As for Malibu, they have been strategically positioned to provide consistent performance and take advantage of growth in the boat market. They currently classify their operations into three brands, Malibu, Cobalt and Axis, producing more than 30 world-class boat models. The legacy Malibu brand serves the high-performance sportboat segment, accounting for 59% of total revenues. Axis also offers high-performance sports boats, but targets the low-priced entry-level segment, which accounts for 4.7% of total revenue. Cobalt, a brand recently acquired by Malibu, serves sterndrive and outboard recreational boats, which account for 36.3% of the company's total revenue. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay By positioning its products as premium, highly innovative, and customizable, Malibu has been the market leader in high-performance sports boats since 2010, and its market share in 2017 was at 21.6%. Meanwhile, their main competitor, MasterCraft, has reduced its shares and only owns 21.7% of the total market. Malibu's marketing strategy focuses heavily on both organic and inorganic growth. First, they build a strong national presence through their award-winning website, where customers can explore different boat configuration options and choose the one they like best. Since 2015, they have acquired an organic digital audience with social interactions reaching up to 2.7 million, which is the largest combined social audience in the marine industry social media landscape. Malibu also increases grassroots marketing by sponsoring numerous specialty watersports events, individual athletes and teams, as well as partnering locally with retailers. For example, Malibu's “Just Ride Tour” is a multi-stop marketing event where Malibu staff, athletes, retailers and VIP customers participate in regional and local aquatic events. Second, Malibu strategically strengthens its brand through product innovation and diversity. They collaborate with several major brands with engineering capabilities such as GM Motors, McLaren Engineering and Davinci to design, develop and test their new engines. Malibu invests heavily in engineering with more than 15 world-class engineers, an in-house research and development department where engineering and manufacturing work closely together during product integration to provide rapid and agile reaction to changing customer preferences. As a result, Malibu was able to launch four new Malibu or Axis models and 30 to 40 new features per year. And they are applying this approach to Cobalt, the newly acquired brand, to rapidly dominate the market. Third, since Malibu sells most of their products through resellers, they focus on maximizing reseller productivity and growing reseller exclusivity. Malibu has a distribution network of more than 350 dealers worldwide, some of which are ranked among the top 100 dealers in the marine industry. Malibu has also channeled its efforts into reviewing its geographic coverage to identify opportunities to expand and improve its dealer network. Ultimately, Malibu aims to grow aggressively by pursuing strategic acquisitions and accelerating international expansion. They completed their IPO in 2014 and acquired Cobalt in 2017, which subsequently brought their EBITDA margin back to 18.7%. Most recently, Malibu just agreed to acquire the assets.
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