Why aren't more people taking up scuba diving?

[Puddledeep]

I never post, but I do read a lot here. Just thought the OP should know that this is exactly why I am turned off about brick and mortar and only shop the internet. I am a semi new diver and can say first hand that my experience with the local dive shops in north east Ohio have been exactly what was posted and worse.
Owners who call your gear junk because it isn't the brand they stock. Arrogant know it all's who feel that they should look down the bridge of their noses at you because you have less dive time than them. Who chastise you because you found a better price online only to have them beat you out of your money for everything you buy. Holding you hostage by fear mongering and supply and demand, then using it to force their views down your throat. Pretending to offer a "Fun time" only if you buy into their systems... Just sad.

***Wanted*** Local dive shop owner who cares about his patrons!

-end rant, going back in the shadow depths of my puddle.

 

[RJP]

Dive stores, as a rule, create divers in their own image. Walking into most dive stores, I can tell you within seconds, the owners interests and what he will try to sell to potential customers. I have preached "ask the customer what they want from diving" and give that experience to them. Do not substitute your vision of diving for the customer's. As a store owner/ employee you take the customer's money to finance your dream. Don't confuse the two.

Nail on the head, at the LDS level. Though in the perfect world "the industry" would figure out - and convey - the broad, macro level version of scuba diving can promise people. In doing so, the LDS will gain the benefit of more people coming in, who are more qualified, and have less detective work to do one-on-one with individual customers.

Plus there's research that shows that people are often demotivated - and often plain turned-off - by being probed and questioned about why they want to make a purchase. Two mindsets often result from this approach:
- I'm being judged: My motives are being called into question, my level of knowledge is being evaluated, they think I don't belong.
- I'm being set up: They are looking for information they can use "against me" in order to sell me stuff I don't really need or want

Lastly, the customer often can't - or won't - tell you why they really want to buy something. No one is going to say "I want to dive because well... you see... the truth is I have very few friends, and I'm looking for a way to find more. It all started when I moved here a year ago for this new job, and that isn't really working out for me... and my boyfriend just left me... so I figured diving might be a good way to meet new people."



The one thing I always tell clients is that the customer probably has a far more compelling reason to buy your product than you can possibly imagine. We just need to be willing to understand what that is... and and to do something about it.

Had a client once who's product was an antiseptic hand lotion. They had all these great studies about how their product killed more bacteria than the leading brand, and pictures of microscope slides, and such. Their whole selling proposition was essentially a high-science, "kills bugs dead" approach. But the product didn't take off. With all the increase in hand germ concerns and that sort of thing, the client couldn't imagine how we had a better product than the market leader - which was growing by leaps and bounds - but we were hardly selling any. Research showed that the biggest thing that correlated with interest and purchase among new purchasers was that they had tried our brand at a friend's house. Client said "that can't be right, because an individual wouldn't be able to determine that our brand has greater antibacterial activity than Brand X, certainly not on a single use... trial should have no effect whatsoever!"

Long story short, we found three things in research:

1.) People assumed "antibacterial efficacy" means "smells bad"
2.) People assumed our "superior antibacterial efficacy" meant "we smell even worse"
3.) We actually smelled BETTER than the leading brand

So, the brand promise the client was pushing of "superior antibacterial efficacy" actually HURT our sales, because it communicated "you won't like our product." But when people actually TRIED our product... they preferred it 4 or 5-to-1 over the market leader. We developed an new message that was essentially "as effective as Brand X... without that chemical smell" and the quantitative market research showed we'd be the market-leader virtually over night.

Do you know what became of that product?

No. Seriously... Do you know what became of that product? Because I don't.

You see, even after all the research, the client still thought he was smarter than the customer... and refused to change the messaging. He was a microbiologist by training, and built his company on "high science" and "clinical studies" and refused to sell the product any other way than "superior antibacterial efficacy."

(Actually, I do know what happened to that client's brand. They went out of business about seven years ago.)

 

[koozemani]

Here are the issues that we face

1. Location: the nearest good diving is going to involve an overnight stay and 6 hours of driving (if they're willing to go to Mexico) each way. Anything closer is un"Pleasant" (an AZ joke)
2. Time: see reason one. Each trip to the Sea of Cortez usually involves a 3-4 day weekend. My schedule is flexible in that I can back my days off up to each other without using vacation time. My wife cannot. This limits us to 3-4 weekend trips and one big trip a year.
3. Money: we live small and play big. But not being able to wonder down to a beach for a shore dive on any given morning gets expensive. A weekend trip will run us about $1100. With my oldest certified the price tag for a weekend trip is now around $1400. Could we knock that down a few hundred? Sure, but we enjoy our comforts. Plus gear and training.

with only a small number of states being coastal, it's hard to sell how cool that school bus at the bottom of the quarry is.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Interesting concept! Got me thinking. We tend to ask why more people don't become avid divers. Perhaps we should figure out why some of us do, and that might inform us of what product we're pitching, and how to pitch it and to whom.

Keeping it to mainstream rec. diving, since that's what our target market would probably be drawn to:

1.) Is it to look at the pretty underwater scenery & colorful fish? Reef diving. I think this is # 1. So, ecological/zoological tourism, like selling African safaris or Everglades tours?

2.) Structural intrigue/wrecks, history, etc... I figure a minority of divers.

3.) People who love being in the water so much finning around underwater weightless for an hour sounds wonderful?

Many freshwater dive destinations are chilly with limited, even poor, viz., have poor fish species diversity (in terms of stuff over minnow-sized divers might appreciate) and they're generally not pretty bright colors, and the turtles are mostly small and not seen that often in lots of places.

So if we view scuba as a means to an end, a tool, not a product itself, what product are we selling? Tropical coral reef & Florida spring dives?

Richard.

P.S.: I'm assuming most people don't get into scuba so as to dive caves, depths over 130 feet, deco. dive, or do deep penetration wrecks, which is why I excluded tec. diving. I figure most tec. diving draws on people who are already divers.

You missed hunting.
I like to hunt and it is one of the reasons I dive locally - to get fresh seafood.
Maybe it's just a regional thing?

But if hunting was not allowed I would still dive locally because I enjoy the excercise, the scenery, and how good I feel afterwards to have bathed in salt water.

For me exotic travel isn't an option because I have bills (Daughters college, etc.) However I do go on semi local charters occasionally in my state.
I'm not a big supporter of LDS's not because I don't like them, but because I have all my stuff and learned to service my own gear. The only thing I get from the LDS is air fills and a few trinkets now and then.
So I guess I'm not a good example of someone who supports the industry that well, but yet I am an active diver.

 

[RJP]

Interesting concept! Got me thinking. We tend to ask why more people don't become avid divers. Perhaps we should figure out why some of us do, and that might inform us of what product we're pitching, and how to pitch it and to whom.

Keeping it to mainstream rec. diving, since that's what our target market would probably be drawn to:

1.) Is it to look at the pretty underwater scenery & colorful fish? Reef diving. I think this is # 1. So, ecological/zoological tourism, like selling African safaris or Everglades tours?

2.) Structural intrigue/wrecks, history, etc... I figure a minority of divers.

3.) People who love being in the water so much finning around underwater weightless for an hour sounds wonderful?

Many freshwater dive destinations are chilly with limited, even poor, viz., have poor fish species diversity (in terms of stuff over minnow-sized divers might appreciate) and they're generally not pretty bright colors, and the turtles are mostly small and not seen that often in lots of places.

So if we view scuba as a means to an end, a tool, not a product itself, what product are we selling? Tropical coral reef & Florida spring dives?

Oh, you're so, so close Richard. Oh so close...

But you've simply abandoned one answer, and substituted a different answer. Asking the inverse of a question isn't really asking a different question.



HINT: Pretty fishies might be the number one thing people see while they are scuba diving. But that's like saying people buy BMWs to look at telephone poles and road signs. If scuba were predominantly about coral reefs and florida springs... there wouldn't have been so many people diving in a quarry in Pennsylvania today. They would have been home, staring at their expensive - though cheaper overall than diving - saltwater aquarium.

 

[drrich2]

I laughed at the 'the school bus has a trout in it' bit. Down south, it's more apt to be a bass. And if memory serves this was an RV; there is also a school bus, though (in the local quarry).

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

As with many LDSs, my shop requires a potential student to plop down $500-600 to just to sit for the first lesson -- class fee, materials, Mask, Fins, Snorkel, Booties and Gloves -- on the other hand, it will charge only $50 to do a Discover Scuba session which is as long as the first OW session.

IF the up-front expense is a barrier to entry for a significant number of people (potential clients), then why what can be done to minimize that barrier? While it may be difficult to sell the gear before trying, IF the entry level experience is good, shouldn't it be easier to then convince the student to buy?

Just musing here -- I wonder what ARE the barriers to entry for becoming a scuba diver? Money and time are certainly two, but what others might there be?

If I was told that just to begin scuba diving it would cost me $500 - $600 I would have walked out the door and never returned.
With me the way it happened was I used to be a shore fisherman a long time ago. My kid was young, I was working at a body shop making regular journeyman pay, which wasn't great but I was able to stay on top of bills and that's about it. I would do side work to finance my shore fishing which was relatively cheap.
One day I saw a guy out on an inflatable kayak catching 10 times as much fish as me so I decided I had to get a kayak. But in order to kayak safely off our coast I would need a wetsuit.
So that sent me to the dive shop to look for a wetsuit, which I bought one on sale. While I was in there I looked around and saw regulators and BC's (and the prices) and I almost choked.

Several months of kayak fishing went by and I start seeing all these abalone freedivers out there getting the prized and delicious abalone. So that sent me back to the dive shop to get fins, mask, weightbelt, booties, gloves, hood, ab float-iron-guage, all finaced little by little by side work.

Then after getting good at freediving for a few years and getting the hang of abalone diving, I'm in the dive shop one day looking at spear guns (because that was the logical next step to a seafood addict) and talking to people, and the guy behind the counter tells me there's an open water class starting in a few days and have I ever thought about scuba? I actually was thinking about scuba because while I'd be out there freediving I saw scuba divers so that was about to send me back to the dive shop.
After finally taking open water I was making a little more money because I had become self employed and could afford the sport.
I rented for as long as I could and by that time was used to seeing the prices of gear so I was acclimated and didn't have to suffer sticker shock.
I piece by piece went from renter to owner of gear but it took a while.

In the beginning there would have been absolutely no way for me to go whole hog right into scuba.
I would have been done before I even started. The prices were too prohibitive.
For me it was a steady progression over a few years, but I feel I worked for it and it made a more dedicated diver out of me.

But the difference I see with my situation and people these days is that these young people that would be candidates for diving have completely different interests and motivations. Scuba or any diving for that matter isn't even on their radar. With me it was, I always wanted to dive from the time I was a kid.

 

[redacted]

Dive shops and training agencies are not like Blue Bell (a popular TX ice cream maker). They (scuba) really don't much care if the cows are contented. They just want to be sure they are milked. Shops and agencies could develop less expensive options for certifying divers. But they see no incentive to do so.

 

[Vegan Shark]

How many times I have heard that "I SCUBA dive to relax" and then I think of all the youtube videos filmed by young(er) people showing back flips on MTBs and flying off mountains on skis and then contrast old and often overweight and sedentary folks talking about SCUBA and relaxing. Yeah, that will get them in the sport, but, wait, most divers think of SCUBA as a hobby like model trains or knitting.

There are a lot of people terrified of diving, and I definitely get the impression that it is an "extreme sport" in society's eyes. I know people who ski off mountains, skydive solo, and kayak class V whitewater, and they would pretty much rather play Russian roulette than ever go 100 ft under the ocean. The sea scares the crap out of a lot of people. Maybe we can blame Jaws for most of that. 50% of the time I go shore diving at least one passerby stops and says something like, "You're crazy," or "badass, man." When I surfaced next to a father and son just standing in the shallows on the beach, the father said to me with horror and amazement, "You are too brave. Aren't you afraid of getting eaten by sharks?!"

And that's just recreational diving. Cave, ice, and tech diving are considered ballsy by everyone.

 

[drrich2]

Eric:

Drawing from your post, I get the sense that if LDS's diversified into other regional water sports, they might draw in outdoors/water lovers who'd get indirectly exposed to scuba enough to notice & start considering it.

Perhaps dive shop operations with quarry sites could diversify? (Being mindful I'm in Kentucky, so spear fishing on wrecks or abalone diving is like mining moon rocks for me). But into what? What water sports won't be handled by the local Wal-mart that would be worthwhile for the shop to be into?

Richard.

---------- Post added December 31st, 2013 at 07:41 PM ----------

HINT: Pretty fishies might be the number one thing people see while they are scuba diving. But that's like saying people buy BMWs to look at telephone poles and road signs. If scuba were predominantly about coral reefs and florida springs... there wouldn't have been so many people diving in a quarry in Pennsylvania today. They would have been home, staring at their expensive - though cheaper overall than diving - saltwater aquarium.

Tough one. I can drive down to Chattanooga, TN in about 4 hours and see a big aquarium to look at fish and fake corals. Pretty. But I like diving better. So, to me diving, as opposed to viewing public aquaria, involves:

1.) Authentic nature, not a man-made imitation. This allows for the possibility of unusual and even dangerous encounters, like potentially dangerous sea life. There's a connection there that I don't get with aquariums. I get to see big barracuda and big green morays, even a few (fairly small) sharks, without cage bars. I'm not looking to get bitten or eaten, but it adds to the thrill knowing I could be (but I'm not much on serious risk; no desire to poke the bear).

2.) Being under my own power/control, not riding around like a bus tour in a submarine.

3.) Getting to enjoy something most people don't. There's a bit of exclusivity to diving. However vain & silly it is, I do enjoy knowing I dive 40, 60, 80, over 100 feet deep. I see a 50 foot tall tree & picture that much water over my head diving, and I'm happy. (I am a weirdo, by the way).

4.) Like my Father, who likes to 'get out' in the outdoors (hunting in his case, and gardening), I like to get out in nature and feel a part of things.

Richard.