Within our niche industry, a company may be aware of its own offering, or even the quality of its offering within the context of its own sector or geographical market. But all too often, The Superyacht Agency’s Intelligence division finds that, during the course of discussions with its clients, they are unaware of the wider superyacht market’s perception of them.

While many broader consultancy firms can offer data-driven services to clients, when it comes to offering an accurate appraisal of the market’s perception of a brand, the key is engaging qualified stakeholders. And due to swingeing GDPR legislation, this is something only an industry specialist, whose network encompasses the nucleus of decision-makers and C-suite executives, can achieve.

One such company was Porto Mirabello, the La Spezia-based marina that commissioned our team to undertake such a project in Q1 2019, ahead of the Mediterranean cruising season.

Porto Mirabello is something of a hidden gem; from a superyacht perspective, it offers all of the amenities and security to make it a perfect home port, or long-term berthing option for large yachts. However, its management team were also aware that its market penetration was not reflective of its proposition. 

This particular market perception project comprised both quantitative research, and detailed primary interviews with key industry stakeholders, ranging from owners to charter managers, captains to fleet managers. This process specifically targeted groups who had experience of the marina, wand those who didn’t, with some profound findings forming the basis of our analysis.

Those who had spent time at the marina were extremely positive about its offering. However, contrastingly, those who had not had no idea of its proposition and thus were largely ambivalent.

While the details of the findings remain the property of Porto Mirabello, the project was the first step to informing a series of recommendations that rectify this misconception among the industry via a strategic campaign formulated and executed by The Superyacht Agency’s creative team.

The successes of the initial strategy were felt over the summer season, and Porto Mirabello will revisit this process in the coming years to assess whether the strategy is improving the market’s perception. Because improving your market position is not a binary approach, involving a one-off project; it requires a linear strategy that measures and documents what was once seemingly intangible – visibility and opinion.

If this article has piqued your interest, and you would like to know what the true market perception of your company offering is, please contact Russell Cockerton or visit https://www.thesuperyachtagency.com/intelligence

To download a complimentary report outlining a summary of our suite of services, explaining how we can support your company’s strategic growth, please click here.

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