NMMA and MRAA launch Market Expansion Advisory Group
The National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) and the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas (MRAA) have launched the Market Expansion Advisory Group to confront declining new boat sales and unify the recreational marine industry around a shared growth strategy.
Hand-picked for their deep marketing expertise across OEMs and dealerships and with an NMMA board liaison, the Advisory Group includes:
- Thomas Bates, chief revenue officer, Correct Craft
- Lauren Beckstedt, chief marketing officer, Brunswick
- Bryce Brown, owner, MasterCraft Colorado
- Abbey Heimensen, vice president marketing, MarineMax
- Amber Holm, chief marketing officer, Winnebago Industries; also sits on the Board of Directors for the RVIA’s GoRV’ing initiative
- Victor Gonzalez, chief marketing officer, Sportsman Boats
- Rob Parmentier, chief executive officer, Sailfish Boats and NMMA Board of Directors liaison
- Bryan Seti, general manager, Yamaha Watercraft; national sales and marketing, G3 Boats
“This is bigger than a campaign; it’s about how we work together to serve a changing consumer through shared resources that allow us to accomplish what no single entity can accomplish on its own,” said Lauren Beckstedt, CMO, Brunswick. “Like any good marketing effort, the group will ensure decisions are rooted in data and partnership and bring clear measures of success for Discover Boating that ignite industry action.”
“We need a solution to grow this industry because sales are not only declining, they’re going away,” said Rob Parmentier, CEO, Sailfish Boats. “People are choosing to rent, join a boat club or not even become a boater at all. Something has to change and our goal for this group is to ignite the spark we need to enact real change and get our industry on the right track to grow.”
The Advisory Group will determine how success should be defined for Discover Boating and how this success can be achieved. The group’s recommendation on how the industry defines success for Discover Boating will be presented to the NMMA and MRAA by the end of October. Recommendations for how to achieve this success will be developed after the board gives feedback.
To inform this work, Discover Boating is commissioning first-of-its-kind, in-depth consumer research to pinpoint the buyers of today and tomorrow. After the research is completed in September, it will be shared with the industry in the fall. It’s being guided by the Advisory Group and executed in partnership with global research firm Ipsos.
