Marketing: Are we ok, or do we need help?

[RJP]

Very enlightening responses. It appears that recreational diving as an industry is a global failure. The number of people who dive for pleasure are very small and not enough to sustain an "industry." Besides sustaining a few dive shops, boats and a few resorts, they are not large / monolithic enough to sustain an industry.

Don't confuse "small" and "challenging" with "failure" by any means. There are plenty of industries that are far smaller, and far more challenging that are hugely "profitable."

People's tastes and desires have changed. How have the tastes and consumption patterns of people with disposable income changed over the past 15 or so years? Hiking, rock climbing, eco-tourism, mountain biking, road cycling, running, doing triathlons, yoga, etc. Scuba never evolved to say "hey we're right there too!" This might not be the answer, but as a marketer I'll throw out the premise that scuba missed an opportunity to re-position itself as a healthy way to get outdoors and interact with nature and the environment in a uniquely engaging fashion. There's more to it than that, but the world moved on from Mike Nelson and Jacqueline Bisett a long time ago...

---------- Post added December 22nd, 2013 at 09:24 PM ----------

It takes a certain person to start with to want to dive. There are water people and land people.
Land people have a lot more sports to choose from and I am going to guess there are a lot more land type people than water people.

Agreed, but that's always been the case.

 

[Akimbo]

In what "sector" of the alleged "scuba industry" is your friend involved?...

He started in the military but has been a principal in retail, travel, training, and manufacturing companies. He is mostly consulting and writing now. Not sure if the size estimate was based on DEMA numbers only or a composite. Even if he was off by 25%, it is still a startling number at a time when the demographics “should” be favorable for diving in terms of time and money.

 

[flots am]

New divers, who would be "first time gear buyers" are certainly most profitable for gear manufacturers.

For a shop the process is straightforward, though may not be easy. Find a new vacation diver. Train them, train their wife, train their kids, sell them each a set of gear, sell 'em a camera or two, sell 'em a handful of accessories before each trip, get them to book their trips through your shop,... then go find the next new vacation diver. Train them, train their wife, train their kids, sell them each a set of gear, sell 'em a camera or two, sell 'em a handful of accessories before each trip, get them to book their trips through your shop.

That hasn't happened around here since the 80's. Mom and dad rent gear at the destination they booked on the internet. They only book fun local trips, and exotic hard to plan trips at the shop.

 

[Wookie]

Profitable for who and for how long?

Local dive shops get pretty much nothing from divers who fly off to Someplace Warm every few years.

Local dive shops refuse to look at this revenue stream, and it makes me insane. Let's think about this. Dive shop sponsors a trip. Let's say they are going en mass to....CocoView. Travel person e-mails out booking forms, makes sure they have everyone's flight arrangements, makes sure all participants have passports that expire farther than 6 months out, etc.

LDS number 2 has a pizza party 2 weeks prior to the trip. Everyone bring in their computer, we'll change the battery for free (just buy the battery). Bring your passport with you so we can write down the number (and check the expiration date). Those who bring in their computer will bring their reg set with them, and many will need service. Who of us go into a dive shop without buying a little something? Everyone have a safety sausage/tank banger/o-ring lube/lip balm? Meet your trip leader (if you haven't) and the rest of your traveling companions. The lone guy in the corner? He will meet the buddy team he will be diving with.

The results are the same, except LDS#2 sold $1500 worth of knick-knacks that wouldn't have been sold if the divers hadn't come in for $50 worth of pizza. everyone got their battery freshened, so there won't be any issues on the dive boat the first morning, and the LDS had 2 weeks to service those regs that needed it.

Most LDSs don't add the extra bit of fun to diving.

 

[RJP]

...at a time when the demographics “should” be favorable for diving in terms of time and money.

How's that?

Discretionary income has been flat across all segments but the most affluent. Households w/income >$100k control 82% of US discretionary income, according to the US Conference Board. This has become even more concentrated, as the percentage of households with ANY discretionary income has declined a few percentage points over the last few years.

But even harder than finding discretionary income, is finding free time. And, ironically, the affluent family actually has LESS discretionary free time than lower socio-economic segments. How can that be? Know any affluent families? How many organized sports leagues are their kids involved in? They are also putting kids in tutoring sessions, music lessons, scouting, and myriad other activities in order to boost their attractiveness to colleges. I live in Somerset County NJ considered the buckle on the "wealth belt" of the three central NJ counties (Somerset, Hunterdon, and Morris) in the top ten counties in the US in terms of median household income. I can't tell you how many people I know of who don't take real "go away for a week" vacations - ever - because their kids are in rec soccer, travel soccer, spring baseball, SAT prep classes, music lessons, etc. There's never a good time to go, so they do long weekends here and there, have a house at the Jersey shore, maybe drive to Vermont to ski over President's Weekend, etc.

 

[JahJahwarrior]

I did a tiny bit of research on scuba diver marketing once while studying for my MBA, and the 1 thing I took away from it is, divers hate when a shop belittles another shop.

I also know from anecdotal experience, diving with other people, that unskilled divers or those who don't dive very often, find it more difficult to dive and don't see the same things underwater as they have tunnel vision.

What I can't understand is, living in Florida, where I'm able to dive weekly if I want to, and rarely go more than 2 weeks without diving, and with plenty of friends whom I share my pictures with...everyone will ooh and ah and say they want to go see that animal in real life, but not a single person in the last 4 years has gotten scuba certified.

I've also experienced several times that I invite someone to dive and they seem committed, then they party too hard the night before and sit out the dive. Drinking with friends is more exciting to them than seeing marine life.


I think some technical divers get burned out because they focus too much on skills and training and too little on having fun.

 

[RJP]

They must be choosing freediving because the costs are a fraction of what it takes to get into scuba, plus they look like hero's and get the girls too.

One of the biggest mistake marketers make is assume cost is "the reason" people do - or don't do - something. It typically does factor in, but is not usually a primary driver.

In this case freediving is also less gear intensive, requires no certification, no hassle of tank fills, gear maintenance, and probably considered more macho.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

People's tastes and desires have changed. How have the tastes and consumption patterns of people with disposable income changed over the past 15 or so years? Hiking, rock climbing, eco-tourism, mountain biking, road cycling, running, doing triathlons, yoga, etc. Scuba never evolved to say "hey we're right there too!".

I think they did but there is one fundamental problem with SCUBA that puts it in a different camp than hiking and rock climbing. People pay money to have "instant-fun." Snorkeling and surfing offer the instant fun factor. Scuba requires reading a book then sitting in a class. The academic component creates skeptics who say "We have come to Bahamas to splash around and have fun. We are not going to waste our time sitting in a class." This is the logical way of thinking for an average vacationer IMHO. Certifications agencies realize this and that is why I feel there has been a gradual idiotization of diver training to attract the "tourist diver" who can be snorkeling the same waters with no training and no 2000 USD gear investment.

No matter how much we "market" scuba, in the end it can never compete with rock climbing, yoga or any of those activities you rightfully mentioned. In the end we have to realize that this will never be "recreation of the masses" like Zumba and just like marathons and triathlons attract thousands, scuba never will. It will only attract a small and dedicated community of explorer types and I suggest it is best if we keep it that way.

 

[Mike Ange]

Being a scuba diver was once thought of as a prestigious accomplishment like being accepted into Harvard or Yale. Ivy League schools don't need to advertise the same way as community colleges. DEMA, training agencies, and dive shops have all followed marketing campaigns that give the message anyone can do it. Diving is no longer publicly perceived as a great adventure fraught with danger, mystery and intrigue. With that, diving has lost its sex-appeal. The sport no longer has a face as it did with Jacques Cousteau. There are no heroes in posters in dive shops like you will find in sports like mountain climbing. Participants are often middle-aged, obese, and highly critical of one another rather than young, fit and impressed by talent like in the sport of surfing. Yes, diving needs somebody to get books like The Shadow Divers made into big budget motion pictures, get agencies to create standards that inspire respect when a C-card is earned, get the accomplished out of their humble shells to take on the role of "diver as hero", and make it a youthful sport again with kick-ass skills where the adventurous can impress one another with their exploits. How one does that is probably a problem for people like you and RJP. The training agency GUE and the sport of freediving seem to be doing most of the above rather well. Manufacturers such as Light Monkey, Deep Sea Supply, Halcyon and Dive Rite tend to attract loyal customers and their products make divers look good and give them dignity. The sport has seen better days. Someone needs to turn the dive industry from being the two dollar streetwalker begging for tricks into the 2000 per night call girl turning down work.

Absolutely correct Trace. it is a shame that nobody was listening to those of us who were outraged when the "industry" decided to make diving our "grandparents" sport back in the early/mid 90's. Guess what? They succeeded and if you have any doubt go visit any local dive show and take an age census.

 

[JahJahwarrior]

Now that you mention the time it takes to scuba dive, I'm reminded of one of my other hobbies that is dying alarmingly fast--ham radio.

Ham radio, like scuba diving, has gotten easier over the years, as you used to have to build your own very expensive radio. Now they are cheap and easily available, like the $30 handheld on Amazon. The certification has also gotten easier, in that it no longer requires morse code. If you understand basic electrical theory, you can pass the Technician exam after studying for a day or so. But, you still have to find a testing center, which is harder than finding a dive class.

Most people nowadays don't see any point to ham radio, which is why it's really dying out, unlike scuba diving, which is difficult but there is nothing quite the same if you want to see marine life up close. With Skype, cell phones, email, etc, it's a really hard sell to get someone to use a radio with low voice quality and antennas they have to string up and frequencies they have to match to talk to someone.

However, there is one important parallel: people who get into ham radio with a just-barely-get-it understanding, often don't have much fun as they really struggle to get the gear working right. They buy cheap radios, talk to a local net a few times, then they give up.

The ones that really stay in it are those who have a good first experience, a good understanding of how the gear works and how to do what they want to do, quality gear that works properly (I bought a piece of gear once that didn't function properly and I went off air for a month I was so frustrated trying to get my signal working properly!), and a community that they get plugged into.

For technicians, that's likely a local ham club. For Generals and above, that might be a net they check into. There are 2 local clubs that I am fond of, but it's interesting--one has pretty good meetings, but their on the air chats are boring as all get out, and no one is volunteering to help. The other club has mediocre meetings, but they have 2 on air chats that are very lively and all sorts of people check in. Then on the airwaves, you've got some real friendly people, and some real jerks, who really turn people off to the idea of chatting. Then there are people who only use ham radio to "contest," where they fight to make contact with long distance people and get a card from them in the mail confirming the contact. When a rare station gets on the air, there can be 20 or more people all yelling their call sign over each other until the contact confirms one of them, it's real challenging for someone new to get into that kind of thing. It's very similar to some forms of technical diving! Infact, hams squabble over the silliest stuff, like whether the phonetic for "z" is "zed" or "zulu."

I think Wookie hit the nail on the head about how dive shops benefit from providing community, when they hold events that get people in the doors, with the focus on being there, and the sales just happen naturally as an extension of that community.