To beat the ongoing moment of crisis: TECHNOLOGY, INVENTIVENESS, ORGANISATION AND SERVICES
For enthusiasts, She, their boat, is a vital and primary possession
for which they'll sacrifice almost any other goods and commitments.
And all this year's boat shows worldwide have confirmed a very lively
interest in production and especially in new vessels, which have
appeared in considerable numbers. Nevertheless the market's at a
standstill everywhere, to one degree or another. Even those who could
buy are still perplexed. At the present moment, buying a boat is not
yet politically correct as they say. For ethical reasons, given
widespread unemployment? Maybe, but mainly to cover oneself with
regard to the taxman... even if one has nothing to hide there, you
never know, it's better avoided... This notwithstanding, for some
months now we've been seeing some highly keen prices, not only for
used boats but also and above all for new vessels unsold in 2008 and
2009, with great competition among those who need to sell urgently to
break even.
It's the old law of supply and demand, but in the former case all that
glitters is not gold in asmuch as there are plenty of white elephants,
by now unsaleable on a market whose buyers are after technological and
stylistic innovations, increasingly low-consumption engines that are
simpler to run, lighter, less bulky and - looking to the future -
possibly hybrid.
The price of a barrel of crude swiftly returning to around 80 dollars
calls for respect and good sense, also because speculation in futures,
the future price of crude, has remained uncontrollable in spite of
statements of regulation from the world's 20 most industrialised
nations. With a further increase it will be a potential danger capable
of rapidly and gravely busting the balances of even the economically
strongest countries. We notice it already when we go to fill up on
petrol or diesel. If on one hand the integration of trade exchanges at
WTO level, the order maintained by the European Community within the
continent - with positive effects also beyond it - and the existence
of a second reference currency like the euro have led to unprecedented
trade development (unless we count, proportionally with the times of
course, the period of the Pax Romana about two thousand years ago), it
is precisely current globalisation, unstoppable because it is the
fruit of progress, that makes crises almost instantaneous, a big
business opportunity often promoted with view to speculation.
"Well?", the yachtsmen wonder, "Can we buy or change our boat?" Hang
on! is still the reply given by families and accountants. And it's the question
we're all rightly asking ourselves to some extent. Only those who think
and act in the name of carpe diem, now or never, have the courage to go
against the current. And in spite of everything this kind of buyer is the bud
of hope in a recovery. If the present situation persists - without crises triggered
by oil, regional conflicts old and new, migratory or other trends that
we cannot yet imagine - sector operators who are hanging in there, with the
information yardstick of their sales networks, predict that the market will
bounce back for 2011-2012, but in the dimensions that prevailed prior to
the euphoria of the virtual financial boom. The market of recent years was
drugged by a rush towards the greatest possible production and the biggest
sizes, forgetting the true enthusiasts who buy boats for their own enjoyment
and not as showpieces.
But we shouldn't be mistaken: the old days are past and gone. Over and
above economic evolution there's an ongoing evolution of culture and
usage which, if not carefully followed by designers and shipbuilders, will
make everything outdated if not actually obsolete. Only one thing is certain:
the centrality of the end user who will demand assistance and services in
proportion to the money he spends. In the past, with the exception of the
USA, it was the yards that imposed their ideas and choices on the purchaser,
often unduly exploiting the goose with the golden eggs: now it is the user,
who has grown nautically over the decades, including outside England,
who selects the market.
Anyone buying a boat large or small knows well
enough that the costs will be proportional, but he wants quality and reliability
at the right price. This has been understood by industries, and not
only in America, which continually fine-tune their marketing management.
Governments still haven't grasped it, remaining increasingly distant from
the citizens they aim to represent. Especially in Mediterranean countries
where they see yachting as something they grant and not as a yachtsman's
right, so they don't miss a chance to make it tough.
A question of
power, but also of stupidity because they can't understand the advantage
of fiscal revenue, at no cost to the public sector, which comes from the
additional work that transforms so many different components into a boat.
Not to mention employment and the stimulus for so many entrepreneurial
activities that bring wealth to their GDP. The State too should take a few
marketing lessons.
Lucio Petrone
