RV Segmentation with AI- Moderated Research Platform, Outset

At Hipcamp, research has been an integral part of our 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 we continue to rely on research insights to make strategic decisions, our 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.

We’re excited to share a snippet from our latest piece of research, all about the different types of U.S.-based RV campers. We’ve identified five core segments from the RV camping audience: Luxury Roadsters, Roadsters, Vacationers, Weekend Warriors, and Overlanders. 

Dive deeper into each segment below:

Challenge

From previous research studies, we identified that RVers are a growing audience of outdoor enthusiasts and wanted to get a better understanding of their needs. We recognize that RVers are a diverse group of campers, driving vehicles ranging from modified campervans to 45-feet motorhomes. 

What we needed was a segmentation of our RV audience so we can target creative marketing that speaks to the different types of campgrounds that appeal to RVers. Segmentation allows us to better personalize product features like search filters and campground results to make it easier for RVers to find a campground that best matches their needs. 

Creating audience segmentations is a long and complex process, requiring both interview and survey methods. As a small team, we don’t have the necessary resources for the segmentation process using traditional methods. 

Solution

By partnering with Outset, we captured more than 200 in-depth interviews with real RV campers in just 1 week. 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. While AI extracted key quotes and broader trends, Hipcamp researchers played a critical role in turning the themes and summaries into final audience segments for Hipcamp.

Impact

From this research, we learned that showcasing campgrounds with hookups and on-site activities appeals to Vacationers more, while highlighting private campgrounds in nature speaks better to Overlanders. 

Without this AI tool, the alternative would have been to conduct 1-1 interviews with our current resources which would have likely taken an entire quarter to complete. Without the scale afforded to us by utilizing AI, we might not have even been able to conduct this important research at all. 

We look forward to utilizing these RV segments to improve and better target our marketing efforts and product features to better address RVer’s different needs.