Go-RVing...
A Great Idea and Getting Better

Don Magary, Editor

If there is one thing that this industry can point to that it has done in the past few years that is an overwhelming success, it has to be the Go-RVing program.

We have to admit we are not particularly surprised by the success of the Go-RVing market expansion program. RV News was among the small number of voices that kept grinding away at the "powers-to-be" on the need for an industry-wide market expansion program. When it was adopted for a trial period of three years, we resisted the urge to take a lot of credit, although many people that shared the same vision such as Carefree of Colorado's Tom Faludy and Coachmen's Tom Corson were happy to credit RV News for playing a pivotal role in its ultimate adoption.

We remember that many of the RVIA board members were not very supportive and it looked as if the idea might die. That's when Tom Corson asked to address the RVIA board and made a passionate plea for the need of an industry-wide market expansion plan, one funded in part by RVIA seals, an idea that was eventually accepted. RVIA continued to shuffle it's feet and studied the idea, funded surveys, and did everything it could to keep from bringing it to a vote. The reluctance of the board to act on market expansion was ultimately Fleetwood's resistance to the idea.

And just when it looked as if market expansion would never happen, RVIA board member Tom Faludy proposed an idea that breathed new life into it. Rather than RVIA totally funding the program, Faludy suggested forming an industry-wide coalition that would jointly look at ways to raise the money necessary to get the program launched - approximately $6 million a year. From there, the idea again took on new life and all the national and local industry associations made commitments of both financial and intellectual support.

The coalition funded a preliminary program to have major advertising agencies offer proposals. And Eisner and Associates, offered the most outstanding presentation. I personally was surprised that someone outside the industry could so completely capture the essence of what we are all about. As matter of fact, I must admit, the first time I saw their ideas, it literally brought tears to my eyes.

When all this work was done, it was time to go back to the RVIA board because obviously, the program wouldn't work without that association's support. It was literally at the final hour when Fleetwood agreed not to oppose the program any longer for fear that it might rip the association apart, an association it helped build.

So with that decision RVIA got behind the program and helped launch the industry's first national advertising campaign designed to bring the positive concept of the RV lifestyle to the mass audience.

The program has met with overwhelming success and few dissenters. Even Fleetwood has changed its mind about the program. In an interview last year with Glenn Kummer, Fleetwood's chairman of the board, he admitted to RV News that he was pleased with the results and suggested that possibly they had fought it too hard.

This year we are ending the third and final year of what has been termed Phase I. The continuation of the program has wide ranging support so it was a sure thing that Phase II would be approved.