Budget Marine Knows its Customers

Budget Marine is the Caribbean’s leading marine chandlery with retail locations throughout the Caribbean.  Budget Marine’s customers range from live-aboard cruisers, to power boaters, to megayacht captains & crew.  Generally, their customers fall into two categories: boaters who are there for high season, and resident “yachties” who live in the Caribbean and migrate up and down the island chain to avoid hurricane season.

Budget Marine recognizes the importance of social media to its overall business performance with a commitment “to increase the participation and involvement of Budget Marine’s customers with Budget Marine as well as show that Budget Marine is actively following … interesting information from its surroundings.”  (Budget Marine Group Services colleague, May 22, 2017.)

Currently, Budget Marine uses FaceBook, Instagram and Youtube to connect with customers.  These platforms are backed by the company’s website and augmented with newsletters and sales promotions sent directly to customers via email.

What Budget Marine gets right:  Balance.

Budget Marine’s social media presence is clearly geared towards deepening their customer relationships.  Budget Marine’s customers exemplify the whole spectrum of social media use, from content creators, writing blogs about their travels & experiences; to conversationalists, sharing third party content; to critics; joiners; and spectators. (Retrieved from: SMPB Week 3 – Customer Engagement course material)

Visit Budget Marine’s Facebook page and you’ll find four general areas of information:

1. Useful Local Information – news, weather, bridge opening times, store hours
2. Yachting News – information about regattas, events, youth programmes, topics of interest to sailors, humour
3. How-To’s
4. Product Promotion

By minimizing the emphasis on “buy this product now,” Budget Marine ensures constant and repeat traffic to their Facebook page.  This traffic fosters customer loyalty and provides a familiarity with Budget Marine as the go-to store when something is needed.

Good balance also means integrating its social media activity with the use of email promotions, event sponsorship, event participation, and in-person accessibility, both in-store and within the local communities.  Budget Marine does this well.

Lessons for Others

Budget Marine has built a strong audience on its social media platforms through a balanced approach of which product promotion is only a part.  Budget Marine’s social media presence attracts both visiting and live-aboard yachts.  By engaging customers in topics that interest them, Budget Marine has created a loyal following by increasing customer participation and involvement.

If you have concerns as to the accuracy of anything posted on this site, please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Program Director, Social Media for Business Performance.

---

References