How to Market Freediving?

[Andrew the fish]

Reef Troll, I am not sure if you got the point esom was trying to get across. And good point too, what exactly are we marketing here? More importantly - who is interested, and those who interested, what are they trying to sell? I asked those very same questions in my previous couple posts. And have very same concerns -

... i don't want to produce a freediving that qualifies for being sold and afterwards sell (or which is the same for me "market") it.

we are enjoying a very free sport so far. Where will it go and who will be shaping that "new" freediving? I haven't seen any good exaple of commercialization of anything yet.

 

[Simos]

Not 100% how Kars meant it Andrew but I'd guess he meant more 'promote' than market in the commercial sense

 

[pehtran]

Maybe an interesting question would be: why would one want to promote/market freediving? What is the motive?

 

[Andrew the fish]

Maybe an interesting question would be: why would one want to promote/market freediving? What is the motive?

exactttly!

 

[Mr. X]

You'd want to market it if your livelihood depends on it, or you want to make money from it - or perhaps just want to increase participation, for example to make competitions, training sessions, equipment/facilities, advertising viable. Or perhaps to get it into the Olympics.

I think it is good to help/make it easy for people who want to participate but I have some qualms about actively promoting/pushing dangerous activities (I used to rock climb, which has similar issues). You could promote it as an "X-treme" sport/activity - but I wonder if that might put some people off, it's a bit "Red Bull".

Freediving already has a pretty glam/athletic/aspirational image, the danger & fitness training is part of that. Whenever I think of freediving, this song pops into my head :

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39YUXIKrOFk]Right Said Fred - I`m Too Sexy (The Original) - YouTube[/ame]

I think the relaxation, breathing and yoga training used by some is an interesting aspect. What would you call that self-control, relaxation, spiritual development,...?

You could also market it to spearos & snorkelers as a practical skill - although the emphasis might be different.

 

[pehtran]

The commerical motiv is also in my opinion the only real reason to market and even to promote it. I dive for pure pleasure and have no wish whatsoever to promote it. Furthermore: I can not even imagine why someone would want to do it (maybe only from altruistic motives: you promote it so others can enjoy it as well...)

I think we often talk about promotions and marketing because it is a fancy thing that many others talk about and practice. We just assume that we need it but maybe we do not. Or if we do, we need a clear goal and motive.

 

[fcallagy]

I want to promote and market it for several reasons. 1 I could make a living from it, 2 it would mean countries like Ireland would have a reasonable of people to buddy with for training/diving, 3 I genuinely think it would enrich other peoples lives 4 if more people loved the ocean they would do more to protect it.

 

[ImmersionFD]

When I talk about freediving be it in a class, or at a presentation or just to someone out in a social scene I always try to make analogies to scuba.

When people talk about freediving being crazy they are typically referring to competitions. I explain to them, if you wan to freedive to 100M you of course can. You can take courses, more advanced courses train train train...etc. But that is hardly the bulk of freediving. If you wan to scuba dive to 100M, you can take courses, take more courses, buy more equipment, take more courses, and train train etc.

Guess what? most scuba divers dive around 30-50 ft to enjoy the underwater world.
Most freedivers dive around 30-50fft to enjoy the underwater world. The bulk of what we do as freedivers is just what the bulk of scuba divers do, enjoy the underwater wold at shallow recreational depths.

That typically does the trick. Then I of course sign them up for my freediving program that happens to be starting next weekend.:mute

 

[Simos]

The commerical motiv is also in my opinion the only real reason to market and even to promote it. I dive for pure pleasure and have no wish whatsoever to promote it. Furthermore: I can not even imagine why someone would want to do it (maybe only from altruistic motives: you promote it so others can enjoy it as well...)

I think we often talk about promotions and marketing because it is a fancy thing that many others talk about and practice. We just assume that we need it but maybe we do not. Or if we do, we need a clear goal and motive.

I promote freediving as much as I can in my daily interactions with others - as you said, I have nothing whatsoever to gain but I would love to spread it so that others can enjoy it the way I do.

If you think about it, all people recommend and promote 'stuff' to their friends etc all the time. Be it a movie worth watching, a really cool product they bought and so on...

 

[Kars]

When I'm in the pool I always take time for questions, verbal and non verbally stated. My goals being: building up understanding for what I like to do, pleasing their curiosity, offering others my way of water enjoyment. What this produces is leeway for my 'weird' appearance and use of the pool. So in the case when I bump into someone they don't complain to staff and react out of fear and ignorance. Also I may find a new buddy or people willing to help me out with some minor things.

I like the nuance people brought to me of promoting freediving out of either commercial or non-commercial motives. I think it's a big part of the discussion. Though I must say it's still a free market, so instruction companies are free to promote it as they please.
Though I hope they do not turn it into something for madman or for couch potatoes.

I'm pleased to know that many freedivers are smart empathetic responsible people, and I trust their approach has and will communicate this image to the general public.

 

[pehtran]

Now we are talking! But in truth it's got nothing to do with promotion/marketing in the common use of this two words (I hope so!).... It is just simple sharing.

 

[pthread]

Promoting and marketing are indeed two different things. Promoting a potentially healthy activity can be done by everybody who shares an interest in it. This can apply to about any leisure activity one can think of (swimming, riding, drawing things, running, cycling....).

Marketing would target products that are built around said activity, i.e. courses, holidays, equipment. To freedive safely you should do a course. To see fish you'll have to go to the local lake with your buddy (worst that happens you have to pay for petrol and equipment). If you prefer warmer waters (for those who live in the northern parts of europe) you'd probably book a holiday at the sea. See Umberto Pellizzaris blue week that happens twice a year. This is a good example of marketing a product around the sport and a the same time promoting the sport. NoTanx are running the biggest Egypt Holiday we ever had next year.

There is definitely growth, and not just on the competitive end. The question is how does the community want to keep things sensible?

 

[Abyss Garden]

1) Do we want to market freediving?
We are already doing it, that why we speak about

2) Why do we want to market freediving?
To make it accessible to all, a democratic sport have never been bad, except for a sport like football magnitude (day or apnea replace, we can ask the question

3) What are our marketing objectives?
The problem just because we propose freediving in its descent, or performance, but it is primarily a sport of nature which in its place largely at ecotourism activity (how many people does not care about level just want to walk forward? countless!

4) What is the size of a sport we want to be freediving?
It is the size it should have, we do not control these things

5) What are the basic attractions for freediving?
Awareness of the marine environment, by the hour or the protection of the marine environment is an emergency!
"it only protects what one knows"

6) What is the current perception of the audience of freediving?
I hope lots of different

7) How do we want to be perceived?
How are we perceived? and why? maybe because we show only one way
The short film of Guillaume Nery attract some much people, because it's mean more than just a descent

Freediving existing since hold year, i'm sure one of the purest sport in the world

 

[MartinTee]

exactttly!

Sorry, I just have more questions to add. Some may have already been added, I only skimmed the last three pages.

What about the oceans? Maybe more people in to freediving would mean an overall cleaner earth due to more of us being in the ocean and the water that surrounds us?

No one ever heard of all marketers are liars? Could the mass media speak from the heart when it comes to freediving?

Some good stuff here ladies and gentlemen!

 

[MartinTee]

5) What are the basic attractions for freediving?
Awareness of the marine environment, by the hour or the protection of the marine environment is an emergency!
"it only protects what one knows"

More relevant than even us enjoying this sport/hobbie due to the people we pass this planet on too in the future. Without the water, there is no freediving!

 

[Kars]

More relevant than even us enjoying this sport/hobbie due to the people we pass this planet on too in the future. Without the water, there is no freediving!

Without people there is no freediving too.


Surely Freediving can be very helpful in creating a vibrant colourful life giving culture lasting values like respects for all lifeforms, including humans.


Sorry for coming out so strong, but I just got sensitive to this "we must kill people in order to safe mother nature" meme. Surely I'm against pollution, but CO2 surely is NOT. If you think it is you may want to see Bill Gates equation at his TED talk and reduce your CO2 output to zero. - Well no I want to see you live so please do some research before considering Bill's fatal path.

Again sorry for this sidetrack rand, back to topic.

Yep I agree marketing uses a lot of propaganda techniques, who're in turn psychological mind-tricks, fallacious arguments playing on the emotion in order to influence peoples feelings thoughts and choices.

I'm in favour of bring forth VALID and specific arguments to outsiders why freediving may enrich their lives.

We could do this on our webpages, in our videos, explaining what we enjoy so much, why, how, where, when.

 

[shrek]

As to why we would want to market free diving the first reason that comes to mind is. You have a portion of the public already snorkling and spearfishing they have acess to better equipment than ever before and the internet. Where they are getting either only part of the story or just plain bad information. Now we have proper structured courses from various organisations so it makes sence to promote these courses. The sport will move foward as a whole because of it.
Id like to think of it like when scuba diving was in its infantcy and you had various training organisations poping up and creating courses. And look at what we have 50 years later large well structured training organisations.
It never ceases to amaze me some of the questions students ask me about stuff they read on the internet about freediving and im sure if we had the internet when scuba was gettting started they would have had the same problems.
and yes people are going to make some money along the way but i have yet to meet a freediving or scuba instructor who is getting rich out of it. they are all doing it for the love of the sport.