What Business Are You In?
 by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

I had a phone call with an Industry Leader this month who was searching for some clarification about marketing concepts he thought he needed to make his company more relevant to potential customers.  He was convinced that his company had the best product on the market, but he was not sure how to get that message across to potential buyers.  As the conversation continued, he mentioned that even with all of the marketing tools his staff was using, like websites, tik-tok, and social media programs, his company was not getting the market penetration they needed.  I asked him if his company had a Strategic Plan, a Business Plan, or a Marketing Plan and as I imagined, they didn’t.   My best option at this point was to stop talking about possible solutions to problems we were not aware of.  I did not want to be the doctor who agrees to perform surgery on a patient he hasn’t examined yet.  There are smarter and more professional ways to deal with business problems and challenges. 

What I took away from this conversation is how common business problems are in the recreational diving industry.  To make matters worse, most of the problems are addressed with a marketing solution by non-marketing people.  To add insult to injury, many times the solutions are suggested by the same people who created the problem.   Albert Einstein once said that a problem could not be solved by the same reasoning that created the problem.  And yet here we are, many years later, trying to prove him wrong.  As a Dive Industry Marketing Professional, I believe that in order to grow your business successfully, you must first know where you are and secondly know where you want to go.  A Marketing Audit is the first step to putting your company on the road to growth and recovery.

As a Marketing Professional working in the Global Diving Business Network, I can see how the art and science of marketing is grossly misunderstood.  The partial and incomplete understanding of modern-day marketing tools and technologies can actually do more damage to a company’s bottom line than good.  Trying to solve problems with business tools that you do not fully understand and have not mastered, can have a devastating negative impact to your time, money, and manpower assets.  Suggesting the use of a particular marketing tool before properly diagnosing a problem is an example of a bottom-up strategy.  A top-down strategy requires that you start with defining the problem and end with using the proper tool to solve it.

If we were discussing the topic of strategy, I could go on and on about the necessity of strategic planning in the diving industry and how successful strategies are planned from the top-down and not from the bottom-up.  But this editorial is really about a simpler concept than that.  It’s about defining the business you are in and building your company around that concept. 

When you are successful at correctly defining the business that you are in, it gives your existence its purpose.  Your company organization and strategy are then built around accomplishing your mission in the most constructive and economically expedient manner.  Your strategic plan, business plan, and marketing plan will reflect all the key components that make it possible for you to complete your mission.  When you know what business you are in and communicate that to your prospective customers, the mission you are accomplishing and the mission your customers are funding will be one and the same.

 Convention and Trade Show Organizers (NAICS 56): I have worked with many different businesses in different industry sectors over the past 40 years.  The Shows and Events Industry and the Meetings Industry are favorites of mine.  There are Trade Shows, Consumer Shows, and Professional Development Conferences.  Each one has its own components that help make it successful.  Event planners have to consider the needs of Exhibitors, Sponsors, Seminar Speakers, Attendees, and Advertisers when designing the mission of an event and how the event is going to pay for itself.  It gets very interesting when your planned mission, or unadvertised purpose of the event cannot be executed economically because your prospective benefactors do not have the resources to fund your event alone. 

The Manufacturing Industry (NAICS 33) is currently going through some growing pains since the end of the covid pandemic.  Economic recovery is happening in our industry, albeit at a slow pace.  For equipment and apparel manufacturers specializing in the diving and diving related market, many of the industry’s suppliers are contemplating whether they should be participating in the retail, wholesale, or trade markets.  Each one has its own channel of distribution and how they market and advertise to their prospective customers.  As a consequence of this conundrum, trade and consumer dive shows have lost substantial support and exhibitor participation.  The silver lining in this dark cloud of uncertainty is that businesses who correctly focus on their core business are successfully working through this dilemma.

The Retail Industry (NAICS 45) has lost more than ½ of the recreational sporting goods stores that specialize in scuba diving.  In the 1980’s there were about 2,400 retail dive stores in operation.  Today, according to DIVE LOCAL there are about 947 dive stores in the United States.  While there are many reasons for the recreational diving industry market decline, a significant factor is the unbalanced focus on the equipment, training, and travel components of the industry.  If you are currently in the dive store business, it may be a good exercise to ask yourself if you are in the dive equipment business, the diving instruction business, the travel business, or the retail business?  We know that a good dive store is in all of these businesses, but the question is, “Which business do you perceive is your PRIMARY business?”  Which one is your primary purpose for being in business?  Once you have decided, your strategic planning process will be immensely simplified. 

The Travel Industry (NAICS 56): Dive travel may be the number one activity that motivates people to become certified scuba divers.  It wasn’t always that way, but it certainly may be now.  Knowing what business you are in is very relevant to the dive travel market.  I would ask the dive travel wholesalers in our industry if they considered themselves Travel Professionals or Dive Travel Professionals?  With the increasing competition in our industry with Ocean Cruising, River Cruises, African Safaris, and International all-inclusive Resorts, is the diving niche market still your main focus?  Your answer may determine which type of trade or consumer shows you attend or exhibit at.

Choosing your level of priority in the dive travel business is an important consideration to make for Dive Travel Specialists in the Retail Industry.  Promoting group dive travel could be very lucrative.  We encourage retailers to have an extensive dive travel program for many reasons.  My question for you is, “Is dive travel your priority as a revenue stream or is it a means to increase dive training certifications and diving equipment sales?”  Selecting your priority and focus will determine the direction of your strategic planning and the extent of your marketing and advertising expenditures.

Sports and Recreation Instruction (NAICS 61): Our Industry would not be what it is today without scuba diving instructors.  Whether you realize it or not, there are so many options available to Dive Industry Professionals these days it is almost overwhelming.  The question of What Business Are You In?  is very important to consider.  You have the option to instruct independently or as an employee for a diving business.  You can use your training as part of your job as a collateral duty or as the main purpose of what you were hired for.  You can teach diving part-time or full-time.  You can specialize in entry level open water students or Instructor training programs.  Whatever floats your boat.

As a Professional Educator for over 50 years (20 years as an active Instructor) I could see where the question of What Business Are You In? may be left up to the Training Agencies or the diving businesses that hire scuba instructors.  There are many levels of certification available to scuba instructors.  The Global Diving Community grows when the industry certifies new entry level open water divers.  The Global Diving Business Network benefits when people get certified because they become part of the niche market that purchases diving equipment and supplies, training, travel, and diving lifestyle products.  So, diving equipment manufacturers, dive retailers, training agencies, and dive travel business all benefit by having more certified divers.

The Dive Travel Resorts and Dive Operators need a constant stream of Divemasters and Dive Instructors to fill their employment vacancies.  They are interested in supporting Training Agencies that can provide them with qualified employees.   That opens more opportunities for Training Agencies to have a sufficient number of Instructor Trainers on hand to train and certify more Instructors.  The final conundrum is whether to prioritize the Global Diving Community’s need for certified divers or ensure the sustainability of the Global Diving Business Network with certified and licensed Divemasters and Instructors.  Regardless, it’s all a matter of establishing what business you want to be in.

For more information about the Global Diving Business Network, 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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