Adventure Seekers Interviews: Method and Results

The interviews were undertaken in addition to the survey that was run to gather quantitative data on the target audience. Later on, insights from multiple sources were synthesized to get more nuanced details on the target audience’s story and buyer journey.

Interview Design

An interview guide has been developed in addition to the quantitative research. The guide consists of approximately 31 main questions reflecting the 5 buyer rings model.

The interview guide is semi-structured allowing us to get in-depth information on the components of the model and to build a personal rapport with the interviewee.

Domain	Question
Introduction	When did you start to look for information and how long did it take you to transition from looking for information to making a booking?
Hobbies, interests, and occupations	What are some of your interests and hobbies? What are you excited about when you get to do it?
Values	What do you enjoy most in life?
	Are you planning to go on holiday this year? And what are you planning to do? Just relax, or do some activities as well?
Priority initiative	Why are you looking forward to doing this activity?
	Are there some challenges or obstacles you’d like to overcome in your personal/professional life by doing this activity?
Buyer’s journey	Before booking a service, can you specify what concerns or fears you may have when making a decision on which provider to choose for your next adventure?
Success factors	Can you think of an adventure experience that you have good memories of… and what made it successful for you?
	What are the benefits or gains that you would like to get from the experience?
Perceived barriers	How does this experience influence your decision-making the next time you choose to do an activity?
	If you think about an experience that was not so satisfying for you, can you state what was disappointing for you?
	Buyer’s Journey
	How did you react?
Decision making	What 3 factors do you use to compare alternative options? Rate 1 to 3
	Are you the only responsible one for making a decision on which provider to choose? And if not who else is involved in the decision-making?
	Do your criteria change then? What factors do you consider when those people are involved?
Buyer’s journey	What kind of information are you hoping to find before the experience?
Before the experience	In what format would you prefer to have the content? (blogs, videos, images, articles, reviews, newsletters, podcasts, etc.)
	Why would you prefer these formats?
	If you research through social media, through which type of accounts did you receive information?
	Which channels did you use to research the company/experience? [social media, website, email, magazine, newspaper, etc.]?
	What type of device do you use?
During the experience	During the experience, do you search for information regarding the experience or other things to do? Or just some helpful info about the location?
After the experience	Do you search for information or you are more likely to share information?
	Discuss types of formats after the experience
	What channels and devices are you likely to use?
Outro	Would you like to add something?
	Thank you for your time. Have a great day!

The interviewees were either participants from the survey who left their contact details, or they were recruited through social media sites and a snowballing technique where previous participants were asked for recommendations.

Reliability

The reliability of the findings has been secured by the researcher who made probing questions during the interview and the participant could confirm or correct the understanding of the researcher.

The richness of data resulting from the in-depth interviews also guarantees the transferability of insights to other studies.

Validity

The reporting seems to be clear, coherent, and in-depth for most interviews, and it involves different perspectives which minimizes the confirmation bias.

The research has a relatively adequate process of documentation which ensures the validity of the insights and the ability to further reproduce the research.

Elements of the Model

Limitations

In general, the limitations of the qualitative analysis are related to the case-by-case study and since each object of the study is very individual with many dimensions, it is harder to generalize and replicate the findings.

Another limitation is that interviews are overly subjective. Though the benefits of this approach are a deeper understanding and explanation of constructs and phenomena through the eyes of the customers that the quantitative results do not offer (Bryman, 2012).

Data Analysis

The transcribed data was moved to Excel sheets to be analyzed. Three groups of codes were given – a loose open code, an axial code, and a selective code that reflects the categories of the 5-ring model and personal information related to the persona.

In total 7 interviews were gathered with an approximate duration between 45 minutes and an hour. Only interview 2 was less than 30 mins. In addition to the questions from the 5-ring model, data on age, occupation, interests, values, preferred adventure activities, and level of risk was also gathered during the interviews.

When analyzing a few interviews participants were not in the initial clustering, thus those participants were assigned to the clusters based on their motivations and perceived level of risk after the data from the interviews was processed.

Two of the participants were grouped together in the ‘Safety First!’ archetype because their motivations fit with the motivations for safety, preparation, and knowledge and seek activities with a medium level of risk.

While 4 interviewees were grouped together in the ‘Real Adventurer’ archetype based on their motivations for spontaneity, nature, and learning and desire for medium to high-risk activities.

Besides, a content analysis was performed to evaluate the client’s current practice and find gaps with the help of the research insights.

Results

In the results, the most significant findings of the common and different points between the three groups are discussed. The decisions are based on how many people shared similar opinions, details, or emotions.

Similarities

Similarities	All groups
Perceived barriers	Lack of information/transparency
Information search	An hour to a few hours
Content needs	Conditions, trip details, where to eat/buy food, sharing the experience
Type of format	Reviews, images
Information source	Friends
Channels	Google
Devices	Phone

The three groups are similar in their perceived barriers, period of information search, content needs (during and after the experience), used types of formats, information sources, channels, and devices.

Perceived Barriers

For all personas, the lack of information or transparency of the experience and the details related to the activity turned out to be disappointing and left an impression of insecurity since the person didn’t feel enough prepared for the activity ahead or was faced with a different quality of experience than it was expected.

Yeah, I uh, OK. First, the first thing that I want to know sure is. Uhm, that everything is explained very clearly and transparency about the actual activity. Like I want to know what I will do.

Interviewee 7

The results I received are much more detailed and systematic than what I’m able to show here due to confidentiality.

I also found differences between the groups. Those insights are used to understand how the customer makes decisions about the service to provide relevant information and help them with the decision-making by communicating it in the content.

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