Time to Get Creative in Your Marketing

[Tuna Taxi]

Some very good points from a pretty damned good businessman. However, like all ventures, a bit of caution would be prudent because too many italians in bananna hammocks might make HI the new Key West!

But you are so correct about how nice it is to have the boat stocked with comfort items. Nothing hits the spot like a hot lunch the mate pulled off the engine manifold, and an icebox full of beer & soft drinks. Besides the obvious, it's nice that you don't have to run around a deserted marina town at O-dark-thirty buying overpriced crap so you have something to eat on your trip.

When does Squidnation Tours open its doors?

[Squidnation]

Some very good points from a pretty damned good businessman. However, like all ventures, a bit of caution would be prudent because too many italians in bananna hammocks might make HI the new Key West!

But you are so correct about how nice it is to have the boat stocked with comfort items. Nothing hits the spot like a hot lunch the mate pulled off the engine manifold, and an icebox full of beer & soft drinks. Besides the obvious, it's nice that you don't have to run around a deserted marina town at O-dark-thirty buying overpriced crap so you have something to eat on your trip.

When does Squidnation Tours open its doors?

Well Bill, I have been doing it for years. I have made alot of friends in the charter business and I admire them immensely. I made a simple formula that has been successful over the last few years. If you can find three benefits for three seperate entities, to a single solution then you probably have something that will work. Take for instance the kids event.

Benefit
1. Kids and dads have fun.
2. 6 charter days for the local fleet
3. Hopefully the captains that we chartered will think about squidnation when they need some squids and other stuff.

How about the World Circle Hook Tour
1. Billfishermen get an incredible amount of knowledge on the art of circle hook fishing. Not in a classroom but in a cockpit!
2. 26 charter days for the the fleet
3. Hopefully when the fleet needs stuff they will think about Squidnation.

If you break down someone like Canyon Runner you will find the same exact thing concerning their seminars.

1. gain an imense amount of knowledge from argueably the top tuna operation on the east coast.
2. I am sure they get some charters from the incredible number of people that attend their seminars
3. When those attendents needs stuff I would hope they think about Canyon runner and the other vendors that were present at the show.

Those are direct what I call first level benefits. But the secondary benefits are equally as important.

1. Meeting people from the board.
2. Stimulating the economy of the businesse that support the charter industry.
3. Introducing new faces to those charter operations that will most likely recommend those charter operations to others.
etc.

Let me also say that, Other then buying my squids I have never made a plug nickle from the charter operations. Sure I have been invited to ride along a few times to take pictures but thats about it.

Creative Marketing is going on all over the world. The medical industry has really made it fun with such things as.

1. Ladies night out and Mamogram party. Doctors market to the ladies that they will throw a wine and cheese party for a group of women. They will hire drivers, provide the refreshments and give a mamomgram.
2. V night - Men can go to some doctor down south and watch the first round of the NCAA tournament while recovering from their Vesectomy. I heard that one on the radio the other day. The doctor's office provides a huge screen tv, plush seating and a frozen bag of peas seriously.

Sure some of these things are corny and laughable but if it swings one group of men or women it is a big win for everyone.

I can't believe a small group of charter boats or tackle vendor hasn't taken advantage of June 14th being FLAG DAY. How about a 1 day billfish tournament on June 14th. Just thinking out loud here.

[biebs]

Here's my theory, take it or leave it. This is what I have learned.

My father told me 2 things when I left for business school. Never work for anyone but yourself, and most important, you have to invest money to make money.

I fish 80 to 100 charter days inshore/offshore a year as a mate. Im 29.April/May/June inshore, offshore until october or nov. I'm married, hopefully kids on the way (my boys aint swimin right for some reason), rule is the trips need to be within 2 hours of my home in Annapolis Md. Thats the deal with the wifey. Cant own a boat, dont have the time to deal with it. My business's and family come first, fishing next. When I was 13 my dad took me on my first charter with Mike Clarkin on the fishing frenzy. I was hooked. The next year I started mating and have slowly bulit up my own book of bussniess. I take that book to the boat that I work on during that period of time. I've never been fired. This is what I have learned.

Market to those who have money. You see all these free publications with 50 ads for charter boats? What a joke. Its the "we'll everyone else is doing it, so I will do it theory" right? So, you might get a call every once in a blue moon. What about advertising in a local Lawyer Journal or a local medical publication? NO ONE does that. Ever seen a charter ad in a hunting magazine? Those who fish usually hunt also....crazy theory. Im not talking about a 1/12 page ad like the rest. What if a full page ad cost you $2000 in a certain publication? Lets say you got one call and booked a trip and they came back for the next 10 years. Was it worth it? To me it is, but you will be suprised on how many calls you will get. Its simple Niche Marketing. These are people who work there asses off and have the time and money to go charter fishing. Jacob and I have been hitting that market up for the past few years for spring trophy. By February were booked solid, 30 to 40 straight days, 2 trips a day and could book it 2 times over. Pharmaceutical companies have very large expense accounts. You treat them right, they come back regardless of the cost. $2500 a day for offshore fishing? Its pennies to these people. I have a customer/friend who books 15 trips a year at $2400 a day. When the fishing is good, he goes. He comes by himself with his son, maybe. You think there are more people out there like him? As a business owner I eat sleep and breath marketing. What happens when you dont advertise............nothing happens. Sure referalls and word of mouth is great, but you can never have enough business. A percent of every sale I make in the bussiness's I am involved with goes to marketing. Try something different, you'll be surprised to see what happens.

[Persistence]

Bill,

I like the way you think and I'm looking forward to meeting you. In my every day job, I have to re-inventing what I do...because many times, the guys I'm competing against have worked for my company before and they know your pitch cold. They know where to plant landmines knowing you'll say the same thing over and over again. Well, if you fall into that, you get you ass handed to you. It has been very challenging the past 5 years (large dollar software sales) and I've worked for this company for 10 years. The first three, I killed it by sheer determination and just being hungry for cash. I still have all of those traits but the market has changed...and changed again, and again. I joke that during the first three years or so, I did not even know how some of the deals got signed. Now, I know my accounts and exec's and processes nearly inside and out and it is harder than ever.

You make a great point in that everything you do, you have to think what does the customer get out of it that will ultimately benefit them while giving me what I'm looking for...you'd like this to happen without them thinking you're doing this for money...even though that is the end goal.

A slippery slope for sure but I treat people the way I want to be treated and that is straight answers, strong solutions and on-going customer service or relationships...it sounds simple but it's not. Too many people out there lie through their teeth at every step and it makes the process even harder.

Anyway, I've thought about it in the past that it seems (to me) that a destination type fishing lodge in the lower Chesapeake would be hot. I mean it's a damn near 12 month fishery...extremely diverse (many world and line class records), airports, great access to the water...inshore, offshore, back bay, etc...it has it all.

Good post

Glenn

[T380Fisher]

Squidnation....great advise. I love your thinking about this.

When we as Americans become estabilshed, we get so caught up in the new/harderworking group (whom ever they may be) that we tend to forget that we worked our arses off that hard to get to where we are and just want to complain about the others doing more for less and not getting off our arses and do something about it.....and then get run over.

Want to run for President? We need a good business minded individual in that position. Probably doesn't pay enough though right?

[austin ensor]

im going to start trolling them fried!!!!! after you are done trolling you can eat it on the way back to the barn!!!!

[knot for shore]

Bill / Biebs,
best damn post on the site in quite some time.

[Captain Fred Archer]

Here's what could be some good news to those with open minds and the willingness to learn from hardcore historical research. When I joined Shimano from a big job in the big corporate world (man, did I hate THAT!), the first thing that I did was ask for an assistant (Kendell Hodges, who is now the head guy at U.S. Reels - who makes one helluva spinning reel, by-the-way) and took several months to study and analyze the fishing tackle and general outdoor sports markets, the business sides of which I knew nothing about. It took that long because there was no Internet back in those days, so the research was long and hard.

I learned a lot of things that surprised me, but here is one that I used to grow Shimano like no other U.S. tackle company had ever grown. Our research clearly showed that, get this, outdoor sports, including fishing, rose sharply in popularity and participation during down economies and especially during recessions!

It made perfect sense once I quit listening to the newscasters and this one guy at Shimano who thought that the sun rose and set on The Wall Street Journal and the economic reports that they kept issuing and that he kept bringing up at our marketing and budget meetings..."Rumble, rumble, rumble, the economy is going into a tailspin...joblessness is way up...the Dow Jones is in a tailspin...the GNP is way down...people are worried about their jobs and pulling in their horns and YOU (guess who) want to drastically increase our advertising at a time like this? What are you, crazy?"

I encouraged people to speak their minds in our meetings and this guy loved pontificating about all of the crap he was reading about and hearing on the news. I dropped the study that I had done in front of him and told him he had one day to read and absorb it so that he would understand why I was doing what I was doing and projecting terrific sales growth and furthermore, that I didn't want to hear anymore junk about what the Journal was saying. I left him with what was a regular battle cry for me..."What's bad for the masses can be good for our asses." He said, "Huh?" The next day, without asking him about anything that he'd read, I said, "Do you understand what I mean with that "bad for the masses, but good for our asses" thing? He said, yes, I do. I turned around and actually put him in charge of our advertising and promotion, which wound up being a huge budget and something that we wound up winning several major industry awards for. He did a great job and was the first to slap down anybody who started crying the recession blues - in meetings and we went through three during my tenure. We never did less than triple our sales during any of them!

The bottom line IS that people worry and stress out about their jobs, how much money they make, what the CNN guys are saying, what's going to happen next and so on...and you know what a lot of them do? Yup, they try to escape all the crap that they are thinking and worrying about. Now, what better escape do you know of than fishing for this? We were aggressive as hell during the down economies. We actually looked forward to them because we knew our competitors would be pulling in their horns based on what was being written and said about the economy, while we were drastically increasing our ad and PR budgets (and the magazines loved us for it and did lots of favors for us) and selling our asses off.

I'll skip the rest of the history lesson. Believe it, though, because it is true. Those of us who are in the game, be it making stuff or running charters, are in it more for love than money or we would never put up with how hard it is. Whatever you do, don't let this recession bullshit get you down. Recognize it for what it is IF YOU WORK TO MAKE IT HAPPEN AND DON'T CURL UP IN A BALL AND HIDE IN A CORNER, SUCKING YOUR THUMB!

And remember, like I always used to say, "Sometimes what's bad for the masses is GOOD for OUR asses!" Now go for it! Don't let the naysayers get you down. Next thing you know, it will be a booming economy and everybody will be working, thinking about making more money, and not fishing!

Oh, and I sure hope that anyone who wants to try out a whole new kind of spreaderbar will remember me!

Sic 'em!

[trollman]

Last time we had a boat load of asians they ate all the bait, no lie

the italians do the same thing

[neilinov]

What I am posting is a shameless plug, but bear with me.

Most people don't seem to understand what my business does. It can be somewhat of a complex concept, but it is really simple. We make life more enjoyable, period.

I have grown up in the resort community and realize that people come here to relax. If they didn't all of the charter boats would be out of business. Growing up in this environment has taught me that people will pay you to make them more comfortable. The more comfort you provide the more they will pay. The business started about 20 years ago and spun out of our Custom home business, when wealthy homeowners were constantly asking for small things here and there. Can you let a guest in our house this weekend, can you change some light bulbs for us, a storm is comming can you check on our house and boat? From this we have expanded to include dockside service.

Our Yacht watch program is mainly focused on the boat owner who is not quite at the point where they require a full time captain to look out for and maintain their boat, but still want the peace of mind to know that someone is looking out for one of their most prized possesion. We however do work on larger boats. Some of the things we do are provision the boat for the day, have the boat washed and detailed, captain for the day, transport of the boat and fueling of the boat.

What better way to start off your weekend than to arrive whenever you want and know that the boat is full of fuel, has the food ready for the day and the bait iced down.(We'll even help you rig them if you want) When you get back into port someone is there to wash the boat down and you are free to kick back and enjoy a cocktail. No more driving down from PA frantically trying to make it to the fuel dock before it closes.

Now for the charter guys we can help you out too. We know that you are busy running the boat day after day and the suggestion of getting food for the party is the last thing on your mind. I can see where Bill has a great idea that would set your operation apart from the rest of the line up. What we can do is make sure that the boat is provisioned every day. We can make sure that you have a steady supply of food, snacks and drinks ready for your party. You could even make a few extra bucks on this, and it definitely will set you apart from the rest. We also have a captain for a day service. There are just some days you are in a jam and can't find anyone to run the charter for the day, call us we can help. We do a ton of marketing and are constantly in contact with people on vacation, and people looking for corporate parties. Give us a call to be put on our list for bookings. It's one more outlet to help market your business.

If you have any questions about what we do feel free to give me a call or check out our website. (link in signature) My cell number is (302) 462 6196. Let me know that you saw this on SFC and I will hook you up with some extra discounts.