BLOG: How much does the public need to know?

OVER the last few years, no industry has gotten it up the teeth more than ours. Despite precipitous downturns affecting the vehicle industry (which is now starting to rally exceptionally healthily in Australia), the construction sector and the retail sphere, no industry has had the stuffing kicked out of it more than the marine segment. Non-essential items requiring the wanton frittering of large amounts of hard-earned, discretionary income – somewhat like trying to sell Gucci loafers at a sandal stall in Sudan, wouldn’t you say?

Despite, or maybe because of, our distance from the more reported-on boating hot spots of North America and Europe, we have valiantly and doggedly soldiered on, supplying our own superbly crafted (albeit slightly expensive) wares to our own unique and surprisingly resilient market. But if you were a dealer in the US at the moment, you’d have to be wondering just what you have to do to stay even marginally viable. Anybody who reads US forums (and let’s face it: they can be informative, enlightening and entertaining, albeit with a tendency for posters to sanctimoniously preach and proselytise), will know that it’s all about pitilessly and remorselessly screwing the dealer (even eliminating him if necessary) to secure the most boat for the least amount of money. Driving a thousand miles interstate to trail home a bargain – on which the local dealer will be callously tossed the “breadcrumbs” of service or warranty work – has become as commonplace as a double cheeseburger and a 2-pint Slurpee for breakfast.

So you’d think, wouldn’t you, that all US marine-industry executives would be fully cognisant of, and sympathetic to, the plight of dealers in relation to sustainability, viability and profitability? Well, not a bit of it. For some unfathomable, logic-defying reason, two long-standing and apparently polarising executives (with equal numbers of fans and foes) - one who has worked with the world’s two leading outboard companies and one who spent most of his working life at the largest boatbuilding consortium in the US – have now ludicrously decided to crucify and immolate the dealer body properly with a new website called “Seedealercost.com”. So these two dudes, who happily, blissfully and insouciantly accepted decades of probable six-figure salaries, plus company pension-fund contributions plus annual performance bonuses etc, etc, have now decided that a “poacher turned gamekeeper” approach is what is necessary to bring the marine industry into the modern age. The Skipper doesn’t know these two guys, but he can certainly smell the cordite and the pervasive, putrid whiff of sour grapes that emanates from two former high-flyers who have either been unceremoniously eased out or fired.

These two website pioneers have decided to ape several automotive sites, where dealer cost for all vehicles is shown. Of course, when we say “dealer cost” in relation to motor vehicles, this means base invoice price for the car with no reference whatsoever to any monthly/quarterly target rebates or dealer holdbacks on specific models. Car manufacturers are not stupid. They know that do-good, meddling, smart-ass consumer advocates can easily find out invoice price, but there is as much chance of the manufacturer publicising rebates or “back-end” money as there is of Gough Whitlam standing in the next Federal election. Plus, many of us who have bought a new vehicle will know that the masterly opening gambit of an unctuous and disingenuous showroom sleaze will usually involve his furtive, ingratiating proffering of the “genuine” dealer invoice.

So what is to be gained from a marine-industry website of the same type? For dealers and manufacturers, absolutely nothing – in fact, it may well be the decisive knife wound in a “death of a thousand cuts”. Anyway, the major players in the US industry have refused to hand over any pricing information to these two disaffected and duplicitous mavericks, and there is probably as much chance of them gaining employment in the mainstream sector again as there is of Sarah Palin becoming a member of MENSA.

At the risk of advocating an “us and them” mentality, The Skipper must seriously question why the general public now needs to know the price of everything. Do they quiz Coles and Woolworths on their landed cost of apples or cereals? Do they interrogate hotels and resorts about how much is actually involved in providing the facilities and services? Do they ask a tyre store how much it actually pays for 255 R17 radials?

No, you tell the public only what you want them to know. There are only two price parameters that are important: the price the dealer needs to get and the price the customer wants to pay - nothing else. If neither party is happy with what the other offers, then part company and start afresh with someone else. Anyway, from past experience, the aggressive, bombastic, ruthlessly mercenary customer who begrudges a dealer his profit is usually an anal orifice of immense proportions once service or warranty is required.

The Skipper’s advice, therefore, is to keep your profit; keep your sanity, keep your self-respect……and keep your doors open!