Roswell Marine Audio Supports the MRAA as a Platinum Partner Member

MINNEAPOLIS — The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas announced today that Roswell Marine joined The Association as a Platinum Partner Member.  

Through Platinum Partner Membership, Roswell Marine supports the MRAA, its programs and the opportunities the association provides the dealer body in an effort to fuel the success of the industry. Commitments from Platinum Partners like Roswell Marine allows for the expansion of MRAA’s offerings and creates a positive, long-term impact for its members.  

Roswell Marine Audio aims to revolutionize the marine industry with a signature sound engineered for perfection on the water. Roswell Audio line is celebrated by enthusiasts and the world’s top boat manufacturers in applications where unmatched clarity, power, durability, and style is demanded. as Roswell Audio evolves beyond sound alone to define a culture of acoustic perfection, it has become a catalyst for new experiences. 
 

Roswell, for the first time, exhibited at Dealer Week 2022 in Austin, Texas, where they showcased their R1 Marine Audio 6.5-inch & 8-inch marine speakers. Created without compromise, these speakers introduced new possibilities in marine audio, inspiring the development of the Roswell R1 audio line. 

“It was great to have Roswell Marine Audio attend its first Dealer Week event in Texas last December and now offer its support as a member,” says Allison Gruhn, Vice President of Business Development. “Technology plays a huge role in defining the boating experience for dealers and their customers. Roswell Marine Audio’s innovative courage and leadership is a terrific addition to our list of Platinum Partner Member.  

About Roswell Marine   

For 25 years, Roswell Marine has remained at the forefront of innovation; designing, engineering and manufacturing products for the world’s top boat builders. A vision focused on improving every experience on the water gives Roswell Marine an edge in delivering premium products that revolutionize the industry with award-winning results. 

About the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas 
At the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, we believe that for the marine industry to thrive, the retail organizations that interact with the boaters in their community must thrive. With that in mind, MRAA works to create a strong and healthy boating industry by uniting those retailers, providing them with opportunities for improvement and growth, and representing them with a powerful voice. For more information, visit MRAA.com or contact us at 763-315-8043. 

MRAA Launches Updated Strategic Roadmap

• MRAA staff, board and strategic partners set updated priorities for the association’s work in serving North American dealerships

MINNEAPOLIS – The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas finalized a three-year strategic plan that seeks to further strengthen how the association fuels the success of the marine industry. Through expanded dealer training and educational programs and a focus on higher levels of industry engagement, MRAA’s plan puts an overarching emphasis on helping the industry deliver a world-class customer experience.

Full MRAA logo

The 2023-25 MRAA strategic roadmap resulted from collaborative efforts and a two-day meeting among MRAA staff, its board of directors, members of its Young Leaders Advisory Council, and its Strategic Partners. The group of nearly 50 people sifted through multiple MRAA member and non-member surveys and more than 45 individual, one-on-one dealer conversations; to establish a trio of MRAA priorities:

  1. Expand solutions that drive dealer success
  2. Engage more dealers and manufacturers in MRAA’s programs
  3. Promote marine retail strength through data, advocacy

“Over the course of the last 10 years, MRAA has built a comprehensive catalog of dealer training and educational solutions, including customized member benefits, free webinars and publications, 240-plus online courses, a robust Dealer Week conference and expo, and a revitalized Dealership Certification Program,” explains Matt Gruhn, MRAA President. “What we heard from our meeting participants, as well as the nearly 50 other dealer voices they brought to that meeting, was that today’s dealers need more focused training options, including position-specific training and credentialing, to help them strengthen their businesses, overcome the workforce challenges they face and ultimately deliver a better overall customer experience.”

While much of the strategic roadmap provided insights into tactical work that MRAA will focus on, such as building new education and training programs, creating retail data dashboards, and efforts to reduce industrywide Repair Event Cycle Times, the group also put a major focus on driving engagement levels with MRAA’s programs. Those efforts include promoting the benefits of Dealership Certification, both throughout the industry and to consumers; sharing the immense value of MRAA’s work on behalf of dealers and the industry; and becoming an even stronger dealer development option for manufacturers and suppliers.

To view the MRAA Strategic Plan, click here.

“What I love about this plan is not just that it perfectly mirrors MRAA’s reason for existence, but also that it was literally created by our dealers, boat builders, engine manufacturers and suppliers in an effort to help us continue to improve the boating industry,” says MRAA Board Chair, Jeff Strong, of Strong’s Marine. “We invite anyone out there who could use some help in strengthening their teams or their presence at the retail level — dealers, manufacturers and suppliers alike — to connect with the programs the MRAA team has to offer and change your business for the better.”

Participation in the MRAA strategic planning process included MRAA Strategic Partners Bennington Marine/Polaris, Boats Group, Brunswick Dealer Advantage, Correct Craft, Lightspeed, Malibu Boats, Inc., Smokercraft, Inc., Volvo Penta, Wells Fargo, Yamaha Marine Group, the National Marine Manufacturers Association and the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation. Dealer participation included representatives from Allen Harbor Marine, Boaters Exchange, Buckeye Marine, Cleveland Boat Center, Hagadone Marine Group, Hoffmaster’s Marina, Lakeview Marine, MarineMax, Mount Dora Boating Center, Inc., One Water Marine, Petzold’s Marine, Port Harbor Marine, Reed’s Marine, Strong’s Marine, Superior Boat Repair & Sales, and Taylor’s South Shore Marine.

About the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas

At the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, we believe that for the marine industry to thrive, the retail organizations that interact with the boaters in their community must thrive. With that in mind, MRAA works to create a strong and healthy boating industry by uniting those retailers, providing them with opportunities for improvement and growth, and representing them with a powerful voice. For more information, visit MRAA.com or contact us at 763-315-8043.

MRAA Adds Two New Partner Members in January

MINNEAPOLIS, — The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas (MRAA) announces two additional supporting organizations to its growing list of MRAA Partner Members.

Marine manufacturers, suppliers and service providers, through Partner Membership, commit to aligning their brands with the programs and opportunities that MRAA offers in its efforts to fuel the success of the marine industry. Support from Partners allows the Association to expand its offerings and create a positive, long-term impact in MRAA members’ business.

MRAA’s two new Partner Members, each of which bring innovation and support the Association’s member companies, commit their mission to supporting the marine industry by partnering with the MRAA: 

• Find it Now USA (Marine Security GPS) (Spring Hill, Florida)

• Groupe Beneteau Americas (Annapolis, Maryland)

“Both of these organizations add unique product offerings to our growing list of supporting Partner Members,” said Allison Gruhn, MRAA Vice President of Business Development. “Because of their support, MRAA is better equipped to fulfill our mission of serving the marine industry and our dealer members.”

MRAA encourages its dealer members to explore these two new partners, along with the entire list of companies that actively support the MRAA across four levels of partnership. View the full list.

About the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas

At the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, we believe that for the marine industry to thrive, the retail organizations that interact with the boaters in their community must thrive. With that in mind, MRAA works to create a strong and healthy boating industry by uniting those retailers, providing them with opportunities for improvement and growth, and representing them with a powerful voice. For more information, visit MRAA.com or contact us at 763-315-8043.

MRAA Announces 2023 Board of Directors, New Chair

MINEAPOLIS – The Marine Retailers Association of the America has announced a new roster of board members, as well as a new Chair of the board.

Jeff Strong, President of Strong’s Marine in New York, has been named the Chair of the MRAA Board of Directors. Strong has owned Strong’s Marine since 1992, growing the family-owned dealership into an 8-location dealership with 200 employees during the peak summer months.  

jeff Strong
Jeff Strong, Strong’s Marine President

“Serving on the MRAA board and now as Chair, for me, is all about giving back and helping to improve and grow the marine industry,” says Strong. “MRAA’s mission is to drive dealership success. And MRAA’s robust training programs, with their wide array of tools and resources, along with all of the benefits of MRAA membership, have long been the focus of our strategic roadmap. I’m looking forward to continuing MRAA’s legacy of delivering on that promise.”

Joe Lewis of Mount Dora Boating Center and Marina in Mount Dora, Florida, has been named the Vice Chair of the MRAA Board of Directors. Hagadone Marine Group President Craig Brosenne has been named the new Secretary/Treasurer. Strong, Lewis and Brosenne, along with Immediate Past Chair, Rob Soucy of Port Harbor Marine in Maine, make up the MRAA’s Executive Committee.

New additions to the MRAA Board of Directors include Brandon Sharpe, Sales Manager at Arrowhead Yacht Club & Marina in Oklahoma, as the Regional Director for MRAA’s Region 9 (AR, LA, OK, TX), and Susan Duquette, President at Lakeview Marine in Massachusetts, is a new Director At Large, representing MRAA’s Young Leaders Advisory Council.

Returning MRAA Regional Directors include:

  • Region 1 (ME, MA, NH, VT) – Craig LeBlanc, Allen Harbor Marine Service
  • Region 2 (CT, NJ, NY, RI) – Bob Petzold, Petzold’s Marine Center
  • Region 3 (DE, DC, MD, PA, VA, WV) – Jason Murphy, Norfolk Marine
  • Region 4 (KY, NC, SC, TN) – Stacy Greenwood, Cleveland Boat Center
  • Region 5 (AL, FL, GA, MS) – Paul Berube, Boaters Exchange
  • Region 6 (IL, IN, MI, OH) – Chad Taylor, Taylor’s South Shore Marine
  • Region 7 (MN, SD, ND, WI) – Jason Shallcross, Reed’s Marine
  • Region 8 (CO, IA, KS, MO, MT, NE, NM, WY) – Jeff Siems, Blue Springs Marine
  • Region 10 (AK, AZ, CA, HI, ID, NV, OR, UT, WA): Bob Bense, Superior Boat Repair & Sales
  • Region 11 (Canada): Carly Poole, Buckeye Marine

“We are thankful for this talented group of dedicated marine industry professionals, who will help guide the MRAA to continuous improvement and achieve our mission to provide boating industry businesses with opportunities for greater success and growth,” says MRAA President Matt Gruhn. “As individuals, they have proven themselves as accomplished business leaders. Collectively, their shared expertise of dealership operations and immense understanding of the marine industry will certainly help the MRAA reach new heights in our efforts to nurture the dealership body and the industry at large.”

About the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas

At the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, we believe that for the marine industry to thrive, the retail organizations that interact with the boaters in their community must thrive. With that in mind, MRAA works to create a strong and healthy boating industry by uniting those retailers, providing them with opportunities for improvement and growth, and representing them with a powerful voice. For more information, visit MRAA.com or contact us at 763-315-8043.

RDS Reinsurance Symposium

INDIANAPOLIS – Relentless Dealer Services (RDS), recently announced its “RDS Reinsurance Symposium,” for auto, marine and RV dealerships.

“Every day as our team travels throughout the country, we hear questions from dealers interested in learning the detailed opportunities with reinsurance,” said Jamison Carrier,  RDS President. “We’ve designed this event specifically to answer those questions.”

Although space is limited, the event is open to dealers of all sizes – from small dealers who aren’t yet participating in reinsurance to large dealer groups looking to maximize their positions to vendors.

The all-star lineup of expert speakers includes:

  • Coby Mavroulis, VP Profit Participation, National Auto Care
  • Cliff Childers, Managing Director, Portfolio
  • Spencer Wanderon, VP of Sales, National Auto Care
  • Paul Schrank, President, Asterix Global Services
  • Steven Cegelka, VP of Operations, Asterix
  • Yancy Spivey, President, YS Asset Management

Experts will cover:

  • Reinsurance basics
  • Tax advantages
  • Regulatory challenges
  • Investment options
  • Industry trends.
Jamison Carrier, RDS President, headshot image
Jamison Carrier, RDS President

RDS is committed to helping dealers build long-term wealth through participation programs including retros, DOWCs and offshore companies.

An MRAA Partner Member, Relentless Dealer Services is a leader in F&I, focused on the RV and marine industries. Their F&I utilizes cutting edge analytics, expert training, flexible reinsurance options and remarkable F&I Products. The RDS team is passionate about working with dealers to transform the norms of F&I to the next level. Their products, training and support protect dealerships, provide exceptional customer experience and relentlessly drive performance to unrealized levels.

The event is February 15-16, at RDS Headquarters in Indianapolis. To sign up, go to https://www.relentlessdealerservices.com/info-submit  For more information, reach out to Jamison Carrier,  jamison@RDSdrive.com;  765.277.9423

Marine Industry Insights: Boat Values, Seasonality and Prepping for a Return to the Norm

• Lenny Sims, VP Business Development/Strategy – Specialty Vehicles for J.D. Power and the MRAA Discuss Insights on the Current Marine Market
Drew Mick, MRAA Data Specialist

By Drew Mick, MRAA Data Specialist

Drew Mick: The overview suggests that boat values started 2022 high but then flipped in the latter part of the year. This is in stark contrast to what was happening in 2021, when we were talking about signs that the market had gone crazy. Can you dig into what was happening last year, compared to 2021, that drove this change?

Lenny Sims: When you look at 2021, things were still on that skyrocketing trend that started in 2020, which all came because of Covid. Boating was seen as an escape. Price went out of control. At the end of the day it’s all supply and demand, and boats were no exception. What we were starting to see with 2022 is a return to the norm. For instance, seasonality was hardly a thing in 2020 and 2021, yet here in 2022 it is beginning to show again. When everything seems down in 2022, it’s really just a flow or trend back to where things were before. And if you take that all into account, things are still slightly on the incline, especially when you compare it to 2019, our last “normal” year.

Also, what are the possible repercussions of this change for the dealer in 2023? What about for the dealer and their sales team? How can dealers use this information to help them outperform the market in 2023?

In terms of repercussions for dealers, I hesitate to even call it a repercussion, but what this means for dealers in 2023, they need to be more conscientious and pragmatic with trade-in allowances and the amount of trade-in value they are going to give to consumer who are looking to buy new product.

Looking at the Marine Values vs. Traffic data, there seems to be little difference across the year in terms of Average Retail Value, with the exception of a slow decrease throughout the last quarter of the year. What insight can dealers take away from this data? How can and should they use it to make better decisions?

This could parallel what I said before for the first question. Seeing a decline in traffic for that final part of the year is typical in your average year. As I mentioned before, 2022 is seeing the return of seasonality in the normal yearly cycle. So when you look at this data, and see that slight decline, it is nothing to be concerned about at all.

In comparing the 2022 year-end report to the 2021 year-end report, it appears you broke the boat categories out differently. What was your reasoning for breaking down the categories the way you did? Is there a trend you’re trying to identify or isolate?

This was simply due to wanting to change how we reported this data, and admittedly this is subject to change again. While we kept our marine categories limited in our last year-end report, we saw that this year, we had the ability to do more with it, so we wanted to try it out.

The Model Years data sheds light on consumer interest that perhaps can help dealers make decisions on what pre-owned inventory to acquire. Generally, there seems to be a steady decline the further we go back, but I am wondering if the slight 2008 “bump” is noteworthy?

The answer to this may be fascinating to some, but boring to others. Typically, the operating window for our data is 15 years. When people come in with a boat to trade in or sell, the dealers look in their system for the best comparisons. Obviously, the best way to do this is comparing year to year, but if the boat year falls before this 15-year window, dealers will simply go to the next best thing: comparing to the lowest year available. This would potentially lead to that slight uptick.

Please tell us about the story the Fuel Price Data graphs might tell a dealer. For example, is this evidence that high fuel prices are impacting web traffic more now and in 2022 than in 2021 and 2020? And/or could some of this downward movement simply be the usual seasonality?

The better story with looking at this data is how each boat type compares to each other. For example, when looking at the chart for outboard boats and stern drive boats, this would tell me that outboards are more affected by fuel prices than stern drive. There is much more movement happening with them. The same can be said with the inboard boats and personal watercraft chart, with more volatility happening with the former. Another important thing to keep in mind with this is that the movement in the traffic tends to be about a month behind any changes in fuel pricing.

Can you shed some light on any other big takeaways or key indicators in this report that are meaningful to you and provide valuable insight to marine dealers and their staff

My final thought that I really can’t emphasize enough is that dealers need to realize that we are on a return to the norm. The days of swinging for the fences and hitting home runs are over. The trend is leveling back to the standard, so dealers will need to return to those practices that were working for them before these past two crazy years. To continue the baseball metaphor, singles and doubles are just fine in winning a game.

MORE DATA: For more information about trends in boat values, download the J.D. Power Market Insights 2022 Report. This is the first in a series of quarterly reports we will be publishing in the MRAA Resource Center. For an overview of J.D. Power and its boat valuation process, see the MRAA’s previous Q&A session with Sims on the 2021 Marine Market Insights Report.

MRAA Board of Directors Announces 2023 Advocacy Priorities

MINNEAPOLIS, January 27 – The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas’ Board of Directors announces its 2023 legislative and regulatory advocacy priorities as recommended to them by the Advisory Council of Marine Associations’ (ACMA).

ACMA, an integral part of the MRAA’s advocacy efforts, was created to advise the MRAA on its annual policy agenda and is comprised of state, regional and national marine trade associations. ACMA helps highlight the MRAA’s collaborative approach to working on issues impacting the industry at large and its dedication to championing the dealer voice.

The 2023 resolutions are as follows:

  • Create an Advocate for state and federal programs to assist with marine industry workforce development.  
  • Support and inform preexisting external workforce development efforts.
  • Seek marine industry and dealer exemptions from proposed overburdensome legislative and regulatory action.
  • Advocate for waterways access and policies to minimize user conflict.

* Download the 2023 Advocacy Priorities for a full overview

“These resolutions represent significant input from ACMA members and I am eager to work with our marine trade association partners on priorities across the country,” said Chad Tokowicz, MRAA Government Relations Manager. “As the MRAA continues to grow, it is imperative we stay true to our mission and work collaboratively with partners throughout the country while leveraging dealer voices.”

Chad Tokowicz, MRAA
Chad Tokowicz, MRAA Government Relations Manager

The ACMA resolutions provide direction and guidance for the MRAA’s advocacy efforts and highlight the importance of collaborative between state and national organizations in tackling overlapping priorities. State marine trade association involvement allows for direct stakeholder input, providing MRAA staff a comprehensive understanding of the issues impacting dealers throughout the country.

“Working in a collaborative manner with our national partners at the MRAA has been extremely important to how our association is able to support our member businesses,” said Randall M. Lyons, Massachusetts Marine Trades Association (MMTA) Executive Director, a member of the ACMA council. “The MMTA looks forward to continuing this relationship in the future, with the common goal of supporting the recreational boating industry.”

Email Tokowicz to learn more about ACMA or to get involved in the MRAA’s government relations efforts.

About the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas

At the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, we believe that for the marine industry to thrive, the retail organizations that interact with the boaters in their community must thrive. With that in mind, MRAA works to create a strong and healthy boating industry by uniting those retailers, providing them with opportunities for improvement and growth, and representing them with a powerful voice. For more information, visit MRAA.com or contact us at 763-315-8043.

BoatTEST Partners with Elite Direct Finance

(Newport, R.I.) BoatTEST announced today that it has partnered with Elite Direct Finance to offer financing directly from its web platform, the oldest boat-buying content research online site in America, having streamed video for 22 years.   

“Elite Direct Finance brings the kind of customer service that our readers are looking for when making a buying decision. While researching on BoatTEST they can see the boat’s price, calculate monthly payments, and immediately fill out Elite’s “Quick Pre-Qual” form all at once,” said Jeff Hammond, co-founder and CEO of BoatTEST. 

BoatTest is an MRAA Partner Member and Elite Recreational Finance is an MRAA Education Champion.

Helps Dealers, Brokers and FSBOs

“Because of Elite’s ‘Quick Pre-Qual’ turnaround time, prospective buyers can quickly find out how large a boat loan they can get, which will focus their search on what they can afford, saving dealers and brokers valuable time from chasing dreamers instead of working with realistic buyers,” Hammond said.

“With more than 50 percent of pre-owned boats being sold driveway to driveway, we look forward to helping an underserved segment of the boat-buying community, as well as dealers and brokers, so we will aid buyers at both ends of the spectrum.”  

Elite’s Soft Credit Pull

Elite Direct Finance’s “Soft Credit Pull” technology enables a customer to see if they are qualified to finance a boat with no impact on their credit. With a full lender portfolio to finance new and used vessels from $10,000 to several million dollars, Elite provides full visibility and document transfer security through customized dealer, broker and customer portals.

“We worked closely with Jeff and his team to provide finance options across a wide variety of boat ages, prices and credit profiles while enabling the customer to track their deal and exchange sensitive documents through a secure portal so they feel fully engaged in the process,” said Jared Zimlin, Business Development Director of Elite Direct Finance. 

About BoatTEST

BoatTEST has 2.3 million unique visitors coming to its website each year who have over 14 million page views. It is currently streaming over 2,500 test videos of boats tested over the 22 years it has been in business. Sixty-Six percent of its members say that it’s the most influential source of information in their boat-buying decision, according to a recent survey. https://boattest.com/mediakit

About Elite Direct Finance

ELITE DIRECT FINANCE enables dealers, brokers, buyers and private party seller’s access to our concierge services – securing financing, delivering unrivaled communication through broker and customer portals and funding for retail and commercial use vessels like rentals, boat clubs and charters.

www.elitedirectfinance.com

Competing on Price: Stop Playing a Losing Game

• Customer Experience – A Winning Strategy in a Softening Market
Liz Walz, MRAA VP of Education, has found a lot of value — just look at those Post-It Notes — within “The Experience Maker” book from Dan Gingiss, the Dealer Week 2022 Opening Keynote Speaker.

By Liz Walz

“Competing on price is a loser’s game … Competing on product has also become really difficult.”

So writes customer experience expert and Dealer Week 2022 Opening Keynote speaker Dan Gingiss in the introduction to his book, “The Experience Maker.”

So how does your business compete and win? The answer, according to Gingiss, is a focus on customer experience, an investment that multiple studies have found offers a tremendous return and is “a winning strategy in a recession.”

But this is not where the author starts to pitch you on buying an expensive consulting package or investing in an 18-month training series or marketing scheme.

Rather, he spends the rest of the book explaining how businesses like yours can gain an advantage in a softening market with simple, practical and inexpensive strategies that have proven to move the customer experience (CX) needle.

If you were in Austin with us at Dealer Week, this may sound familiar. Several of those strategies were sprinkled throughout his presentation, which was a highlight of the event for many attendees. And they were followed in the Leadership, Sales & Marketing, and Service & Parts Pathways with sessions that dove deep into specific areas of the dealership that are ripe for CX improvement.

Author and Dealer Week 2022 Opening Keynote Speaker Dan Gingiss spoke on the importance of creating a remarkable customer experience to win over customers.

But you didn’t have to be in Austin to gain insight into how to compete on customer experience in 2023. You can tap into Dealer Week Online, which includes a “Keynote Conversations” interview with Dan by Marcus Sheridan and a free electronic version of Dan’s book. And you can access three areas of the MRAA website packed with opportunities for improvement:

  • Win with Existing Customers: This area of the MRAA website is packed with resources on increasing your customer retention. As Gingiss writes in his book: “Retaining an existing customer is easier and cheaper than acquiring a new one.”
  • Adapt to Changing Customer Expectations: Gain tips, tools and expert tactics to coincide with each step in the customer journey. 

  • Improve Your Repair Event Cycle Times: Learn simple and practical tweaks you can make to your service processes to move boats through the service department faster and create a better customer experience.

Of course, you also can tap into the MRAA team to help you and your team compete and win amidst the uncertainty and unique challenges of 2023. Email me at liz@mraa.com or reach out to any of our knowledgeable, passionate MRAA team members to brainstorm ways to overcome the obstacles in your path. If we don’t have a solution to share, we’ll go out and find one. That’s our commitment to you.

J.D. Power, MRAA to Create Quarterly Market Insights

• Collaboration will help marine dealers make better business decisions through quarterly market insights reports and analysis

MINNEAPOLIS, January 9 – The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas (MRAA) announced today a new data-driven partnership with J.D. Power – Specialty Vehicles.

This collaboration between J.D. Power and the MRAA will help marine dealers make better business decisions through quarterly market insights reports and analysis, which may include data such as average retail value by boat type and model year, most researched brands, top researched model years by boat category, fuel price data, and web traffic by state.

One key objective for the MRAA in the new year is to generate more tangible data and research that helps our dealers — and therefore the industry — find more success.


— Drew Mick, MRAA Research Specialist

“Data creation, collection and analysis is an important strategy for the MRAA as we grow our service to the dealer community, so it’s rewarding to work closely with J.D. Power in this initiative,” says Drew Mick, MRAA Research Specialist. “One key objective for the MRAA in the new year is to generate more tangible data and research that helps our dealers – and therefore the industry – find more success.”

With each quarterly report, Lenny Sims, J.D. Power Vice President Business Development/Strategy, will impart his industry knowledge and reflections about the shared data. This includes pre-owned boat valuations, market volatility and how it can vary regionally or nationally, and best practices with boat values.

“J.D. Power has always been at the forefront of providing critical market insights on marine values by boat class,” says Sims. “With this partnership, we can disseminate this critical knowledge that every boat dealer should know.”

MRAA Retail Members will gain access to the first Marine Market Insights Report later this month within the MRAA Resource Center on MRAA.com.

About the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas

At the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, we believe that for the marine industry to thrive, the retail organizations that interact with the boaters in their community must thrive. With that in mind, MRAA works to create a strong and healthy boating industry by uniting those retailers, providing them with opportunities for improvement and growth, and representing them with a powerful voice. For more information, visit MRAA.com or contact us at 763-315-8043.

About J.D. Power J.D. Power is a publisher of market-reflective vehicle pricing and information available for new and used cars, classic cars, motorcycles, boats, RVs and manufactured homes, offers in-depth shopping and research tools including a broad range of data, products and service and informational articles as well as tips and advice. J.D. Power also produces electronic products, mobile applications, raw data, web services, web-syndicated products and print guidebooks.