DEMA Launches Phase II of Diving Consumer Behavior Research Project

**Association Encourages Industry to Share Survey with Divers Internationally and in the US **

DEMA has launched an online diving consumer behavioral survey to complement the objective diving consumer data on diver demographics and psychographics published in early 2014.  DEMA is asking all industry professionals to share a link to the survey with their end-user customers so that as many divers as possible can contribute to the data.

With DEMA’s completion of its Phase I research and the publishing of aggregate data from five different diving activities ((1) Who is the Open Water Diver, (2) Who is the Diver Buying Equipment (hard goods), (3) Who is the Continuing Education Diver,  (4) Who is the Diver Traveling to a Resort and (5) Who is the Liveaboard Diver), the information DEMA is now seeking will reveal consumer buying behavior and dive participation, making it possible to learn more about the recent activities of divers including diver retention, equipment purchasing preferences and more.  

To maintain the anonymity of customer records, DEMA is again using a third party administrator to distribute the survey links and gather the responses. To partake, a business can inquire with DEMA who will direct the third party administrator to provide a link unique to their web-based survey. The survey can then be distributed to as many end-users as possible via social media and e-mail. It’s designed for completion by certified divers living both inside and outside the US, and will take about 15 minutes to complete. The survey will be live until August 15, 2014 and all participants who complete the survey will be entered into a drawing for one of a number of $100 gift cards that can be redeemed at a local participating dive center.

“Understanding more about these behavioral activities requires direct contact with consumers using a web-based server,” commented Tom Ingram, Executive Director of DEMA. ‘The information we receive from the Phase II survey will help us understand how often the participants are diving, to where they travel, and what level of training they have received. We will need the Industry’s full cooperation to achieve our goals. For businesses that agree to take part, the results of their individual survey will be provided back to them.  The results will also be aggregated with other consumer data for a more complete picture of diver behavior.”

Dive Industry stakeholders are encouraged to participate by distributing the survey to their customers to learn more about their buying behaviors and diving habits. Interested businesses should contact DEMA at research@dema.org. They will receive a unique survey link that will collect data from those to whom they directly distribute their survey, and after the survey closing date, the results from their survey data.