Craft Marine Case Study

Craft Marine Corporation

1. How would you characterize the U.S. boating industry?

There are over 100 full-line boat manufacturers in the U.S. Between 20-30% of which, distribute their products on a national level. Remarkably, there is no singular manufacturer that holds more than 10% of the industry market share, making the industry a fairly even playing field for the competing boat manufacturers.

The U.S. boating industry is heavily dependent on the general economic climate, with sales seen to be correlated directly to an individual’s discretionary income. The pleasure boat industry was projected to have year-end sales of $25.6 billion. Even though the boat industry is on target to gross a similar amount as the previous year, the actual number of unit sales dropped by 6 percent, but the offset was covered due a price increase of 13%. Many experts at the time believed that the drop in sales was due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. and the flunking economy.

2. How would you describe Craft Marine’s competitive position in this industry?

Craft Marine is positioned within the boating industry as an innovative, market-leading manufacturer, which strives to create new technology and to be the first to introduce it into the market. With 32 different models of boats in 5 product categories, Craft Marine covers a substantial amount of the boat industry. Craft Marine prides themselves on manufacturing quality boats for their customers and are less worried about price, as they believe their customers are worried more about the quality of the product.

3. How is the boat purchase decision made? What are the most important factors?

In order to find out more about the typical individual who purchases boats, Craft Marine conducted a study that looked into previous boat-buyers; demographics, reasons for buying a boat, and the key characteristics a boat must have in order to be considered. Craft Marine found out that their typical consumer was male, married,...