Oscar Siches

We as an industry have for long been guilty of not analysing or forecasting in a unified manner. The western world learnt the lesson the hard way and has started to adopt strategic alliances to reduce the possibility of being caught empty-handed by an uncontrollable situation and having to fend off disaster alone.

 

This is happening in multinationals, small businesses and even amongst freelancers. For example: a hamburger restaurant could form an alliance with a bakery and a butcher shop, with whom it would agree to sell x hamburgers per day. The three of them would ensure those sales, and each one would be a priority customer for the other two. Adjusting prices, variety and qualities would be the immediate actions to carry out. And if the business struggles, there will be 3 minds to consider possible options.

 

A week ago, I finished reading a book called Reimagining Industry Growth, by Daniel Varroney, a US business strategy consultant. It narrates how five industries, including the nautical industry, grew and became stronger by strengthening sector associations and applying transparency. He also mentions they hired general managers with proven track records and knowledge, not only in the nautical industry, but of management. The book discusses the impact of the pandemic and how the five sectors (nautical, asphalt, bakeries, automation and frozen foods) managed not only to come out victorious but also achieved more efficiency, with better conditions for workers, and with regulations more adjusted to the daily functioning of a business. How far are we from it, and how it hurts! Yes, the US is its own market of 320 million people, but in Europe we are 720 million, and some countries, especially in the north, are already adopting these practices.

 

Here in Spain ANEN, the Spanish MIA, got off to a very good start by applying those principles, but a few years later it reverted to the more traditional model of doing what was necessary without alienating the government too much. ANEN gets very good results, but still a fraction of what is needed.

 

SYBass, Association of Superyacht Shipyards, was created in 2007 in the Netherlands. Theo Hooning, its founder, is an economist and spent 14 years in charge of the car and truck associations at the Amsterdam Congress Center RAI. Hooning continues today in his position as general secretary of SYBass, which brings together 22 shipyards of yachts over 40m from the Netherlands, England, Germany, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, the USA, Finland, Turkey, Taiwan and Australia. There is no door that SYBass cannot open, and most of the current regulations for superyachts are analysed and commented on by this association, which is also part of IMO, the International Maritime Organization. Yes, it cost a lot of money to get it up and running, but today the benefits are substantial.

 

Meanwhile, here in the Balearic Islands, Spanish leaders in the sailing community continue to cry about the registration tax. The traditional justification that “it is complicated” only speaks ill of those who state it and highlights the lack of desire to make the effort to bring about meaningful change. As I have stated before, we need to find common ground and make representations to government that they just can’t ignore. It doesn’t mean the powers that be will immediately agree to everything, but rather that the nautical sector clearly communicates its needs, and together viable solutions are crafted.

 

I am a romantic, and what I am proposing is this article needs a strong collective will, then we are halfway there!

For further information
Oscar Siches, CMP
Email: oscar.siches@gmba.blue or info@gmba.blue
Mobile:+34 667 494 858
Website: www.gmba.blue

 

Disclaimer: Global Marine Business Advisors and its associated website www.gmba.blue are not registered legal entities. GMBA is a network of independent marine industry advisors.

Macho and quarrelsome, he was saved by the tales he created in the minds of those who read him. I came across “The Old Man and the Sea” when I was 13 years old, and throughout reading it, I developed an admiration for the fish, a dislike and fascination for sharks, a compassion for Santiago and a certain boredom at the long description of his thoughts.

That reading left its mark and led me, years later, to look for other of his works that took place at sea. “Islands in the Stream,” posthumous, is a story that takes me with almost telepathic meticulousness to the Caribbean I met in Bimini and the Bahamas in the late 70’s. I became interested in the person, the Ernest Hemingway who was born, lived three lives in a single lifetime and shot himself with his shotgun of choice 19 days short of his 62nd birthday, when he realized that he could neither control nor run away from his ghosts anymore. With “To have and have not” I confirmed myself as a horny South American because what comes back to my memory is Lauren Bacall in her 30s, the heroine of the movie based on the book, playing a tough girl with legs as long as from Cuba to Miami. The book reading is great.

Hemingway lived in Cuba from 1939 to 1960, and his visits to the fishing village of Cojímar and long talks with the local fisherman Gregorio Fuentes, originally from the Canary Island of Lanzarote and future skipper of the “Pilar”, were the basis for “The old man and the sea” and its main character, Santiago. This novel won him the Púlitzer Prize in 1953 and the Nobel Prize (Literature) in 1954. Hemingway always liked challenges. He had to permanently prove how macho he was: he did it as a war correspondent, hunter in Africa, fishing marlins in the Gulf Stream off Cuba or the Bimini Islands where he kept sharks away from his catches with a Thompson submachine gun that he always carried on board, and befriending bullfighters what would, by being close to them, associate his image to the tough, bravest guys.

More than the sea, he liked deep-sea fishing, fights in bars and shagging anything that moved. In 1934 he commissioned Wheeler Shipbuilding, Brooklyn Shipyards, New York, to build his “Pilar”, a nearly 12m mahogany and oak motorboat. He paid her $ 7,495 that he requested in advance for the articles he would write, to Arnold Gringich, editor of Esquire magazine. “Pilar”, nickname of Pauline, his second wife, had a Chrysler 75 HP gasoline engine with which it reached 16 knots, and a smaller Lycoming engine (also gasoline) each with its shaft and propeller. The Lycoming served to propel Pilar at a very low speed when she dragged the baits. Hemingway was a heavy spender, he liked partying and luxury. He did not go through money difficulties because he married wealthy ladies and knowing that his novels always sold, the publishers advanced what he needed when he was short of funds. “Papa”, a nickname that he gave himself and by which his followers know him to this day, vividly described scenes of fishing, seduction and bravery, but we nautical enthusiasts lack reading how the waves hit the bow and exploded In an uncontrollable spray, how the clouds could almost be touched with the hand or how the roll knocked down the beer bottles from the cockpit table. Gregorio Fuentes was in charge of the Pilar until Papa’s death, and he was the one who really knew about the sea. He died of cancer at the age of 104 there, in Cojímar, stating that he longed for his fishing trips with Papa every day. He who was the inspiration for the character Santiago could not enjoy the story: Gregorio did not know how to read or write.

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Oscar Siches CMP , GMBA Spain
Email: oscar.siches@gmba.blue or info@gmba.blue
Mobile:+34 667 494 858
Website: www.gmba.blue

N.B. Global Marine Business Advisors and its associated website www.gmba.blue are not registered legal entities. GMBA is a network of independent marine industry advisors.

The difference between a Stateman and a Politician is that the Stateman sacrifices time and energy to achieve the best level of living for society, while the Politician tends to blindly obey the Party, and protect their position and status first. A famous contemporary Spanish writer defined the moral pains southern Europe suffers as “having chosen the wrong God”. The Northern European God is sober, hardworking, pragmatic, modern and encouraging progress while in Southern Europe (Spain, Italy and Portugal) there prevails an antique God: vengeful, opulent, and menacing. While the power of the Catholic faith has faded, the cultural legacy left behind affects today’s social (and governmental) behaviour.

Tradition is another strong influence. Nautical activity was born as yachting in the UK when in 1660 King Charles II was given, by the city of Amsterdam, a 60-foot sailing yacht called “Mary” as a present to commemorate the restoration of the monarchy. Yachting then became known as a “Sport of Kings” and in Spain today, we are paying dearly for that fame.

The definition of “pleasure craft” was only legally accepted in Spain in 1984. Until then, a yacht was a small ship and had to fulfil all ship’s rules and regulations.  You needed a ship’s crew license to skipper a 7m (23ft) boat.  Most ancient laws and regulations were not adapted to the nautical industry and marine leisure activities, and that has not changed much. To skipper a boat of 15m (50ft) you needed to have a master license which involves months of practice at sea duly registered as crew member on a ship or a fishing boat. On a different note, Spain practices auto-protectionism by not accepting some EU safety equipment like life rafts, which have to be certificated by the Ministry of the Merchant Marine first. It does not accept GPS as locating equipment when sailing offshore/ocean: you must carry a chronometer, a sextant, all-star and sun reduction tables and star and sun almanac. It sounds a bit archaic.

Well, it is archaic! Nautical associations are struggling to modify leisure maritime law, and whilst the government department in charge of it is willing to modernize the rules and regulations, there is a mammoth bureaucratic structure behind them unwilling to modernise. They are not willing to be identified with “elitist groups” (yachting sector) and they block even the most well-structured and documented efforts to modernize the rules. Countries like UK, France and the Netherlands adopted nautical sports across all levels of society , where are more popular than tennis, golf, or horse riding, as a hobby.

Society adopts ways of living, including sports and hobbies, inherited, or maybe shared by family, school, or media. There is no coincidence that in countries with top sports figures, those sports are popular and accepted, even if they are as different as tennis, soccer, motorcycling or snow skiing. There are sports that are labelled as elitist, as polo, fencing or yachting. And here comes the socio-political effect: have you seen politicians in a final match in Wimbledon?  Yes.  In the EU finals of soccer? Yes. At the arrival of the America’s Cup or the take-off of the Vendee globe? No. In countries lacking a strong nautical tradition, politicians are careful with their attitudes towards nautical activities because elite-related sympathies can be a killer, seen as defending and backing up the rich. It does not matter that 80% of all the boats in the world are under 8m and cost less than a mid-size family car:  there is an unreasonable thinking that everything nautical or yachting related is only for the wealthy.

It should then be no surprise that those governments do not pay attention to the needs and requirements of the nautical industry or their associations. They are seen as a small group, from an unpopular economic class (educated/ affluent) and they do not want to be identified with the sector.

There is a snowball effect: school holidays are structured for snow days, not for sailing; impediments to the creation of new yacht harbours; lack of nautical/ maritime subjects at school; very few public sailing schools; archaic maritime law.

There is a Spanish matriculation tax (once off) of 12% plus 21% VAT on every new boat, power or sail, longer than 8m.  Not exactly a promotion of the nautical activities. Originally it was a luxury tax for products entering EU the country.  But the origin remains: it is luxury tax.

How does all this affect the industry?  The traditional nautical sportsman swallows and keeps going as he can, maybe buying a smaller boat and sailing closer to the shore to minimize the tough license needed, the equipment to carry onboard and the matriculation tax.

The newcomer considers  part-time ownership, club-ownership, or charter.

The shipyards do what they can to stay afloat, the ones with a respected international name export as much as they can, very little output is purchased by Spanish boat owners.

Most middle size and small size shipyards went out of business after 2008.

The effect of the Covid-19 pandemic in Spain is pretty much the same everywhere: people went in search of  the freedom they could not find ashore or by traveling.  But I see it as a temporary effect, an ephemeral oxygen bubble.

More than 10 years ago, in the Netherlands, the nautical association HISWA gave journalist students the task of finding out which members of Government owed pleasure boats or were keen yachtsmen. It took a year. When the results were gathered, politicians were ranked by influential positions held.  HISWA started routing their administrative needs directly to the government members who knew what nautical activities are all about. After a few experiences, the processing of such requests was achieved in half of the time it took before.  And Netherlands is not one of the countries dragging the nautical activities, on the contrary.

In the USA, the nautical industry has its day in Congress to discuss and round up the lobbying done during the previous year. What can we expect here in the South? Little I am afraid.

Possible solution? Lobbying seriously (and with high cost). In my 12 years as ICOMIA member and contributor, I have seen serious lobbying in countries and in the European Parliament deliver very good results. We need to educate the bureaucrats and the nautical industry needs to be persistent. Now we are always there to beg but not engaging enough in making things happen. We just shout (and not even loudly). Full stop. That will never bring us far.

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Oscar Siches CMP , GMBA Spain
Email: oscar.siches@gmba.blue or info@gmba.blue
Mobile:+34 667 494 858
Website: www.gmba.blue

N.B. Global Marine Business Advisors and its associated website www.gmba.blue are not registered legal entities. GMBA is a network of independent marine industry advisors.

Event sponsorship in the marina sector in serious need of innovation

A colleague of mine at GMBA, David Lewin, and a man I regard as a nautical industry authority, wrote an article in July declaring the lack of leadership the major mainstream players have so far provided in the sustainability of the leisure marine industry.

 

And so it is in the world of marina development. Just as everybody acknowledges the need for innovation (a word that both gives hope and can benefit sales) and the need to team up for well-organized events by others in the industry, have you ever tried to get a serious sponsor for a given respected event? You need patience, remain hopeful, and be prepared for disappointments and elaborate excuses.  Industry leaders with turnovers in the millions of euros (or US dollars, or kuna) would not happily sponsor a well-known international event for 40 or 50k, as if the sum will threaten their financial stability.

Everybody must protect their own interests, and part of that is to evaluate the return on marketing investment, but we are witnessing a selfish approach to marketing: give me more business at the lowest possible cost, full stop. Curiously (take it as sarcasm) the industry abounds with big mouths stating their contributions or letting know their interest in making a presentation in this or that marina conference, or asking publications to print their news, expecting to be done for free. We are not operating as a unified industry but as a scattered group of guys operating marinas, suppliers, or event organizers. The operators and organizers show some common interests and keep the weak fire burning, but it is not enough to catapult the industry to the next (needed) stage.

I do not agree that the wealthy must pay more for the sake of their wealth, but a contribution to the industry development will always be appreciated and be considered natural, as all guilds did through history, and sometimes it could also be directly beneficial for the benefactor. Particularly good examples are the factories promoting and sponsoring training courses: there is no better source for the future workforce. Large yacht shipyards like Lürssen invest heavily in lowering yacht emissions and development of alternative propulsion systems, while knowing that lots of people will follow their lead and guidance, without any special gains for them. In our case, contributing to projects apparently alien to our core business (like trying to harmonize the quality and quantity of the safety equipment boats must carry onboard) can have a general benefit to all nautical, attracting new enthusiasts by simpler rules and regulations. New enthusiasts mean need of more berths. There we are. Big marine industry companies are potential testing grounds of everything worth trying, and sponsoring innovation and knowledge would bring almost immediate results. In Palma a few years ago, Seabin was allowed to try the prototypes at a local marina, the marina financed some of the costs, and now Seabin is successful and known worldwide. The opportunities are there, they have to be identified and sponsored.

The marina associations could and should be working closer to reach consensus. Icomia Marinas Group has been developing interesting projects in the last years, including the Code of Practice for marinas in Covid affected areas and the meticulous description of different government concession conditions.  The last World Marina Conferences have been very successful both in organization and the subjects discussed, but no association can get results without an appropriated working budget. Look at (ex) UCINA, SEABASS, ANEN.  Serious associations cannot be depending on the charity of higher bodies (nothing negative implied here, IMG depends on ICOMIA’s budget and has to live with the associated limitations.  That is a fact as strong as gravity. A reserve of funds to be administered by an international marina body (existing or new one) would permit the continuation of studies with a scientific base for subjects like marinas water quality and water renewal ratios, efficient energy use or pump out and waste disposal rules and new equipment.  PIANC is helping us on a few fronts, but they need scientific data and not circumstantial evidence from a recurrent experience. We are using 30-year-old technologies in marinas. A good-looking pedestal is NOT innovation: it is a 20-year-old unit with modern looks. There are so many issues to resolve: pylon maintenance, service ducting, sea growth farms underwater, non-aggressive illumination, remote fire detection . . . yes, we have been lucky with the low accident ratio within the marina world, but to use it as justification to stall is an extremely poor and unjustifiable behaviour.  In the past 10 years marinas in the First World have been related to juicy profits (not always the case), the image transcended geography and reached Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Shrewd businessmen have made marina groups attractive to trust funds which would buy and re-sell after a few years of good (sometimes pumped-up) results and most times a healthy profit.  And with all that money flying around we still cannot get our big ones to support our evolution. Is it the comfortable lying back and waiting until the industry creates (in their own eyes) something worth investing in?  Or is it the lack of control once the money is invested and the uncertainty that it will be used efficiently?  Most probably a bit of each as both are valid reasons, and the lack of interest to change things from that side too.

At conferences and events, we have become a non-marketing police body.  Tough, clear instructions about not mentioning anything remotely commercial in the presentations.  Excesses have been committed in the past, and I was one of those who supported the “no promo policy” action at the time, but we have reached an almost obsession with the matter, to the point of censoring chats during Zoom meetings.  Any extreme is bad, but what are we offering to speakers who (or who’s companies) pay their travel and accommodation and spend time preparing their presentation to share their knowledge and experience to us and for our benefit. We must reinvent the model.  We must ask for support as a money contribution or event sponsorship but also must offer compensation to the individuals and companies that make all these activities possible.  The easiest compensation is to give them the exposure they deserve for what they pay for. The pens, bags, coffee times and paper blocks are remains of a bygone era.  By sponsoring drinks after the conference, most of us will be a bit wasted as result of the long day, listening to presentations and networking. At such times, two drinks cause a diminishing effect and a certain sensation of leaving the world behind, including the drinks sponsor.

Exclusive visits to factories, sea trials, witnessing laboratory tests, one day workshops with industry leaders would be remarkably interesting alternatives, a unique way to have a unique “hands on” experience at top level. Even if not everybody can make it at least the effort and opportunity was there to be shared, and those participating would become unofficial ambassadors of the experience’s hosts, and the example will be copied and improved and made better by other industry players.  Most of us are good at copying well (not all of us). When we create a working system or protocol and it is presented during marina industry events, people implement it in their own marinas. As Renzo Piano, the famous architect said, “there is nothing wrong with copying, but you must copy well or better, what is inadmissible is to make a bad copy”. Everybody knows the corner cutting bunch.

How do we make this necessary change happen?  I would identify 4 or 5 industry players from different sectors (2 operators, big supplier, event manager, known speaker). They can build up the grounds for the “new order”, and once the concept is achieved other players can join and contribute in various roles. Why 5 and not 20?   A small amount of people will take decisions quicker and set a more agile pace.

The operators will be there to bring the discussions down to earth and keep everyone’s feet on the ground. The big suppliers will explain their company and sponsoring needs and limitations. The event manager will assess the feasibilities of an event and create new added values for everybody, like special trade day or database sharing or small TV production including industry known players. The speaker will contribute with time allocations, presentations order, and different angles to approach the subjects. Each of them speaking on what they know best. More members from other areas of the industry could be necessary, but the success of it will be related to the short number of members.

Are we ready for this?  No, and that is the perfect reason to do it now.  The soft moaning but keeping the status quo of things is a scary road to follow, it foments bad attitudes and makes us stiff and inflexible.  We all are aware of big associations stuck in the limitations of the past and not being able to adapt to the faster pace of today, the need for understanding the changes to our customers (I recently saw “dungeon master” as an entry in the CV of a lawyer with an excellent reputation) and industries and to make moves that do not have a 100% guaranteed success. Calculated risk is what will bring anybody forward today.  Unnecessary mobile use takes our time and attention, but we cannot ditch it or leave it at home because someone will be expecting us to answer a WhatsApp within 5 or 10 minutes, not 2 hours later. That was unthinkable 20 years ago, when many of us were in our prime, but that world does not exist anymore, and the only thing we can do now is adapt ourselves as much as possible to the new one and use that part of our experience that is still valid.

Let’s get together, put this to work, and create a future. The industry needs it desperately.

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Oscar Siches CMP , GMBA Spain
Email: oscar.siches@gmba.blue or info@gmba.blue
Mobile:+34 667 494 858
Website: www.gmba.blue

N.B. Global Marine Business Advisors and its associated website www.gmba.blue are not registered legal entities. GMBA is a network of independent marine industry advisors.

Against many odds, the Palma International Boat Show has been a success.

The date changes (to follow Balearics Covid protocols), the bad weather (very cloudy with less than 10 hours of patchy sun across the four days) did not stop both locals and foreigners from attending. There were some 200 boats on display, ranging in size from 4m to 50m, with 220 stands to welcome the visitors. It was a real pleasure to be in close contact as human beings again, and to yet again feel part of our lucky community of ocean enthusiasts.

The show had 30 000 visitors in 2019, and in this unusual edition of the event when air travel is still complicated, border health rules are stringent, and shipyards struggle to deliver boats to distributors and clients, we counted close to 16 000 visitors. The event was well organized, with flawless guest and exhibitor’s behavior. I mention this because taken by the emotion of being in that very special ambience of a boat show, one would tend to take it easy, form groups of people at close distances, leave some of the Covid protocols a bit behind. We latins get easily carried away when we get emotional, but not this time.

Everybody was conscious and patient on the occasions when it was needed, for example when checking mobile phone tickets took a bit more time or while waiting to be helped at a stand. Groups were small and kept their distances. Everybody wore masks.  Bars and restaurants did not see customers clustering at the bar, as orders were issued by a QR code at the table, and it worked. By scanning visitors entering and those leaving the show, the organizers were able to manage the maximum permitted visitors of 1500 people at any time.  It worked. Top brass from other EU shows (like Cannes) came to see what to expect in their future events. We were breaking that barrier that has limited us physically, and morally, for 15 months. Genova did well in October 2020, but we all visitors g=fell to low figures of the first months of 2021 until vaccination started to account for better results. A parallel virtual show was run featuring interesting presentations and live interviews from the physical show. This was a comeback feat more than a pure boat show. We had learnt our lessons. It was a community achievement.  Chatting with a few of the exhibitors, they agreed that this time it was more important to support the show and be back with a physical presence than the possible business generation.  Everybody understood it that way.  Everybody delivered.

Palma is back.

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Oscar Siches CMP , GMBA Spain
Email: oscar.siches@gmba.blue or info@gmba.blue
Mobile:+34 667 494 858
Website: www.gmba.blue

N.B. Global Marine Business Advisors and its associated website www.gmba.blue are not registered legal entities. GMBA is a network of independent marine industry advisors.

“Let’s go to the port, to see those megayachts of the rich,” she told her boyfriend, “they are huge, made for Arabs and Russians.”

“Why do I have to go look at the fortunes of all those bastards, most of them are criminals protected by their money,” answered her companion.

She wanted to go see a dream, a reality that was never going to become theirs. Her perception of large yachts, as shared with a large part of society, provided some of their general idea about the rich.

We are passionate about sailing and we live with and from it. Invented in England at around the time when the British flag (Union Jack, 1606) was forged from the flags of the Union and from the Dutch idea to create small, shallow and very fast boats to chase the pirates. With no internet or Netflix to amuse them, attacking coastal towns seemed good fun at the time!

In the 80s a 36m yacht was big. Today, 45m yachts are mass-produced, and more than 55 yachts over 100m in length appear on the international charts.

In most countries boating is generally elitist, like golf, horse riding and to a lesser degree, tennis. The efforts we have made to present boating as a “normal” sport to rulers have not yielded any results. Of course, in countries with a maritime culture, the majority of the middle class can own and enjoy a boat of up to 10m, sail or motor, at a cost no higher than that of a mid-level second-hand car. 85% of the pleasure boats in the world measure less than 10m, the popular nautical craft are small. Some countries (several from the third world) woke up to sailing later and generally follow the trends of the leading pack (EU – USA).

But what the world (including us) sees of nautical sports is not the family with a 6m boat in a trailer on their way to spend a weekend on the coast. The world sees the articles and news briefs in glossy magazines in which megayachts are shown as exorbitant costs to serve a group of 8 or 10 people. They also read about the America’s cup and the tens of millions they spend each season. Of course, soccer also moves millions and the players earn obscene amounts, but for a kid you only need a 15-euro ball and an empty lot and he can be Messi or Ronaldo all afternoon. Tennis can be played in a club. For the would-be nautical hobbyist, the possibility is light years away.

We must accept how we are seen, and continue to support athletes who represent us, not only us as a country, but also that incoming generation that seems to already have in their DNA a serious respect for the environment and an increase in personal values ​​( dedicate more time to themselves, not just run after financial success). Create places for the public in the sailing schools of the clubs, introduction to the nautical world in the schools, municipal nautical schools.

And the marinas. We have not evolved. The marinas allowed those who could not be members of a yacht club to use a mooring. It was the first opening of the nautical world for everyone. There are no marinas without yachts or yachts without marinas. They cover a need for the nautical development. They must be integrated into the community: visiting days, events, workshops.  The nautical activity is concentrated in four or five areas of the world.  We, the West, rule the waves. It is time to extend a hand out there and welcome everybody to enjoy the sea. It would be fantastic for them, and great for us.  We have the knowledge and the experience. All this is possible, but we have to do it from within. And there is a lot to do.

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Oscar Siches CMP , GMBA Spain
Email: oscar.siches@gmba.blue or info@gmba.blue
Mobile:+34 667 494 858
Website: www.gmba.blue

N.B. Global Marine Business Advisors and its associated website www.gmba.blue are not registered legal entities. GMBA is a network of independent marine industry advisors.

One of the unfortunate consequences of the almost limitless access to information by the grace and technology of mobile phones and other IT artefacts, is paradoxically how easy it is to get such information.

Many times, we summon the Wikipedia to find out something we are interested in. That is already good: knowing and using your resources.  But how deep are we ready to go to satisfy our curiosity or desire to acquire knowledge? In general, very little.  Our curiosity will be fed enough with the first one or two lines of the subject article. It is info zapping: a glimpse is enough, we are ready for the next chat, WhatsApp funny video, Instagram picture or a CNN headline. That is actually what occupies most of our mobile time online.

In fact, and as reported by Comscore, a US company dedicated to analysing online use, age-defined online use is distributed as follows

As it can be seen, there is not a generational difference in time spent online. Everybody does it, and with similar frequency.

If we check mobile use minutes compared with digital use minutes, Indonesia and India lead the world with 91% of online time being done on a mobile, while EU is around the mid-70s and both the USA and UK are on 77%.  It is a lot of use on the mobile. Desktop is still the choice to make purchases, but mobile is out there tempting us, sending us info, the weather and some private communication exchange.

We at the nautical industry know that we have to reach out to the customer, and that involves creating a rich, informative message, one that will not make the customer run to his desktop to purchase a new 50’ motorboat, but it will make the client switch to the shipyard website, call a friend who had or has an experience with them, and eventually set up a meeting with someone in the sales department. Swift, efficient, ideal.

But…

How far will the initial message be from the reality of a physical visit?  Most people do not read more than 30 or 40 words of a message or advertising.  With that input, they make (mostly unconsciously) the decision of keep reading or jumping to the next message.

The sales messaging in the leisure marine market has not innovated and changed along with the developments of design, usual use of boats, or user age tendencies.  The hospitality sector has, luxury vehicle sector has, applying the last known trends to draw the client’s attention to the core message.  It involves colours, motion, form, people’s attire, background.  We have stayed behind. The message to be shown in computers, tablets and mobiles (and specially these last ones) has to be a short one with solid content, inviting the reader to take the next step, either through generated interest or curiosity, but it has to catch the attention of the consumer with few words. A few years ago, the NMMA campaign of “Discover Yachting” was very innovating with short videos with very little or no text but carrying a huge message understandable by everybody.  Thom Dammrich, at the time president of NMMA, mentioned the old nautical adagio of “there are two happy days in the life of a boat owner: the day you buy your boat and the day you sell your boat” and issued his own version at a METS breakfast keynote speech: “there are two happy days in the life of a boat owner: Saturday and Sunday”.  It was a clear message that changed the thoughts of many industry and future nautical enthusiasts.

If not abandoning the old ways, we must learn the reception process of those we send the message to.  In the marina business we have adopted hotel and hospitality practices since the early 2000.  In 2008, deciding the profile of dockhands for a new Dubai marina, the decision was taken of recruiting hotel trained personnel instead of fishermen or sailors:  customer service was the #1 priority. We could train client service professionals to tie knots.

We need to engage specialists to help us develop the message we want to send. It can sound a bit extreme, and that feeling can also come from our reluctance to accept ways we are not used too.  We are a conservative bunch, but we are dependent on the image our potential client has made of us in his mind.  And our potential client’s thinking is changing fast, and we must be ready to act upon those changes.  Shall we say, “ideal for the whole family” or “even your mother-in-law will love it” or “your pets will feel like Tritons”? We must start looking at other sectors and see which successful marketing and communication practices there are that we can adopt for the marine sector.

Around 15 years ago, I was laughing with my travel agent about a friend of mine who told me he was going to start buying airline tickets through Internet. I thought he was a freak.

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Oscar Siches CMP , GMBA Spain
Email: oscar.siches@gmba.blue or info@gmba.blue
Mobile:+34 667 494 858
Website: www.gmba.blue

N.B. Global Marine Business Advisors and its associated website www.gmba.blue are not registered legal entities. GMBA is a network of independent marine industry advisors.