There's a 70% chance that you're craving adventure right now...

[RJP]

Interestingly, your non-diver friends don't crave adventure anywhere near as much as you or other divers do.

I'm currently finalizing the analysis of two market research studies I did in December with more than 500 divers and non-divers. The results are very interesting.

In phase one I asked a series of psychographic questions of both groups to see whether the "Diver Mindset" is any different than that of the average non-diver.

The methodology asked respondents to read a statement and then rate how true that statement was in describing them on a scale from "Not at All True of Me" to "Completely true of me." Below is the answer to one of the questions.

So when your non-diver friends don't seem to "get" you - or you can't figure out why they don't want to take up diving - there's probably a good reason why.

 

[chillyinCanada]

"You don't know what you don't know."

They don't know what we know, so how could they crave what we crave? Perhaps like someone who's never had chocolate. They don't know they'll love it and so never think of it.

(Yes, yes i get your point)

 

[Hickdive]

Is it a cause or an effect though?

Are divers a self-selecting more adventurous group because of diving or did they become divers because they were already more adventurous?

 

[tajkd]

In terms of marketing though, there's probably a large portion of the GP that fall into the "could be divers" category. They're just off climbing mountains and hunting wild pigs. Or perhaps divers also do those other things and the market is quite small. Do you have insight into how many non-divers would become divers? Do the 36% just lack the opportunity?

 

[RJP]

Is it a cause or an effect though?

Are divers a self-selecting more adventurous group because of diving or did they become divers because they were already more adventurous?

I've got some some data that may help answer that question. Will put the full report up when I've got it nailed down. (Hint: it's intuitive that someone with an underlying "adventurous" mindset is more likely to take up diving that someone who is not at all adventurous.)

---------- Post added January 9th, 2015 at 10:28 AM ----------

In terms of marketing though, there's probably a large portion of the GP that fall into the "could be divers" category. They're just off climbing mountains and hunting wild pigs. Or perhaps divers also do those other things and the market is quite small. Do you have insight into how many non-divers would become divers? Do the 36% just lack the opportunity?

There could be any number of reasons why the 36% didn't become divers - money, time, access, interest. Similarly, there's any number of reasons why the 30% of "non adventrous" dives DID become divers. (I'm guessing it's because they don't see diving as "an adventure."

The research didn't address why non-divers didn't become divers, but focused on understanding whether there are underlying mindset differences between divers and non-divers.

 

[DaleC]

I see this all the time with my wife.
She plans to do one or two adventurous activities a year (zip lining, paddle boarding, river rafting). I start going into withdrawal if I haven't gone diving in a week.
"Life's just not worth living"

 

[SeaCobra]

I don't really perceive what I do as all that adventurous. Jumping off a perfectly good boat in the middle of the Atlantic and descending into 100' of cold sea water is perfectly normal.

 

[Searcaigh]

"You don't know what you don't know."

They don't know what we know, so how could they crave what we crave? Perhaps like someone who's never had chocolate. They don't know they'll love it and so never think of it.

(Yes, yes i get your point)

Someone's never had chocolate

 

[RJP]

I don't really perceive what I do as all that adventurous. Jumping off a perfectly good boat in the middle of the Atlantic and descending into 100' of cold sea water is perfectly normal.

I thought I was cool diving right off the coast. If you're diving in the MIDDLE of the Atlantic... I'd say that's pretty adventurous.

:d

 

[DaleC]

Sea Cobra is really Bob Ballard's sock puppet