Correct Craft's Marketing Strategy ???

[cotton]

Having been in business for more than 25 years, I’m always an anxious learner when it comes to different marketing strategies. Having not owned a ski boat for more than 15 years and becoming a first time Nautique Owner earlier this year, I’m confused by Correct Craft’s marketing strategy and am sure some of you guys can teach me a few things.

While I spent only a fraction of the time on Mastercraft’s site while searching for a new boat, their marketing strategy may be the same for all I know and maybe this is boat sales 101. Since I won’t read long drawn out post’s myself, at the risk of missing an opportunity to completely clarify the question, this post will be brief and via an Example.


Prospective Buyer living in an area with no local dealer is interested in buying a Nautique. No problem, internet has made entire world a very small place and provides information super highway. Buyer gets to Nautique site relatively easy and starts searching ski boats section. Unknowingly he spends a lot of time doing due diligence on ski boats potentially being phased out (196 & 206), and since the new boat potentially taking its place (200) is nowhere to be found, wastes a lot of time.

Anyway, Buyer settles on ski boat model 196 and since no pricing available, realizes its time to contact dealer, types in his zip code under Dealer Locator and is lead to a dealer link (here’s mine: www.falserivermotorsports.com ). Here he a finds 4-wheeler dealer web site with no mention of Nautique on Home Page. He’s persistent though and goes to New Inventory/ New Boats and finds only two boats: one Crossover 211 with price listed as “reduced $5,000.00;” and one Crossover 216 with price listed the same way. Since the dealer is estimated at 3 hours and 44 minutes driving time away, he calls another dealer only to find out they can’t sell out of their territory and is directed back to no ski boat inventory 4-wheeler dealer.

OK, this post is becoming too long and drawn out so with this limited info can someone educate me on this marketing strategy? I have a hunch but want to get feed back first.

[SkiTower]

This sounds like a job for SUPER-RON. Anybody got the Ron Signal?

Very good question and I don't have an answer. My dealer is great (Whitelake), but is very isolated in my opinion. I doubt Mastercraft has the same philosophy as they are VERY different companies. This question has been asked repeatedly and no strong answer has been given, yet...

[SkiTundra]

RE: Correct Craft

Their dealer strategy, reasonably enough, is to provide protection for dealers, which dealers do need. The problem is that they treat all dealers the same. IMO they need to have A, B, and C dealers based on level of services provided, new boats kept in stock, customer satisfaction results, etc. 'A' dealers get much higher level protection but also have much higher level requirements to meet. When someone searches they get a listing of their closest dealer and if that's a C or B they also get listing of next closest and then next closest until the listing includes their closest 'A' dealer. They should then be allowed to purchase of whatever dealer they choose nationwide. CC should make sure that their cost to dealer includes enough to adequately pay another dealer for follow-up and warranty work.

The 200 campaign got out of hand. To allow rumor to do it's thing for a few weeks is one thing, but not having the 200 and solid info about it up on their site with other boats at this point is pretty bad IMHO.

[MikeC]

RE: Correct Craft

I will say that all inboard boat manufacturers that I have dealt with protect thier dealers the same as CC does. When I was looking for my latest boat I was doing a lot of comparison shopping, and because I travel a lot with my job I was test driving boats all over - and hoping to find the best deal. All was fine until they found out that my address was closer to another dealer and I was politely told that I could buy that boat but the deal would have to go through my local dealer. This included, Malibu, MasterCraft, Tige, Supra, Centurion and Nautiques, I test drove them all and asked the same questions - they all protect the dealer.

[cotton]

Protecting a dealer is understandable; to a certain extent. Protecting one nowhere close to a particular area with a website home page not even including the Nautique name and this dealer having no ski boats in stock, is harder to understand.

And the "Keeping a (200) secret is hard" seemed smart for a week or so but is confusing six weeks later.

By the way, I have no interest in buying another boat for probably a long while and this thread is as stated; a marketing learning opportunity. CC's been in business a very long time and produces an awesome product so I'm interested in knowing their strategy.

[DanielC]

I would think that with the Meloon family no longer controlling Correct Craft, there might be some changes in marketing, and other areas of the company.

[tdc_worm]

protecting the dealer is absolute BS. it allows them to price fix and affords the consumer zero protection. i will give you an example:

in my area, i have one of the top 5 (often top 3) CC dealers year on year by volume. because of that, their high demand, they fetch top prices for their boats. say you live in East BFE and buy from a low volume dealer, then move to my area and decide to sell your boat. because you (likely) paid MUCH less for your boat than i did mine, you immediately devalued my boat just by moving to my area.

that being said what i was quoted by a personal friend for a two separate boats (and yes i own a 220 and a 236), was well over $20k and $30k more than what i bought my two boats for....and that is including the special friend discoutn. i am a loyal CC owner, but i am not stoooopid and i am loyal to myself first.

my advice: by a left over boat on the show room floor one year out. because your dealer cannot provide you with what you want, they cannot keep you from seeking it elsewhere.

[INVNO1]

I would think that with the Meloon family no longer controlling Correct Craft, there might be some changes in marketing, and other areas of the company.

BINGO !!!! JMO, but I'm not sure I like what I'm seeing lately.

[raygunclan]

200 info on site now... not sure about the dealer stuff.
http://www.nautiques.com/boatpages/ski-nautique-200

[steve-o]

It's also the nature of the area to find only those boats in the location you are searching. The only dealers south of Alexandria that begin to do more than a few sales a year on inboards is (MC) Bennett's Ski in B.R., and the bu dealer in Metairie. Outside of that, you are going to see the Powersports dealers on any listing. Don't expect them to have inventory either. That boat is probably in Indiana and they can have it shipped here. How many inboards did you see last time you were on the water? Now compare that to the number of Tahoes and Bajas running around. Local dealers are going to market to the market and inboards don't sell like a 22' center console around here.

[cotton]

200 info on site now... not sure about the dealer stuff.
http://www.nautiques.com/boatpages/ski-nautique-200

This looks good. You gotta give CC credit for their website content. The pictures and videos really do a good job of helping the prospective customer figure out which model will work for them.

[zapada]

Many good thoughts and questions on this thread. Nautique sales require a high-end niche market with enough patrons to provide the high-end service that is expected and needed during and after the sale. This is why dealer protection is so important, otherwise you'd have one dealer in California, one in FL and one in NY that sold all the boats in the country for $1K over invoice and shipped for $500 or so because they're selling 1,000 units a year. If we did that you would have NO service, follow-through, or support mechanism and the system would eventually falter. Dealer protection gives a dealer the incentive to build a shop, do the right things, provide the type of service that is required and pour the capital into the business knowing that he is protected from fly-by-night competitors and his service area is large enough to support the niche needs. The exclusive right to sell any brand is often times to most valuable asset in modeling a retail business. Ask anybody in specialized retail sectors.

All that being said, there is probably not a dealer in the country that doesn't wish he had ZERO inventory right now. The fact that a dealer does or does not have certain inventory is kind of unfair in the current market environment. If you were more than just a tire-kicker and you actually wanted a boat, they could probably get you a boat quicker than you can put your finances together.

In my area there WERE two dealers. One in SE Idaho and one in Boise. The Boise dealer seemed to have more inventory (more of the same boats) but the service was not as good as the other dealer in Pocatello (which typically has less inventory). Guess who is still in business?

Now is definitely not the time to be critical of the CC dealer network. I'm sure the same hold true for all dealers.

I think any type of multi-regional, global or internet sales of any product that requires significant service, appeal or follow-through after POS is a total stab in the back to the brick & mortar retail outfits. That's my two cents I guess.

Regarding the marketing of the 200 specifically. I think it was very poor. Probably a super boat and I can't wait to see it, but the way the whole things was rolled out gives me the impression that they really didn't know what they wanted to do and that they were anxious to introduce the boat and did so before they actually had the marketing material ready to go. Classic example: The 2010 Chevy Camaro that we all saw years ago when we went to the movie transformers. The thing was sweet in the movie...but...not available for like 2 years...CAN YOU SAY LAME! That is the same impression I got from CC when they introduced the 200, although not quite as extreme.

[tx51210]

200 info on site now... not sure about the dealer stuff.
http://www.nautiques.com/boatpages/ski-nautique-200

This looks good. You gotta give CC credit for their website content. The pictures and videos really do a good job of helping the prospective customer figure out which model will work for them.

I have to disagree. I was frustrated by the content on numerous manufacturer websites and actually found better pictures and basic boat information on wakeboardingmag.com. (example: show me the dash layout of the 210) Many manufacturers are getting more splash on their pages and hiding more factual content. Gets old when you are trying to compare features and find the right boat.