Sport outdoor: How consumer insights' discoveries create marketing innovation A qualitative research

In recent years, outdoor sports have had a great growth, both in the number of practitioners and media coverage. Particularly after the covid in Italy there has been an important growth of sportsmen in different age group, for this reason the outdoor sport has been chosen as the field of research. The thesis deepens the qualitative research methods usable in the digital environment. The introduction in which the main theories that make up the micromarketing, in particular the tribe marketing and the principle of consumer value creation, outlines an innovative research method that combines netnography and ethnography. The thesis continues with an in-depth study of qualitative research, particularly deepening the theories of kozinets. The method is then applied in a research that outlines the future trends of outdoor sports. The first part of the research consists in the delineation of personas and in the study of their behaviour and costumes through a digital netnography. The study focuses on online outdoor sport communities chosen following the principles of kozinets. Subsequently, a second ethnographic research was carried out to deepen the results obtained in the first part. The groups in this case were chosen by the researchers so that the participants reflected the characteristics of the personas found, and was aimed at deepening the knowledge of the emotional and psychological aspects of the same. They were finally asked to imagine the future of outdoor sports. From the research it has turned out that through this method very precise personas can be delineated. It shows that the main causes of attachment to the sport of very deep emotions, in particular of amicable and family awareness, meditation and rediscovery of themselves. Open-mindedness towards the future and the fusion of technology and tradition has also been a predominant theme. Finally, the possibility of using this type of qualitative research as a support and impulse for big data research has clearly emerged. The thesis ends with a reflection on the possible uses of the method and on its possible developments.