To market effectively, you must understand what it is you are selling. If you ask most dive retailers what they sell, they will tell you it’s three things:
- Diver training
- Dive equipment sales, service and rentals
- Dive travel and activities
But these three things are just components of something far more important. That is the experience of being a diver. If you want to market successfully, it’s this experience you need to sell.
Selling the experience
What do we mean by “selling the experience?” It’s several things. For example:
- No one purchases a regulator simply to have a regulator. They buy a regulator so they can go diving.
- No one signs up for a scuba course so they can learn to dive. They sign up for diver training so that they can learn how to have fun underwater.
- No one signs up for one of your group trips simply to go diving. What they really want is to be able to share an incredible experience with you and people they know.
Once you understand this, you can better market what it is you are actually selling. This will impact every aspect of your business, including the products you offer. Here is an example:
“Brand me as a diver…”
Most divers want others to know they dive. This is why word-of-mouth remains among the most important means of promoting your business. The question is, do the products you sell help your customers identify as divers?
There is a good chance you already carry diving-themed items such as:
- T-shirts
- Hats
- Hoodies
- Coffee mugs
- Key chains
- Bumper stickers
The question is, how many of these items carry your store’s logo? A generic diving t-shirt will help promote diving in general, but it won’t necessarily promote your store. You want as many of these items to carry your logo as possible. This way, what your customers wear or display on their bumpers will become free advertising for your business.
Another question you must ask is, how visible is your logo wear to people shopping in your store? Is it displayed as prominently as masks, fins, BCs and regulators? Or is it tucked away in some corner? Do you have at least one manikin wearing one of your store-branded t-shirts, hoodies and hats?
Remember that the margins on logo wear are generally much better than those on dive gear. These are impulse purchases; consumers are unlikely to comparison shop other dive stores for coffee mugs. Therefore, you may make nearly as much selling a $24.95 t-shirt as you do selling a discounted $49.95 snorkel. (And that snorkel does nothing to promote your business.)
More to come
This is just one example of how you can sell the experience of being a diver. We’ll cover more in future articles.