Last month, Boating Industry hired a new full-time associate editor, Brent Renneke. He’s been on board for less than three weeks, but he’s already hard at work, interviewing dealers and manufacturers for articles to be published in the coming months, writing for our daily e-newsletter, editing our latest magazine issue and calling Top 100 Dealers about the upcoming application deadline. Read more >>
Tags: boating industry
By Jim Ackerman and Paul Furse — For most dealers, your trophies go largely unnoticed, to the detriment of your sales. Read more >>
By Mike Davin, online editor, Boating Industry — SeeDealerCost.com, which went live today, caused a stir in the marine industry before it was officially announced in January. Read more >>
The recent news that a website providing consumers with dealer invoice pricing on new boats, powersports products and RVs will soon launch, drew a swift response from the Marine Retailers Association of America. MRAA President Phil Keeter said the site has the potential to hurt dealers’ profit margins just as the industry is once again finding its footing in the wake of the recession. Read more >>
Dan Coughlin, The Dan Coughlin Co. — The economic tsunami that began picking up speed in December 2007 and swept around the world with devastating force from October 2008 to April 2009 has died down. What’s left now are many organizations that have been devastated or destroyed and individuals who have huge gaping financial holes where they once had solid financial fortresses. The flow of credit that was the underpinning of consumer and business spending has largely dried up. We are at the starting point of a new way of life unlike anything we have seen in a very, very long time. Read more >>
Tags: boating industry, Economy, Guest Blog
Starting Saturday, more than 10,000 baby boomers will reach retirement age each day for the next 19 years. That’s the good news for industries such as recreational boating, which have for a long time been looking to this generation as a lucrative source of customers. Read more >>
Tags: Baby Boomers, boating industry
As another boat show season gets underway, wouldn’t it be nice to know what those would-be customers are thinking as they walk the aisles and docks browsing and shopping? Read more >>
Tags: Boat Show, boating industry
The algorithm Google uses to rank websites in its search results is a closely guarded secret, as the less that is known about how the search engine works the more difficult it is for people to short-cut the system. But, as any business with a website likely knows, there are numerous legitimate techniques that can be used to move a given site higher in the rankings. Read more >>
Tags: boating industry, Borker, Google, SEO
Following a recommendation from the Grow Boating Funding Task Force to the board of the National Marine Manufacturers Association, assessments for Grow Boating will be fully restored, effective Jan 1. The assessments had been temporarily reduced by 85 percent this past July as a new marketing strategy and analysis of the impact of the recession on consumers was developed. Read more >>
One week from today, everyone here at Boating Industry should be breathing just a bit more easily as this magazine’s busiest week of the year will have just concluded. Sitting here this morning, however, next Friday still seems miles away. Read more >>
