What’s Now – What’s New – What’s Next
by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional
If I was your customer and you were my dive store, here is the question I would be asking you right now. You went to the DEMA Show last week, so what did you bring me? As Ambassadors of their Local Diving Communities, retail dive stores make the trek to the mountain top once a year in search of what’s new and what’s next in the diving industry. According to the producers of the Dema Show, it is a Trade Event and not open to the public. That means your customers can’t go to the annual event and see for themselves. They are relying on you. So, what did you bring them from the show?
As a progressive Trade Association, the Dive Industry Association spent three months prior to Dema Show helping our exhibiting Members prepare for the event. We helped our members do the right things to get their booths fully functional for the at-show portion of their marketing campaign. We advertised and promoted our exhibiting members to the world-wide diving community to let everyone know where they will be, what they were going to offer, and what, if any seminars they were conducting. We encouraged our members to survey their dealers to find out which ones were attending the show. We suggested they make appointments with as many of their dealers as they could, and to offer some type of incentive to visit their booth. We also suggested they spend some time prospecting for new dealers and offer to meet with them during the show.
What we didn’t do was to suggest they poll their local diving community and ask them what they wanted the store to bring them back from the show. After some recent diving industry paradigm planning, we decided to add that marketing task to our marketing tool kit. In fact, we did more than tweak our pre-show strategy. We helped construct a completely new paradigm that brings buyers and sellers together by more correctly matching the right products with the right people, at the right time and event.
Now that Dema Show is in the history books, it’s time for exhibitors to conduct their comprehensive post-show marketing campaign. Mind you that 82% of exhibitors don’t follow-up on leads they get at a trade show. To me, that is a total waste of marketing capital.
The post-show portion of your trade show campaign is critically important and absolutely necessary to the achievement of your planned objectives. The best time to start your post-show campaign is about 3 days after the show. Once your clients are back in the office, start your follow-up, even if it is only a few pieces at a time. Don’t make the mistake of waiting until all of your contacts are entered in your CRM database before you follow-up. We do our follow-ups after every 100 contacts are processed. It’s never to early to follow-up and it’s better late than never if you haven’t conducted a September Seasonal Launch.
Even if you did not launch your 2027 diving season this past September and you didn’t place many orders at Dema Show last week, there is still time to save your 4th quarter sales numbers by selling off your 2026 inventory and ordering your 2027 inventory for the Holiday Shopping period. A number of equipment vendors will be exhibiting at Surf Expo in January. We know right now they will be exhibiting their snorkeling, freediving, and spearfishing merchandise. We will do our best to keep the Retail Dive Stores and Watersport Retailers stakeholder group informed about who is exhibiting and what they are focusing on at the expo. January is an excellent time to gear up, inventory wise for the Spring Diving Season.
In September, we will be exhibiting at Surf Expo again to give diving and watersports qualified retailer buyers an opportunity to write orders at Surf Expo for their Fall Season and Christmas Holiday inventory. Again, we will do our best to match qualified retail buyers with what exhibiting watersports vendors are displaying on the exhibit floor, and get the word out to them.
In November 2027 we will be promoting our Members who are exhibiting and attending DEMA Show in Orlando. We will be looking at the trade and educational portions in the exhibit hall, the professional development seminars, the social aspects of the event, and the meetings and planning events scheduled during the show.
Our comprehensive planning strategy next year will focus on the strengths and opportunities of various watersports shows & events. We will do our best to bring buyers and sellers together by matching the correct products with the correct people, at the correct events.
Become a Member of our Global Diving Business Network: Annual Membership in the Dive Industry Association is $125 and includes placement in a number of Trade Directories and websites. Our organization uses websites and directories in advertising and marketing campaigns to refer business to our members. By joining our network, you are becoming part of a network that works on your behalf to bring buyers and sellers together for the benefit and growth of the Global Diving Community. Download a Membership Application today.
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