Stories
Hipcamp Segmentation: doing 3 months of research in a week with Outset
Jul 28, 2024
By
Aaron Cannon
At Hipcamp, research has been an integral part of the company from the beginning. When CEO and Founder Alyssa Ravasio started Hipcamp more than 10 years ago, she would set up a table in front of her local REI store to get feedback on the campsite booking platform from outdoor shoppers.
Now, Hipcamp unlocks access to 120,000 campsites you won’t find anywhere else, and while they continue to rely on research insights to make strategic decisions, their methods have evolved.
"I've always viewed Hipcamp as something we're building in collaboration with our community,” says Ravasio. “Some of our best ideas have come from our hosts and our campers!"
Whether it's sitting at a folding table all weekend in front of REI or doing innovative AI research with a research platform like Outset, the philosophy is the same.
The challenge
From previous research studies, Hipcamp identified that RVers are a growing audience of outdoor enthusiasts and wanted to get a better understanding of their needs. They recognize that RVers are a diverse group of campers, driving vehicles ranging from modified campervans to 45-feet motorhomes.
They needed a segmentation of their RV audience so they could speak to the different types of campgrounds that appeal to RVers through their marketing. Segmentation is a tried and true exercise of establishing categories of users to better personalize product features and messaging. But segmentation is not an easy process.
"Creating audience segmentations is a long and complex process, requiring both in-depth interviews and survey methods. As a small team, we don’t have the necessary resources for the segmentation process using traditional methods.” – Emily Sun, PhD, Senior Manager, Product Design + Research.
The Solution
Hipcamp and Outset partnered up and captured more than 200 in-depth interviews with real RV campers in just 1 week. These were video interviews where AI led dynamic conversations with campers about their travel experiences, their different needs or frustrations, and some of the areas that make them unique.
"Outset provided a major benefit over traditional unmoderated testing since AI can guide participants with follow-ups to their answers and thus dig deeper into camper behaviors and motivations." – Emily Sun, PhD, Senior Manager, Product Design + Research.
AI extracted key quotes and broader trends and Hipcamp researchers played a critical role in turning the themes and summaries into final audience segments for Hipcamp.
The Impact
From this research, they established a robust segmentation. They learned nuanced insights like the fact that showcasing campgrounds with hookups and on-site activities appeals to Vacationers more, while highlighting private campgrounds in nature speaks better to Overlanders.
They plan to utilize these RV segments to improve and better target our marketing efforts and product features to better address RVer’s different needs.
