The Wakeboard Report: Supra Purchases Time Machine and Travels to 1997. Learns Flash. Returns to 2005 and Supplants Awesome Version of Web Site

December 04, 2005

Supra Purchases Time Machine and Travels to 1997. Learns Flash. Returns to 2005 and Supplants Awesome Version of Web Site

Introduction and Disclaimer
Today I want to tell you about the recent facelift of supraboats.com. This entry is written from the perspective of a Web Developer and Designer of 7 years, who has worked in the Web team at a large company for 5 years, in a competitive displacement oriented Marketing department. And as a disclaimer which will be expanded upon later; Supra is a company I respect and regard as a fantastic boat manufacturer. On my little lake, I see a handful of Supras from the 80's still dependably cruising around year after year, giving their owners plenty of enjoyment and quality time. And that is really how I judge each company and their boats: How well the boats operate and "give back" to their owner after the note is paid off. So, that puts Supra in the top tier. They last. Period. I am fan of Supra boats and of their company in general. Ok now that the gushing is out of the way.

Inspiration? Not Anymore.
What was a site that served as an occasional design inspiration for me, took a 180 degree turn and decided to go nearly all Flash a few weeks ago while simultaneously getting a total, un-needed redesign. In doing so they ditched the intuitive and attractive hover menus, high resolution images, easy-to-find boat documentation and owners manuals, resulting in yet another overly designed Wake boat featurette. What they had was what I have argued to be the proper balance of a Flash-enabled site, in real-life meetings on a real-life projector in a room full of real-life influential business people that could probably fire me, in real life! Now all of that is gone. Now I will have to go back to saying that SonyStyle USA is my favorite site.

It is no secret that giants Master Craft and Correct Craft miss the mark when it comes to their Web presence, and depend on their disparate dealer network to provide individually stunning Web sites. Unfortunately many of these dealer sites link back to the manufacturer's site for information about new boats; while providing high-resolution images only for pre-owned boats. These big companies employ hard to update, over-Flashed sites that offer nothing but a 72 DPI, low-resolution, cut-down elements from their print marketing material. It was a common understanding that Supra stood alone as a wake/ski boat company that understood a Web audience and the browser as a platform for delivering marketing material. This version of Supraboats.com is distinctly not a step forward for the company in this regard.

Tinker's Damage Control
A topic recently came up when the Marketing machine at Supra (Skier's Choice is the parent company of Supra) began soliciting input on WakeWorld.com and WakeBoarder.com under the guise of a random person "stumbling" on the new Supraboats.com site and passing on da' props and some congratulatory remarks. While cute and admirable that they are willing to throw themselves into the snake pit that message forums can be, it was transparent and was obviously someone from Supra. On Wakeboarder.com the discussion quickly turned to questions about the over-use of Flash, the lack of images, and the general degradation of the company's Web presence. But before turning too ugly, Rick Tinker, CEO of Skier's Choice responded to people's comments and most people's proper manners quickly came back.

I found the mere fact that Tinker responded to be pretty impressive and even exchanged a few email messages with him and his design team. Taking that into consideration, I can't see how absolutely annihilating Supra here will result in anything productive, so what I would like to do is frame this feedback in a wider context.

It is Everyone's Problem
The industry needs to get out of the late 1990's and into the mid 00's. It is my belief that people are looking for the following when they are going to a Web site, and are considering the purchase of a $25,000-$65,000 (average new pricing) wake boat.

From: Prospects. To: Wake Boat Companies Re: Our Wants
1. We want images, and we want them at a very high-resolution. In the past year I sold a boat and an SUV. I found that providing hi-res images increased my interested leads and answered most of people's questions, if visually, right off the bat. I am perplexed at the following phenomenon: If I need to see a detailed image, a hi-resolution shot of of something that I am considering buying, I need to perform image searches on eBay because the chances of finding hi-res images (for purposes of this conversation, at, near, or over 1000 pixels wide) on a manufacturer's Web site are nearly zero. We want detailed images and breakdowns of drive train and running gear details for our potential boat. We want upholstery samples, shown in detail. Although we can't "feel" a high-resolution image, we can get an idea of texture from a close up image.

2. We want Specification Data Sheets, and Owners' Manuals and most importantly, PRICING. Stop making us call a dealer or troll for this information on message boards where of course someone got their boat for 2% below cost and wants to brag. Just be up-front.

3. We already have a tendency to misinterpret even the easiest methods of navigating a site. Introducing a new way to navigate not only confuses non-savvy Web users, but confuses us, the good ones. We're good at the internet! When I went to the new Supraboats.com, the first thing I did was look for a navigation menu. I saw an arrow. Then I got cranky.

4. Name site sections appropriately. My favorite example of this is "On the Rope" on Correct Craft's Web site. Wha? On the who? Huh? **not clicking**. I would link to it directly, but since Correct Craft's site is all Flash and thus appears as 1 url, I can't.

5. Stop using the term: "Coming Soon". If it isnt ready, don't bother, becasue we don't care and can't get upset about something we know nothing about to begin with. Forward-looking statements annoy us and despite common belief, does not motivate us to bookmark a site and set a reminder in Microsoft Outlook to go back and look for the new feature. The only purpose the Coming Soon statement serves is for quelling internal complaints at a given company. Outside of the organization they are meaningless. Regarding the "Trick Room" on Supra's site, nobody wants to get their trick tips from Supra and there is no way that the section can last long term anyway. My reccomendation: Ditch it. Focus on what we came to your Web site for: Information on and images of...the boats!

In Closing
For a long time, I've had some problems with the ways that wakeboarding, snowboarding and inboard boat companies market their products. The list is long and if anyone wants to pay me to write a wakeboarding industry white paper, I sure will! Heck for a small advance I'll write a book on it!

But since that won't happen anytime soon, I need to cover these things on a case-by-case basis. If you are interested in researching this further, below are two links & examples of the old Supra site vs the new one, made possible due to the fact that some parts of the old Supra site are still up. This side by side comparison uses the Supra 24SSV as an example. A boat that I am quite certian I drooled on a little bit at the 2005 Boston Boat show. Whomever bought that blue & white Launch V-drive at the show, I apologize.