Sailing the Ocean Blue - IExplore

While Columbus may have needed the backing of the Queen of Spain to discover America in 1492, today's adventurer can skip talking to a Queen by utilizing nothing more than a computer, a credit card and some vacation time. Instead of sailing the Pinta, the Niña, and the Santa María on a voyage that eventually led him to America, today's traveler can flex the fingers, take hold of a mouse and wheel on over to a website called iExplore. iExplore is a 'under on roof' type of Guided Tour Travel Agency, specializing in physically active adventures across the globe, appealing to the educated and somewhat affluent client in need to have in all wrapped in one package.

Having spend most of Friday mousing around iExplore's website, I came away with the distinct feeling that the populaces targeted is mostly partnered for traveling purposes, financially affluent enough to be able to pay $5000 plus for a trip and is not child nor pet friendly. Thus, I came to the conclusion the iExplore strategy falls with in the concentrated category while at the same time skirting the differentiated area as it attempts to include non partnered travelers.

When I look at the strategy of iExplore, coupled with the Website details, it is easy to see that the Market segment targeted are the more physically active Columbus's of the new millennium. It is hard to imagine a couple with toddlers navigating the wilds of Africa or humming to the chants bouncing of the mountains in Tibet and therefore, one gets a sense that the segment drawn to the website and its services falls somewhere in the over 40 crowd, which kicked their children out of the house and into college and now feel freedom hardly before imagined.

While I would not go as far and state that one would have to be retired to partake of the delightful all-inclusive offerings of iExplore, I will assert that iExplore specifically used Demographic & Psychographic segmentation to appeal to a more niche populace. The older more financial stable of persons is a compression shopper for high end products or services. He or she has no issue spending larger amounts of money as long as the benefits are apparent, and in this case, it is obvious. Everything is done via one company/site and lacks the hooting, hollering and melted lollipops stuck to ones hiking boots; the one that can so easily sour a vacation experience.

In summary, iExplore is today's Pinta, Niña, or Santa María; a vehicle, a sailboat if we will, to purchase a boarding ticket with a click so one can explore new frontiers, to experience new cultures, to go where others have gone before, to see the world through the eyes of a seasoned adult, to sail the ocean blue on our own terms. Come with me and mouse on over. Maybe we can find some cheese over there as well.