Blogs

By Mark Overbye Want to stock up on Virgin Cola? Gone. How about buying some Virgin Vodka? Also long gone. Care to purchase an automobile from Internet retailer Virgin Cars? Shuttered in 2005. Perhaps you want to book a flight on Virgin America Airlines? Can't do it. And you get the idea. Super entrepreneur Richard Branson has started over 100 companies. And he’s ...

By Ezequiel Arredondo We’ve said it before, and we’ll gladly say it again: Shoppers contact your dealership to shop for boat models, but they stay for the customer service. As the buying process becomes increasingly digital, how does this impact dealers’ approach to serving their customers? It turns out consumers have an increased expectation for boat dealers to provide digital ...

By Myril Shaw "We need to make sure our store meets compliance standards, we need a Red Flags Manual."  Well, unfortunately, having a Red Flags Manual does NOT make a store compliant. In fact, it doesn't even, by itself, demonstrate a "good-faith" effort to address compliance issues. So why does any of this matter? Nearly 60 million Americans have been impacted by identity ...

By Ezequiel Arredondo The term “emotional marketing” does not do justice to the persuasive power that this marketing tactic grants your dealership. While it may sound very heartfelt—and it certainly can be, if that’s your goal—emotional marketing pertains to any type of persuasive messaging that’s used to tap into people’s emotions and form a connection. Over the years, studies have ...

By Bill Yeargin If you look up Culture Warrior in the dictionary, next to it you will see a picture of Paul Singer. Paul is the president of Centurion and Supreme Boats and has led an incredible transformation of his company. Centurion and Supreme are both boating brands with esteemed histories. Centurion has been an innovator for decades and was ...

By Bill Yeargin Dear President Biden, You have a tough job and get a lot of advice. I hope you don’t mind me sharing some thoughts: COVID-19 – I know this is your Administration’s top priority, but I want to encourage you to do all you can to get the vaccines distributed. We are all ready to get back to ...

By David Gee Our audiences today are time starved and in control as never before, and we must work smarter to reach them, whatever it is we are "selling." And bombarding them with large amounts of infill and information is not the path to move, persuade, convince – and sell. Research in neuroscience tells us that reasons lead to conclusions, while emotions lead to ...

By David Gee Okay, I'll admit it, I am engaging in a bit of click bait blogging. Social media does in fact sell boats. Social media is an important, even essential, part of marketing today for most companies and organizations. But it's not enough. It can't be successful in isolation. And yet I seem to be coming across more and ...

By Mark Overbye You’ve no doubt heard the saying, “Be authentic.” If you’re like most people, you contemplate it for a moment, shrug your shoulders and move on. But what is authenticity and how do you achieve it and why should we care about it? My wife likes help with certain cleaning rituals on weekends. The work goes faster while I listen to ...

By Myril Shaw Well, here we are, the heart of the so-called "slow season."  Thanksgiving, and Black Friday, have now come and gone. Now that the craziness of this year has calmed a bit, it is time to evaluate and make decisions about how to be better. This is the season for change – change to make you better. Change to ...