer accounts.  We see it in trade and consumers shows, digital and print magazine advertising, and in the navigation of established industry channels of distribution.  All three of these issues were the main focus of the industry conversations I participated in while at the Surf Expo.

Trade and Consumer Shows for the diving industry can be the most cost effective and productive form of marketing.  Nothing works as effectively as a good face-to-face marketing campaign.  Strategic thinking makes us realize the difference between a trade show, a consumer show, and a professional development conference.  One deals with the wholesale buying and selling trade.  One deals with individual consumer education, entertainment, and end-user sales.  One deals with the educational professional development of a select group of industry professionals.  Before you consider attending, exhibiting, or sponsoring a show or event, think about who the buyers and sellers are in the mix.  Are you the recipient of the events campaign or its customer?

We have excellent options in the recreational diving industry in terms of trade and consumer shows.  We have the DEMA Show, Surf Expo, various consumer shows, travel shows, boating shows, apparel shows, and outdoor and adventure shows.  Our organization studies many shows and events and tracks their exhibitors, attendees, speakers, sponsors, and advertisers.  Based on over 40 years of experience in shows & events we feel well qualified to advise our members and clients on the pros and cons of each show or event we follow.  The single criterium for a dive business to consider is how a particular show or event supports your company goals and objectives.

Print and digital magazines and newsletter are not much different in concept than shows & events.  We have to apply strategic thinking and planning when considering whether to read, subscribe, or advertise in a particular publication.  In the diving industry we have a great number of excellent media to read, study, and learn from.  Dive media can target the diving consumer, the dive industry educational professionals, or the dive industry trade professional.  I want to exclude owners and trade professionals outside of the diving industry in this article, because I know many of them are in the legal, accounting, real estate, and investment circles of business.  They have their own media that they follow.

The media sources we deal with in the diving industry are mostly consumer oriented.  We enjoy articles on diving, training, equipment, and travel.  We marvel at the photos of fish and marine animals and are captivated by the articles of exotic dive destinations.  I love reading about our modern-day explorers and industry ICONs, exceeding the envelope of innovation, training, travel, and exploration.  Diving media helps keep divers active in our recreation.  That’s a good thing.

To me, diving media is all about quality content.  If it is worth reading, it is worth subscribing to.  I don’t care as much about the advertisements, unless the advertisers are part of the content.  Then it makes sense.  From a business perspective I look at the subscription numbers and the overall distribution, but more importantly is the number of subscribers that are actually reading the content.  Then I look to see how the content matches the advertisements.  Is it good content and symbiotic advertising?  Or is it fluff content to disguise the real purpose of the magazine?  To sell advertising.

The most important aspect of a magazine to me is if the content is a reflection of the subscriber.  Consumer publications in the diving industry focus on the introduction and use of current dive equipment, training, travel, and lifestyle products.  Trade publications on the other handle should be discussing the business of diving issues about the movement of programs, products, and services, through the supply chain, originating in conception and ending in consumption.  One key factor to consider is the number of subscribers necessary to make a diving publication successful.  A consumer magazine with a readership of 200,000 is adequate in our industry.  A trade publication, however, may have a larger economic impact with a readership of 8,000.    Our logic here is that consumers purchase products for themselves if they are in the market for your product at all.  With a readership of 200,000, that’s your customer limit.  Trade Professionals buy large quantities of products wholesale, to resell to their customers.  The average dive business may have 5,000 customers, which means with a readership of 8,000 we may reach 40 million consumers.  Of course, that includes reaching overlapping customers which is a great advantage too.  The one catch is that the number of trade subscribers doesn’t do us a hill of beans if we can’t get them to READ our trade publication.  To complicate things a bit more, advertisements in a trade publication have to have a strong Call to Action to produce results.  Hence the need for strategic thinking, planning, and execution in our marketing department.

The navigation of established industry channels of distribution is my third, but not last reason for employing strategic thinking and strategic planning in our marketing strategy.  I recently took on the responsibility of representing a limited number of products in the Caribbean.  I had the opportunity to speak with sales agents that were new to the territory and a few that have been doing this for years.  It seems that the sales agents who understood their products, their customers, and their market were the most successful in their career.  Strategic thinking will give you insights into the difference between the trade market and the consumer market.  It is important to understand the different functions of the Resort, the Gift Shop, and the Dive Operation.   When you are looking to increase your market share in a new territory do you know which channels of distribution your prospective clients follow?  Do you know why they buy what they currently buy?  Do you know where they buy and when?  The big question is, “Why do you think they need to buy your product?”  The answer may be right in front of you if you take the time to strategically think it out.  Welcome to our Network’s Mission.

This is an exciting time to become part of the Global Diving Business Network.  For more information about strategic marketing, 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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