Princess are on a marketing roll

[jfm]

Therein lies one of Princesses problems!

Yup, hit nail on head. In most of my interactions with them I sense a corporate attitude that they think they know best. Now in some departments ( boat design for example) that attitude has plenty of justification but across the company generally it doesn't. As someone immersed in financial sponsor transactions for decades I'm finding it a fascinating case: L capital, a tiny fund, seems to be watching its investment being destroyed in painful slow motion. After a heck of a long wait they finally replaced Chris Gates as ceo. The so far undisclosed LBO bank debt looks to me like it has been restructured so it will I'm expecting become visible in the accounts next year ( not that it hasn't been there all along). The 40m boat has cost some big big bucks. There is no apparent value in the management equity plan. And there's absolutely nothing to indicate an end to the continuing cash burn or an even modestly successful exit for L capital. I might be missing something and would be happy to be enlightened but it does seem an odd case and it can't go on like this for ever. I wish them every success in getting to the next stage in their evolution but can't help having some popcorn in stock.

 

[henryf]

I'm still waiting to hear the first suggestion regarding how they might better engage their customers. As I relaxed on my boat I enjoyed an hour or so perusing the content and didn't feel any annoyance

If they are trying to save the pennies a no cost to them magazine sounds like a good idea.

I have no desire to invest in or buy the company, merely their boats. I see the design which we all seem to agree is decent, they are more resistant to deep customisation than some manufacturers which will annoy a section of potential buyers but speculation regarding the financial structuring and performance is a long way from the marketing question posed.

So, once again how might they better engage new and existing customers?

Henry

 

[rafiki_]

I'm still waiting to hear the first suggestion regarding how they might better engage their customers. As I relaxed on my boat I enjoyed an hour or so perusing the content and didn't feel any annoyance

If they are trying to save the pennies a no cost to them magazine sounds like a good idea.

I have no desire to invest in or buy the company, merely their boats. I see the design which we all seem to agree is decent, they are more resistant to deep customisation than some manufacturers which will annoy a section of potential buyers but speculation regarding the financial structuring and performance is a long way from the marketing question posed.

So, once again how might they better engage new and existing customers?

Henry

Henry, I think you know the answer better than most. Make a really good product, better than the competition, ensure that you build value into the deal, like strong residuals, position that brand so it is desirable, build quality and reliability into the product, stand back and let the good times roll. A bit like Porsche.��

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

So, once again how might they better engage new and existing customers?

They could do something similar to what we do with our customers. Have regular open house days at the factory. Invite a bunch of selected customers, show them the factory, give them some presentations demonstrating how wonderfully technically advanced they are, line up half a dozen boats in Plymouth Sound for them to try and fill them with food and drink. These days its not enough to have a straight line manufacturer - dealer - customer relationship any more. Most customers want to know more about the organisation who is making the product and have some kind of beneficial relationship with them as well as the dealer

The other area where manufacturers can do a lot more is magazine editorial. Most trade magazines are crying out for interesting well written editorials with good pictures. Princess could regularly supply the boating mags with articles about adventurous cruises done by Princess owners or innovative manufacturing processes in their factory or new innovations they're fitting to boats or whatever. There's a fine line between editorial and advertorial but interesting editorial that doesn't overtly push the brand is a great way to market your products. Just by way of example there was an article many years ago in either MBY or MBM about a Princess 45 owner who cruised his boat across the North Sea in the depths of winter in atrocious weather conditions. I read that article and to this day my perception of the Princess 45 is that it must be a hell of a boat. No amount of lifestyle mags can buy that kind of customer perception

All IMHO of course

 

[rafiki_]

Well, just thumbed through Watermark, and I'm outraged. There is nothing to criticise, apart from a complete lack of Azimut pictures. Disgusting ��
On a sensible note, it is the sort of publication I would be happy to see in a decent hotel. Something to glance through while killing half an hour.

 

[petem]

Well, just thumbed through Watermark, and I'm outraged. There is nothing to criticise, apart from a complete lack of Azimut pictures. Disgusting ��
On a sensible note, it is the sort of publication I would be happy to see in a decent hotel. Something to glance through while killing half an hour.

In sure there must be a few Snazis on the Port Adriano photo amongst all the Fairlines!

 

[henryf]

Henry, I think you know the answer better than most. Make a really good product, better than the competition, ensure that you build value into the deal, like strong residuals, position that brand so it is desirable, build quality and reliability into the product, stand back and let the good times roll. A bit like Porsche.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I know all that but we are talking about customer engagement beyond the product. If the magazine is such a disaster and so cliché what are they to do? Without spending silly money how can they reach out to potential customers, build brand strength, keep engaged with existing customers and so on.

Even the mighty Porsche send out regular news booklets at a local level and have Christophorus, their in house "lifesyle" magazine.

The one thing I love reading about is actual owners of boats and their travels. The ultimate example of this would be Tony Fleming but on a lesser scale it's intriguing to know who buys what, where they go, what they like, don't like, got wrong, got right and so on.

edited to add:
One of the things which often surprises me is how well known public and obviously wealthy people often buy quite modest boats within a range. As an owner who trawls the lower echelons of the model line up it's reassuring to know I'm in good company

Henry

 

[henryf]

They could do something similar to what we do with our customers. Have regular open house days at the factory. Invite a bunch of selected customers, show them the factory, give them some presentations demonstrating how wonderfully technically advanced they are, line up half a dozen boats in Plymouth Sound for them to try and fill them with food and drink. These days its not enough to have a straight line manufacturer - dealer - customer relationship any more. Most customers want to know more about the organisation who is making the product and have some kind of beneficial relationship with them as well as the dealer

Quite an expensive exercise to reach a small handful of customers. In some ways the Swanwick show addresses this but an open weekend at the factory would be an interesting idea. Serious customers would be welcome to tour the factory. Ironically I've never visited the Princess factory but have toured the Sunseeker factory in conjunction with lunch and a Bentley driving afternoon. I was very impressed with the factory and enjoyed seeing Eddie J's new tub which was nearing the end of the road. Whilst I don't identify with the SS image and design I would never knock their construction.

The other area where manufacturers can do a lot more is magazine editorial. Most trade magazines are crying out for interesting well written editorials with good pictures. Princess could regularly supply the boating mags with articles about adventurous cruises done by Princess owners or innovative manufacturing processes in their factory or new innovations they're fitting to boats or whatever. There's a fine line between editorial and advertorial but interesting editorial that doesn't overtly push the brand is a great way to market your products. Just by way of example there was an article many years ago in either MBY or MBM about a Princess 45 owner who cruised his boat across the North Sea in the depths of winter in atrocious weather conditions. I read that article and to this day my perception of the Princess 45 is that it must be a hell of a boat. No amount of lifestyle mags can buy that kind of customer perception

All IMHO of course

Interestingly the "on a roll" element of the title was spurred on by an article that same day in Gentleman's journal which featured the Princess factory.

Henry

 

[Portofino]

I'm still waiting to hear the first suggestion regarding how they might better engage their customers. As I relaxed on my boat I enjoyed an hour or so perusing the content and didn't feel any annoyance




If they are trying to save the pennies a no cost to them magazine sounds like a good

So, once again how might they better engage new and existing customers?

Henry

A more targeted approach is what's needed ,which beggs the Q why use all MBY ?
No disrespect to the readership but I do not sence may £10 -25 M + buyers ,who will use the Priny mag as the dicider in P40M vs SS 40M shoot out ! Or a P80 something vs rest of the world @ circa £2-3M

The mag as been shot gunned ,crudely attached MBY .

An act of desperation -maybe -to scape up a sale - Sure it's low or nil cost to Priny -
It's not like Piny,s had or got a zero profile in the Mag as a starting piont is it ? Or zero /low profile @ boat shows .

Did the contributors / advertisers know that before ? Crude shot gun - Or did the marketing folks behind this "lifestyle mag" in a parasitic fashion hoodwinked them into thinking it would be exposed to thier target audience ?
Can understand in an emerging rapidly expanding market like the far east, then cos folks in Tailand /China ,we think want to emulate us westerners ,then we can attemp to "lifestyle " them and plant the asperational seed(s)
Making out this type of " lifestyle " is normal in the west, and you too need all that's advertised inc the boat ?


The other lifestyle mags like S/skr are more refined in there targeting.

At the end of the day it's the product that will sell , If it's any good , perceived correctly priced by the buyer ,-

Mr Google is the buyers friend today .

 

[rafiki_]

I guess one of Princess's problems is the geographical diversity of the potential client base. We know there are not thousands of Brits lining up to spend several million £ on a boat, but Princess, like Sunny, and several others, need to find a few hundred clients worldwide, and cultural differences make this problem worse. So Henry, I don't think there is a marketing silver bullet.

 

[petem]

Paul, you're right. We came across example of this when we were at the Fairline factory. They were in the middle of building a customer lounge for customers to choose their fabrics, etc. We all said "don't waste your money" but the guys were insistent that Asian buyers really like visiting the factory and like somewhere comfortable and stylish to spec their boats.

 

[MapisM]

So Henry, I don't think there is a marketing silver bullet.

Bingo.
And I'm afraid this ain't true for marketing alone, but also for production, and boatbuilding as a whole.
It's interesting how we keep discussing in these pages about what this or that builder should do to be successful.
But the simple truth is that, since the global financial meltdown, the whole industry is suffering the worst downturn ever - not that yards didn't have to face others in the past, but none were as long and bad as this one.
And when, how much and how steadily it will recover, that's anybody's guess.

Bottom line, let's assume that, instead of trying to invent recipes for success from our armchairs, we would be given the opportunity to invest in Princess (or any other builder for that matter), together with a chance to have a word on their business strategies.
Now, those who are willing to bet their hard earned, raise your hands.
Me, I'd rather follow jfm suggestion and keep a serious stock of popcorn at hand...

 

[jfm]

Oh I'd invest in Princess equity fast, but not at the price the L Capital need to get back even 1x their money, for that would be crazy. With Princess you are now looking at an enterprise value possibly lower than or at least approaching their debt, if you're a rational investor. At any price level that L capital want to come out of this looking half good, I'm just a popcorn eater

 

[MapisM]

Oh I'd invest in Princess equity fast, but not at the price...

Good point re. price, but are you sure you'd invest in P equity at all?
I mean, I'd rather be a popcorn eater regardless of price, with any cash burning investment.
Sounds like giving £20 notes to get £18 in return, to steal your own expression...

 

[petem]

I agree the magazine is harmless and am only pointing out that not everyone loves it. On marketing they need to take more time to get inside the heads of their almost-customers. They emailed me today saying "Our knowledge is your luxury". Now I might be having a bad day but I read that as "We at Princess have all the knowledge on how to make a great boat; you don't need to worry your little head about that. You can just take comfort that we will provide you with luxury". That's absolutely not what a bunch of boat customers want to hear, thanks. My mental response is along the lines of "Don't you dare tell me about luxury Princess, I reckon I know way more about that topic than you lot and even if I don't I'm perfectly able to sort it out myself or if I need a consultant on the subject it wont be you, thanks. What I want you to do is build a great boat, nothing more nothing less (apart from staying solvent until you've delivered it). Please don't think about anything else when building my boat, and I don't like your claim that you can do that all on your own while I just drool about the forthcoming luxury I'm going to bathe in". Sure I might have completely misunderstood what they are trying to say, but it didn't resonate.

I'm not convinced that everyone is as hard to please as you. You've had years of refining exactly what you want from a boat, which is of course a very personal thing. I'd suggest that there are lots of people who respect and value Princess's experience and are happy to go along with what their idea of a great boat is and will be perfectly happy with the result. I mean, what do you want Princess to say in their emails ...

"Our knowledge is your luxury (except for fussy / clever buggers who think they know best (and probably do))"

Incidentally, who did the email come from, was it the factory, or PMYS?

 

[petem]

I guess one of Princess's problems is the geographical diversity of the potential client base. We know there are not thousands of Brits lining up to spend several million £ on a boat, but Princess, like Sunny, and several others, need to find a few hundred clients worldwide, and cultural differences make this problem worse. So Henry, I don't think there is a marketing silver bullet.

Whilst there are no silver bullets, SS do seem to be leading the way in brand recognition by a country mile. Bond movie product placements, celebrity endorsements, TV documentaries. I know that Fairline fully appreciate that you can't challenge SS head on, so perhaps Princess and Fairline have to be the antithesis of SS flashiness - trade on the fact that they are understated?

 

[MapisM]

"Our knowledge is your luxury (except for fussy / clever buggers who think they know best (and probably do))"

Well, according to some marketing gurus, anything goes as long as you can attract attention.
In this respect, you'd better watch out: someone might well steal your suggestion!

Jokes aside, personally I think that the idea of creating/producing/selling "luxury" for someone else is always pretentious, regardless of whether Mr. someone is a fussy bugger or not.
Mind, not that there's anything new under the sun: Ferretti has pretended to sell a luxury lifestyle in their magazine since more decades than I can remember.
But that is very wrong imho, because "luxury" is very far from being a universal concept, and it's even less something as associated to objects as boatbuilders (or the producers of jewelry, premium cars, etc.) wants us to believe.

For an increasing number of people, "luxury" has much more to see with the fact that every day is the first day of the rest of anyone's life, so it's better to use it as you wish, if you can.
Now, if buying a brand new boat is your luxury and you can afford it, fine.
But when boatbuilders try to plant in our minds the idea that they can supply "your luxury" to everyone, they appear pathetic to most folks - arguably the more clever ones, which often happen to be more successful and better off than joe public, hence being a more appealing target for anyone hoping to sell a toy for a ridiculous price...

 

[henryf]

But when boatbuilders try to plant in our minds the idea that they can supply "your luxury" to everyone, they appear pathetic to most folks - arguably the more clever ones, which often happen to be more successful and better off than joe public, hence being a more appealing target for anyone hoping to sell a toy for a ridiculous price...

In my humble opinion you couldn't be more wrong. To suggest a piece of Jewellery, a handbag or a fountain pen is "luxury" might be deemed pathetic.

A boat on the other hand can provide the opportunity for busy successful people to experience the true luxury of time with family, peace, serenity, appreciation of nature, breaking bread with friends exploring the world and an escape from the madness of day to day life.

That to me is the message someone like Princess should sell to their readers in Watermark.

Henry

 

[jfm]

In my humble opinion you couldn't be more wrong. To suggest a piece of Jewellery, a handbag or a fountain pen is "luxury" might be deemed pathetic.

A boat on the other hand can provide the opportunity for busy successful people to experience the true luxury of time with family, peace, serenity, appreciation of nature, breaking bread with friends exploring the world and an escape from the madness of day to day life.

In my opinion Mapism couldn't be more right, especially the part about every day is first day of rest of your life. I agree your 2nd para above Henry but Princess didn't provide that; they merely built the boat (which is a worthwhile task of course). Everything else in the nice experience you describe Henry was done by nice people coming together and making the luxury element of the occasion. Mapism is right imho when he says the boat builder appears pathetic when it claims it supplied the luxury: it didn't, it built the boat.

 

[TheOrs]

I'm still waiting to hear the first suggestion regarding how they might better engage their customers.

Engineering!

Surely these things sell through word of mouth as much as anything else. Forget the marketing and use the money saved to employ more engineers. Make the best boats (for the money).


(BTW, I have no problem with the idea of the freebie magazine but I do generally find them boring. Then again; I haven't got any money, so they don't really mean much to me! )