If the first year is anything to go by, it will continue to have a major impact on consumers and the marine trade alike.

Its mission statement is straightforward, ‘To formulate and execute initiatives that promote the boating lifestyle and improve the boating experience that will ultimately increase participation in boating and lead to increases in sales of marine products and services’.

Why is such an initiative necessary? Quite simply, to reverse the trend of declining sales. There are precedents established in other industries who initiated ‘all-industry’ campaigns in order to reverse declines.

Thom Dammrich, president of NMMA gave details of three of them during his Discover Boating update at the recent IBEX show. These were ‘Got Milk’ launched in 1994 to reverse a huge consumption decline; its budget today is $65m ($22m in 1994), ‘Beef – It’s what’s for dinner’ launched in 1987 to stop/reverse a 20 year trend in beef demand; its budget today is estimated at about $80.1m ($66.5 in 1987).

The campaign most often quoted by the marine industry, the Recreational Vehicles ‘Go RVing’ launched in 1994. ‘Go RVing’ is funded by an assessment on RVs, its budget is between $15 to $20m a year today (up from $7m in 1994) with annual unit sales up from 250,000 to 375,000 in ten years.

Commitment
If there is one word that separates this Grow Boating campaign from previous similar initiatives to grow the industry it is commitment. Commitment to research and setting measurable objectives, commitment to changing and raising industry standard, commitment to professionalism and commitment to adequate funding over several years to ensure objectives are met. Last but by no means least the commitment to measure and publish the progress. There are four strategic objectives that will be measured.

These are to increase the participation in recreational boating from 70m of the adult boating population (16+years) by 1m participants a year by the end of financial year 2008 (73m) as measured by the Grow Boating Annual Boater Participation Study. Also to motivate interested consumers to become boaters more quickly and to keep boaters in the ‘funnel’ and in boating. Finally to support and provide oversight of the Grow Boating strategic initiatives.

The genesis of today’s campaign came from two sources. The first source was when Bill Barrington became chairman of the NMMA in 2002. He set two major goals to define his tenure, the first was to double the size of the Political Action Committee (a committee formed by business, labour, or other special-interest groups to raise money and make contributions to the campaigns of political candidates whom they support). His other goal was to grow the size of the industry.

The second source was an advisory group meeting of boat dealers chaired by Richard Strickler, executive VP of GE Capital Finance, who was told by the dealers that ‘the best thing GE Capital can do for us is to help grow the industry’. Strickler recounted this to Dammrich who brought up Barrington’s goal and the initiative was born.

Leaders meet
In October of 2003 a Grow Boating Summit took place where industry leaders met for two days. It is worth noting that this meeting and others were professionally facilitated to create a positive working environment among strong competitors.

Funding was not discussed in detail at first, as this was a past stumbling block that just got in the way. The group instead focused on what was helping boating and what was hindering boating and analysed what of these factors they could impact as an industry. 

The group determined the three major factors that were helping boating were demographics, generational wealth transfer and that there was a priority today placed on acting as a family. The factors they determined were hindering boating were product quality, sales and service quality and the negative image of boating namely cost, hassle, difficulty and time.

These determinations led to the establishment of the key focus areas for Grow Boating. These are improving customer satisfaction and professionalism in the industry through product and dealer certification, promote the benefits of boating through marketing, improve decision making through timely and accurate sales statistics plus the later addition of water access protection. Task forces were established to address programme planning in each of these areas.

Research was conducted to fill in the gaps in accurate knowledge. To fund this research NMMA levied an assessment on its membership and accepted contributions to the ‘Grow Boating Start up Fund’. Once the research was analysed and the program plans flushed out to the point that the industry knew what needed to be done and had an idea of what it would cost, a task force was established to tackle how the money would be raised. 

Task Force
The task force was comprised of large boat and engine manufacturers and their counsel. The engine assessment horsepower schedule came from this group. More traditional basis for assessment or levies were considered such as turnover or number of employees but these were considered too difficult to monitor and know with any degree of accuracy.

The Rising Tide Fund was established later to solicit contributions from other segments of the industry besides boat and engine manufacturers and their dealers. The 2007 budget for Grow Boating is $16.6m which includes a $3.6m contribution from the NMMA. 2007 will also see an emphasis on accessory manufacturers to become more involved and donate to the Rising Tide Fund.

Accessory manufacturers are in fact contributing insofar as there is a levy attached to their trade booth space at trade shows such as MAATS. Another potential contributor is the sailboat industry who are currently mulling over an assessment based on mast length/height.

So, how does this initiative reach the consumer and potential boat owner? Grow Boating is the industry term. Discover Boating is the consumer face of Grow Boating and the marketing arm of the Grow Boating Initiative. In order to establish a coherent advertising program to attract first time buyers their demographics had to be known with accuracy. The key demographic characteristics of first time buyers were established as follows, 66% male, 34% female, average of 30-54 years old and married with 1 or more children, homeowner and a household income of $75,000+.

Subsequent research determined that there are 22m US households that fit that demographic profile of the typical first time buyer. Of these 4.2m (19%) are current boat owners, 3.3m (15%) are previous boat owners while 14.5m or 66% have never owned a boat.

A three month $8m media campaign and strategy was devised and launched in April 2006 to reach these households. The campaign included television (schedules on 7 core networks and as many as 17 additional networks via a supplemental buy), print (automotive, travel, sports and lifestyle and hands on magazines such as Popular Mechanics) plus interactive (the online buy includes over 400 websites – sports, weather, lifestyle and news – CNN.com for example).

United in Boating
The message of the campaign is that ‘Boating connects like no other’, a message that boating helps you to connect with people you care about. The belief is that this message has broad appeal and will resonate with both men and women who often feel life is pulling them in a million different directions.

The entire campaign focused on the dichotomy of life on the water versus life on land and, according to the Grow Boating 2006 Annual report, reached 74% of the target audience 3 or more times. The report goes on to say that ‘post campaign research shows that the percentage of people considering or shopping for a boat increased from 2 to 8% while the percentage of people rejecting the idea of ever owning a boat decreased from 42 to 36%’.

So what’s new in the Grow Boating initiative for 2007? There are new print, television and internet advertising advertisements ‘To build on the brand awareness cultivated during last year’s advertising schedule and scale up on our lead generation opportunities’ said Carl Blackwell, VP marketing and communications for both Grow Boating Inc and NMMA. John Dorton, CEO of MasterCraft Boat Co and chairman of the Grow Boating Marketing Committee adds ‘This year’s advertisements are designed to present a first-hand account of what it is like onboard a boat, creating the sense a viewer/reader is actively engaged in the activity’.

While it remains to be seen how well the Grow Boating initiative succeeds it has attracted attention internationally. A similar programme is being launched in Canada and Australia and the NMMA expects a delegation from the BMF this month.

When BB asked Thom Dammrich how he felt the Grow Boating campaign would translate to the UK market, with its greater percentage of sailing boats, he replied: ‘Sail or power doesn’t matter. They are both boating. They are both about getting out on the water and connecting with family and friends.’

Life is better with a boat - sail or power, he concluded.

Captions to pictures below - left to right:

Thom Dammrich: 'life is better with a boat'

Discover Boating press ad 1. The only thing that should come between you and your kids is a 75ft ski rope, says the headline. The body copy reads: When your family is being pulled in a million different directions, you can bring them back together in a boat

Discover Boating press ad 2. Captain more than a neatly mowed quarter-acre of crab grass, says the headline. Knocking a few chores off your to-do list won’t make you a hero. But taking your friends boating will, says the copy

The ‘funnel’ that the NMMA needed to get boaters into and keep them in