Problem 4: Our Image

“Image is everything. You don’t spare any expense to create the right image. Word of mouth is critical. Once you get a good reputation, momentum will carry you.”

- Haruki Murakami (famous Japanese author)

Truer words than these were never spoken. So let’s talk about our image. If we are being honest -- brutally honest -- we have to admit that we have an image problem. It may be unfair and it may be untrue, but nevertheless, we have an image problem. Our marina has a reputation as “the dangerous marina” in the area.

Everyone remembers the images of Rabid Rabbit on the news! It might have been great for TV ratings but it was bad for our image. And sadly, many of our competitors are quick to make the most of our misfortune, telling everyone how unsafe our marina is.

Don’t believe me? Again, call around to the area marinas and tell them you are considering their marina and Oriental Harbor. You’ll be amazed at what you hear. Or maybe you won’t be -- maybe you already know what you’ll hear. That is an image problem.

And we’ve compounded that image problem by having the highest turnover rate by a lot. Our marina maintained a lower than normal turnover rate until Hurricane Florence came to town. But being the focus of national news coverage, we overreacted by changing our hurricane policy. Since then our turnover rate has gone straight up and that fuels our image problem. People notice when three times as many slips come up for sale at Oriental Harbor as at other marinas.

The fact is our marina is not “dangerous”. Some would argue that it’s more exposed to storms, but that, if true, doesn’t make it more dangerous. Our marina was engineered to be hurricane safe and it is built to higher safety standards and newer building codes than most of the other marinas in the area.

Sure, everyone remembers the visual of Rabid Rabbit sitting on A-dock, but what they ought to remember is that our dock stood up to that 12-ton, 41 foot, full keel sailboat perching on it for over a month, a feat that would have collapsed the docks at most of the other marinas. Again, that is an image problem.

The advertising for Pecan Grove talks about how safe and secure their marina is, but ironically, Hurricane Florence sent two of their large sailboats into a neighboring field. So let’s face it -- hurricanes are bad. They’re bad for every marina. Whittaker Pointe had two sunk boats during Florence. We had one. Whittaker Creek was nearly destroyed while comparatively speaking, we sustained minor damage.

“Image is everything. You don’t spare any expense to create the right image. Word of mouth is critical. Once you get a good reputation, momentum will carry you.”

We can repair our broken image by doing three things: First, and most importantly, we have to end our mandatory evacuation policy. It shouts loudly to everyone that we must be horribly unsafe because we’re the only major marina in the area that requires our owners to evacuate. And that fear is amplified by our competitors.

Second, we have to stop the exodus. That means not just changing our hurricane policy but also making a commitment to the owners to bring fees down. I realize that we can’t afford to bring them down until we fund our reserves and fix our insurance problem, but we have to at least commit to the owners that we are moving that way and ask them to give us a chance. That will go a long way toward improving our morale and lowering our turnover rate.

Finally, we need to change our advertising. Our signs at the marina look sad. They’re old, unmaintained, and run down. One is cracked. They both had algae growing on them until the week of the owners meeting. If we don’t take pride in our facility -- and particularly the first thing people see when they arrive at our marina -- we can’t expect people to love us. And the same goes for our landscaping. It should be well kept (like River Dunes, Pecan Grove, and Whittaker Pointe).

Images can change, and we have to change ours. Allowing our competitors to cast us as unsafe and dangerous will continue to erode our property values. We didn’t see news coverage of the two boats in the field at Pecan Grove and there were not many press photos of the sunken boats at Whittaker Pointe. But Rabid Rabbit posed for the media for 34 long days and that image is still in the minds of many.

We need to change that image and we should work on a campaign to brag about our safety. We could easily turn the negative press from Rabid Rabbit into a positive. Here’s a simple example of taking a negative and putting a positive spin on it. But I’m sure there are many other good ways to take this negative and turn it into a positive.

I believe we can change our image, but it starts by changing our hurricane policy. That and assuring our owners that fees will come down will bring our turnover rate down to where it should be. And we can easily make some of the marketing changes that need to be made, from our signs to our landscaping to our advertising. These are all things that we have the ability to do. But sadly, we can’t fix any of these other problems until we address the elephant in the room...

Go to Problem 5 >>>