The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas this morning opened its Dealer Week conference with a ceremony and keynote address at the Tampa Convention Center in Florida. The annual event, which this year is gathering 1,500 attendees from 625 individual dealers, runs through midday Wednesday.
MRAA vice president of industry relations Mike Davin opened the breakfast and introduced speaker Doug Stephens, the author of Resurrecting Retail, who gave the keynote address.
Stephens spoke about the shift of wealth in the United States, the decline of the middle class, and the secret sauce behind the successes of such companies as Amazon, Walmart and Patagonia, among others.
“Purpose needs to be the foundation of your business. It’s what drives everything you do,” Stephens said. “Think of Amazon, what is its purpose? When you look at the messaging on their stores, all of their communication to the market, it’s about convenience.”
“It’s not about low prices all the time at Amazon. No, it’s about the most convenient place to buy everything. And so whenever we’re pressed for time as consumers, Amazon hops into our heads, and 75% of the time when we need something, we’re going to Amazon first.
“If you can engineer your dealership’s purpose to align in this way, and get your team to buy in, they will be happier, your customers will be well-served, and your business will be more successful,” Stephens added.
Joe Lewis, MRAA board chair and owner of Mount Dora Boating Center and Marina, conducted the organization’s annual meeting, where new directors were elected. Members elected Chris Butler of Butler Marine, Jason Shallcross of Reed’s Marine, Brandon Sharpe of Arrowhead Boat Sales, and Bob Bense of Superior Boat Repair & Sales as directors in regions 4, 7, 9 and 10, respectively.
The breakfast concluded with a presentation from MRAA president Matt Gruhn, who welcomed attendees and elaborated on the association’s “Prepare for What’s Next” theme.
“The inflection point that we face today, the things that we’ve understood and the things that have gotten us to where we are today, they won’t get us to where we have to go,” Gruhn said. “Our business model in the boating industry — from a dealership, from a manufacturer standpoint, the way that we go to market — that business model was built decades ago, and in some cases a century ago. We need to think about the consumer of today, and that is a vastly different person than yesterday. Let’s be candid; it’s challenging out there right now.”
Speaking to the “Prepare for What’s Next” theme, Gruhn announced the formation of a group of industry veterans who will sit on a Dealership of the Future Tack Force designed to face the challenges the industry is facing.
“We have assembled a task force of dealers, of manufacturers and technology providers to help guide our thinking alongside our board of directors to understand these forces and to understand what we can do about it as an industry,” Gruhn said. “There is a path through all of this; there is a way for us to figure out how to adjust our businesses to meet the demands of these consumers.
“This group has been meeting regularly over the last five weeks, and they’ve been doing homework,” Gruhn added. “They’ve been doing assignments. They’ve been putting in a lot of work for us at MRAA but, more importantly, for you as the dealers that we want to be able to help and support and fuel your success.
“And the vision that we’ve put together for this industry, for this task force, is to drive the transformation of the dealership business now to meet the retail, the technological and the consumer demands that you’re all facing,” he said. “We call this the demands of tomorrow. It’s the demands of today. We have to begin this evolution, and this task force will kick it off.”
Gruhn also spoke about Discover Boating’s role in keeping the consumer “funnel” loaded with boaters who are new to the sport.
“So this is your standard funnel where Discover Boating inputs at the top of the funnel,” Gruhn said. “I think it’s incredibly important to understand that Discover Boating is not and has never been a lead-generator. Discover Boating is about bringing new people into the funnel to get them to understand that the boating lifestyles are available to them. And as we reach those people and we inspire those people and they move down the funnel to an engagement, there is a handoff from Discover Boating to you, the dealers.
“As MRAA moves into 2026 and beyond, our board of directors, our strategic partners and our staff have just finalized a new three-year strategic plan for how we’re going to help support you and fulfill our passion, and give you that fanatical purpose in your business,” Gruhn said. “I want to thank you once again for being here. The expo hall is now open and please have a great show.”
