Pass the passion
Moving our industry to the next level is as easy as adopting a new way of thinking and doing things.
ACCORDING TO a recent American Demographics magazine report, 17,000 new products were introduced in the United States in 1994. Eighty-five percent of them failed.
That means more than 14,000 new products, representing significant investments in product development and promotion, didn’t grab a position in their respective markets. Why? Poor market research.
But the need for market research isn’t limited to new product offerings. Business publications are filled with stories of businesses that didn’t recognize marketplace shifts, changes in consumer tastes or threats from competitive forces.
They sacrificed tomorrow’s opportunities on the altar of yesterday. Their passion was for old business, old products, old methodologies and old marketing. They failed to develop a passion for new opportunities, technologies, consumer tastes or market approaches.
I’m afraid this is what’s happening in our industry. We are allowing a variety of leisure-time activities to siphon discretionary dollars that could be invested in the total backyard environment.
Consider resort travel. After commercial jets started flying across the Atlantic in 1958, ocean liner passenger service went into a steep decline. Ship owners responded by conducting extensive market research and launched a campaign equating an ocean cruise with health and prestige. Ships were refitted and redecorated to become resorts.
Today, cruise lines operate in all parts of the world. There are about 25 major cruise lines that stress the beauty, healthful benefits and convenience of ocean cruising.
Leisure-time marketing isn’t confined to cruise or resort travel. Count the number of motor homes on our highways. They’ve become a mainstay at national parks and resorts nationwide.
My point is that the money spent on travel, motor homes and cruises could be better invested in developing a complete backyard environment consisting of a pool and spa, waterfalls, landscaping and outdoor lighting. This approach would bring a resort-like atmosphere closer to home.
As an industry, we don’t have a strategy that allows us to participate in the resort and motor home travel markets. We are content to market against each other. We need a passion for what we do as an industry, a passion that will lead to an increased interest in our products.
A Mixed Report Card
While NSPI has taken steps to pass on this passion, we need to help. During its last expo, NSPI made a day available to the public. However, I think the timing and location should be reviewed.
Holding a pool and spa show in November pits our industry against the Christmas season and winter holiday mind-set. And because everyone likes to go fishing when the fish are biting, consumer-orientated pool and spa shows should be conducted in March, April or May, when homeowners are thinking about home projects and summer.
If the show is to be an effective consumer marketing tool, it should be conducted in a prime geographic area. It also should emphasize the total backyard environment.
While Phoenix (the site of the 1996 show) represented such a market, I question Chicago in 1997. Let’s take our message to our markets. Let’s pass our passion to those who can envision and embrace it. Although I’m happy our expo is open to the public, I think we must expand the show concept. I encourage NSPI to book space at the larger regional home and garden shows.
These shows have a demographic profile that is close to ours, including home builders, homeowners, architects and some 10,000 landscape architects. And the regional schedule, which should only include our major markets, should emphasize the total backyard environment.
NSPI deserves credit for creating some impressive television spots, but how many people have seen them? Studies indicate that any given television advertisement needs significant repetition to be effective. If the NSPI spots are designed to benefit the entire membership, they must be aired on a national basis.
I also suggest they use a high-profile spokesperson who can be identified with swimming or leisure-time activities. The spokesperson should be a draw for regional shows, promotions and lectures, discussing the long-term health benefits of owning a pool and spa. This person should have a strong female appeal, since the lady of the house influences many of the landscape decisions.
Forging Strategic Alliances
Earlier, I mentioned the success of the cruise and resort travel industries. Such results were not achieved by concentrating exclusively on the consumer. To build awareness of their products, passenger lines and resort destinations conduct intense marketing and education campaigns with travel agents, editors, television and radio reporters and employee incentive executives.
Pick up any Sunday newspaper or city magazine and you will see how successful this approach has been. Travel magazines or exotic cruises are regularly the subject of in-depth reports.
How often do you see comparable coverage of attractive, contemporary backyard environments?
NSPI should create strategic alliances with - and develop marketing plans for - the same type of audiences as our competition. Travel agents draw the blueprints for leisure-time plans. Real estate agents, architects and home builders play the same role for home and outdoor living.
Are we educating these audiences?
Do we have regularly scheduled newsletters addressing their needs and interests? What percentage of home builders are including pool and spa environments in their designs?
Home and garden magazine editors, leisure-time television/radio reporters, and Sunday newspaper supplement editors always are looking for a good story. If we don’t feel the results we achieve in the backyard environment make a good story, then we lack the passion necessary to compete in today’s business arena.
Throughout history, business leaders have been characterized not only by their ability to feel passionately about their objectives, but also by the successful transfer of that passion to their respective publics.
Once we pass the passion about the backyard leisure-time environment around our industry, it will be just a matter of time before we surpass our competition and assume a position of leadership in leisure-time choices.
May 15th, 1997 at 10:10 am
FROM THE EDITOR
HIS REPUTATION PASSED THROUGH my pool and spa career long before we had ever met. On a break during my first National Pool and Spa Institute (NSPI) board of directors meeting, somebody said. “That’s what Vance Gillette has been saying all along.”
The topic at the time wasn’t important. It was the message behind it – If Vance Gillette says it, it means something.
In case you’ve been out of the loop,
Vance has been an outspoken advocate for the positive promotion and marketing of this industry for more than 30 years. Today, he is vice president and general manager of pool systems for Teledyne Laars/Jandy Products, Novato, Calif.
From local NSPI chapter and region meetings to industry trade shows to the pages of this magazine, his message is usually loud and clear - ¬What have you done for your industry lately?
OK. So why does his voice count against so many others? One reason: passion.
Vance Gillette’s passion for the pool and spa industry is more visible than most. Sure, a lot of people out there are doing their part, but few do it with as much conviction.
I’m here to tell you that in a time when this industry needs proactive leadership, more people like Vance Gillette must step forward and be counted.
Currently, Vance is challenging each and every one of us to help move this industry to the next level (see Pass the passion, page 25).
As you absorb this request, think about what you and your company have done for this industry lately.
Have you conducted any employee or consumer education seminars?
Have you developed any innovative marketing and advertising campaigns that stress the benefits of owning a pool, spa, sauna or steam room?
Have you created an Internet site that not only will help answer industry-related questions, but will serve as a marketing vehicle to consumers searching for answers about our industry?
These are just a few of the questions you should ask yourself. There are scores of others that will help measure where you stand.
From where I sit, our industry’s future rests on the passion that each of us have for what we do. And this comes down to the last link on your company’s chain.
The funny thing is that passion shouldn’t be hard to find. Believing, understanding and enjoying what you do are all essential components of passion, each serving as a measuring stick for success.
If one of these links breaks down, you fall.
But let’s not lose sight of another point here. One of the problems facing our industry is misplaced passion.
Case and point: As Vance stated in his article, a recent American Demographics magazine reported that 17,000 new products were introduced in 1994. Eighty-five percent of them failed.
Some of these failures were attributable to factors such as poor market research, changes in consumer tastes, threats from competitive forces and a passion for an old way of doing business.
The last part of that definition can be a big obstacle in the road to success - misplaced passion. Holding on to things that are not working will only bring you down in the end.
So do what Vance says: Adopt a new way of thinking and doing business. Pass the passion of what you do and sell on to your consumers. Find the passion that is inside of what you do.
It’s not too late.