OK, I've been thinking about this for a long while and thought I'd share with everyone on here. Before I start I'll give you a bit of my own personal background though (very brief, I promise). I'm English. I trained as an instructor in Australia and then set up and oversaw the operation of several dive shops in Fiji over the following three years. I married a lovely lady from Michigan, moved back and started working at Bruno's in Clinton Township, teaching classes and running his charters for him as well as doing a little online marketing and promotion...
Right. Ready?
Michigan. In some economic strife. Businesses feeling the pinch, yes?
Michigan. Great Lakes. Wrecks. Shed loads of diving, yes?
Michigan. Dive shops and charters. Small businesses. Could do with more tourism, yes?
So, if we're all agreed on the above then why is there so much bitching and petty scrapping amongst the local dive shops, so very little collaboration and why is diving in Michigan (which is reasonably widely recognised within the industry as being great) marketed so little?
An Illustrative Example of the latter
My parents came over in June last year. We went to Traverse City and the Sleeping Bear Dunes, went into the visitors center and what I noticed was pretty typical. Here you have a big tourist information center: 5 minute video presentation, exhibit, models, gift shop... the works. However, despite the fact that there is excellent wreck diving just off of the dunes in the Manitou Passage Underwater Preserve and there being two dive shops/charters in the area? I'll tell you:
a) The video presentation waxed lyrically about the dunes and the activities on offer - we saw a fishing charter, people jetskiing, swimming, kayaking... Anyone diving? No. Giant striding off a boat? No. Any mention at all of diving. Not one.
b) The exhibit has a model of the passage complete with little plastic shipwrecks poking up from the surface. Any mention of these wrecks. Oh yes, and lots and LOTS of books in the gift shop too - fiction and non-fiction. Any wreck diving guides? Of course not.
c) There's a big brochure rack with fishing charter flyers and cards and all manner of other local businesses. Any dive charter flyers? You guessed it. Not one. Not even printed on cheap paper and ripped into thirds.
It's pathetic. Really. And the more I see of Michigan and the more "dive industry folk" I encounter, the more it saddens me.
Another Illustrative Example
I have been actively involved in revamping Bruno's website and I think I've done an OK job (all criticism more than welcomed btw). The next logical step after rebulding it was to market it a bit. Since we regularly dive the Sanilac Shores wrecks I figured I would see about getting an advert on the Preserve website. Done. It's been there for at least 6 months. At the recent show in Chicago we were made aware that there had been a lot of griping about the fact that our ad was on the site under all the preserve pages (other than just Sanilac). 2 facts here: 1) We can pull are boat out of the water and will drive it anywhere for anyone who wants to charter it to do so. 2) We paid for the ad.
What is wrong with these bitchers and moaners? They can put their ad on the pages fairly simply; pay the money and email them a gif. Job done. In fact, go right ahead, it's only the right thing to do. More coverage for the advertiser, more money for the preserve and long term maybe as a result more marketing and more dive tourism and then everyone's a winner. Simplistic yes, but even the basics aren't happening.
And this is my issue. Right now in the Detroit Metro area, virtually every dive shop slags off the others. Instructors spread false rumours about other instructors and stores to their students. Charter operators at worst cut each others moorings and at best are unwilling to pitch in together and create a better system of keeping them all maintained. No one lobbies for anything that isn't going to benefit them directly and certainly not if it's going to benefit someone else too. I am yet to see one visitor/tourist info center with a copy of the Michigan Divers Guide, let alone anything in any of the exhibits related to diving and dive charters. I am also yet to see one with a single ****ing pice of paper promoting someone's store or charter!
Seriously, I'll say it again. It's pathetic. And it does you NO GOOD.
In order to elavate scuba diving to the point where it is on the state-wide marketing agenda and gets apportioned some budget (and there is clearly budget there - those monstrous billboard ads with the "Pure Michigan" taglines that you see in Illinois and Ohio don't come cheap) there needs to be collaboration. Have a look at Michigan's website and do a little tool around for anything scuba related - there are some bits there but only if you really dig for it.
In all the magazines that I know you read you'll see some collaborative advertising. All those little Bahamian dive shops can't afford a double page spread in Rodale's Scuba Diving so the Bahamian tourist board buys the space and splits the cost with the individual shops. I've seen the same thing for various other countries and I'm sure you have too. The same could be done for the Great Lakes surely but not the way things are now.
OK, rant over. I won't make any apologies. Please see this as a view from someone with fresh eyes who would like to see the situation improve.
Cheers
Rick
Right. Ready?
Michigan. In some economic strife. Businesses feeling the pinch, yes?
Michigan. Great Lakes. Wrecks. Shed loads of diving, yes?
Michigan. Dive shops and charters. Small businesses. Could do with more tourism, yes?
So, if we're all agreed on the above then why is there so much bitching and petty scrapping amongst the local dive shops, so very little collaboration and why is diving in Michigan (which is reasonably widely recognised within the industry as being great) marketed so little?
An Illustrative Example of the latter
My parents came over in June last year. We went to Traverse City and the Sleeping Bear Dunes, went into the visitors center and what I noticed was pretty typical. Here you have a big tourist information center: 5 minute video presentation, exhibit, models, gift shop... the works. However, despite the fact that there is excellent wreck diving just off of the dunes in the Manitou Passage Underwater Preserve and there being two dive shops/charters in the area? I'll tell you:
a) The video presentation waxed lyrically about the dunes and the activities on offer - we saw a fishing charter, people jetskiing, swimming, kayaking... Anyone diving? No. Giant striding off a boat? No. Any mention at all of diving. Not one.
b) The exhibit has a model of the passage complete with little plastic shipwrecks poking up from the surface. Any mention of these wrecks. Oh yes, and lots and LOTS of books in the gift shop too - fiction and non-fiction. Any wreck diving guides? Of course not.
c) There's a big brochure rack with fishing charter flyers and cards and all manner of other local businesses. Any dive charter flyers? You guessed it. Not one. Not even printed on cheap paper and ripped into thirds.
It's pathetic. Really. And the more I see of Michigan and the more "dive industry folk" I encounter, the more it saddens me.
Another Illustrative Example
I have been actively involved in revamping Bruno's website and I think I've done an OK job (all criticism more than welcomed btw). The next logical step after rebulding it was to market it a bit. Since we regularly dive the Sanilac Shores wrecks I figured I would see about getting an advert on the Preserve website. Done. It's been there for at least 6 months. At the recent show in Chicago we were made aware that there had been a lot of griping about the fact that our ad was on the site under all the preserve pages (other than just Sanilac). 2 facts here: 1) We can pull are boat out of the water and will drive it anywhere for anyone who wants to charter it to do so. 2) We paid for the ad.
What is wrong with these bitchers and moaners? They can put their ad on the pages fairly simply; pay the money and email them a gif. Job done. In fact, go right ahead, it's only the right thing to do. More coverage for the advertiser, more money for the preserve and long term maybe as a result more marketing and more dive tourism and then everyone's a winner. Simplistic yes, but even the basics aren't happening.
And this is my issue. Right now in the Detroit Metro area, virtually every dive shop slags off the others. Instructors spread false rumours about other instructors and stores to their students. Charter operators at worst cut each others moorings and at best are unwilling to pitch in together and create a better system of keeping them all maintained. No one lobbies for anything that isn't going to benefit them directly and certainly not if it's going to benefit someone else too. I am yet to see one visitor/tourist info center with a copy of the Michigan Divers Guide, let alone anything in any of the exhibits related to diving and dive charters. I am also yet to see one with a single ****ing pice of paper promoting someone's store or charter!
Seriously, I'll say it again. It's pathetic. And it does you NO GOOD.
In order to elavate scuba diving to the point where it is on the state-wide marketing agenda and gets apportioned some budget (and there is clearly budget there - those monstrous billboard ads with the "Pure Michigan" taglines that you see in Illinois and Ohio don't come cheap) there needs to be collaboration. Have a look at Michigan's website and do a little tool around for anything scuba related - there are some bits there but only if you really dig for it.
In all the magazines that I know you read you'll see some collaborative advertising. All those little Bahamian dive shops can't afford a double page spread in Rodale's Scuba Diving so the Bahamian tourist board buys the space and splits the cost with the individual shops. I've seen the same thing for various other countries and I'm sure you have too. The same could be done for the Great Lakes surely but not the way things are now.
OK, rant over. I won't make any apologies. Please see this as a view from someone with fresh eyes who would like to see the situation improve.
Cheers
Rick
