dhartshorn:
HELP! I am a Senior Marketing major working on a project for my Marketing Comm class. My group and I are doing research on the scuba diving community and we are trying to learn as much about ya'll as possible so we can come up with a print ad for a specific product targeting divers!
Some pretty weird responses to you
.so far.
Hierarchy? Dont know how to approach that
. the classification of a group of people according to ability or to economic, social, or professional standing;
also : the group so classified?
Just guesses
my thoughts
have no qualifications other than personal opinion or observation derived from my time spent reading here with diverse and worldwide posters. Also with personal experience or friends but very small number of people that are divers.
Youve got the right idea to learn more of why people dive as it is a basically location activity vs local. There are places to dive and divers through out the world going to these places to do it. While some may live where diving does occur and training is available (loosely) everywhere not all diveable locations are sought out to experience viewed a better than nothing or a place to train for getting to the dive destinations. Just my guess, a person seeing a lake doesnt immediately think they want to learn to dive to see whats in it or snow on a hillside lead them to take up skiing. They want to dive and seek out locations that have what they want to see.
Just my take on diving
I wanted to dive when I first heard about it being a recreation (vs a profession such as underwater construction) but did not until at a diving location. At my income level I chose to live where my chosen recreation was a destination people would travel to.
As far as social hierarchy I see a considerable look down upon those enjoying the simpler aspects of tropical warm water sight seeing divers by those intrigued by more challenging and inherently more dangerous forms such as caving, cold water, wrecks and deep (or beyond recreational limits.) And frequently intense attacks over gear choices and instruction levels.
There is an entire mental approach to diving I label loosely as DIR (commonly interpreted as Do It Right) that is near to fanaticism with many followers. I suggest looking into it for comparison between most commonly encountered advertising and marketing approaches to the happy fun loving enjoyment of the sport of scuba diving. Any marketing campaign would differ vastly. I could see easily unawareness of the attitudes alienating both when attempting to cover both.
And along the line of marketing and advertising in general
Profiling is
-educated in a broad sense judging from posts. Information is not commonly surrounding people, they need to seek it out and understand what the heck it means. Diving requires specific training and awareness of alien principals (breathing and physical functioning in pressure and in the absence of air.)
-desiring mental exercising and concentration. The required equipment requires an ability to and desire to use. You can run with out a heart monitor but not dive with out al least a minimum of equipment and understand how to operate. A person can go running with no additional thought or attention where a diver has to monitor status constantly.
-With recreational divers being the majority; a higher level of income due to price. Cost of equipment, purchase more desirable considering comfort level and safety. The large number located where participation requires travel commitment in time and expense.
-a higher level of risk assumption willingness or thrill seeking, adventurous, athletic, and exploratory with a small portion to the extreme.
-very conservative which seems to me counter to the above thrill seeking and I find surprising. If you read the non diving stuff the opinions are very, very conservative.
The sharing of stories I suggest would be well addressed with reading the forums stories are everywhere.
Why diving is so important to me is finding a recreational activity that meets my personal need considering limitations (physical ability, location and convenience) and interest. Exercise, exploration, spirit refreshment, outdoor continuous environment changes and opportunity to experience local uniqueness.
Im no longer able to do more active outdoor recreation or those I did in mountains and desert. A tropical island provides a brand new environment to learn, explore and enjoy. Intellectually Im finding the science of diving stimulating new physics, creatures and environment. Im also an escapist, I seek activities that exclude all normal daily thoughts, concerns, issues, and are other than. Im particularly appreciating the opportunity to view creatures close up behaving in their natural environment and places on earth much less altered by man.
Id be interested in seeing what your conclusions turn out to be. A link to the submitted assignment? 
