Increasing awareness and exploring customer experience of the Kaldoaivi Ultra Trail event among trail-running participants

Abstract

Trail and trail ultra running are a fast-growing sport trend that has experienced huge growth globally in past decades. In Finland, most trail running events are considered small-scale. Arranging small-scale sports events may provide multiple benefits for host locations as increased business opportunities, increased awareness, and increased destination image, and help destinations attract tourism during the low seasons. Kaldoaivi Ultra Trail, a small event organizer that annually organizes multi-sport endurance events for trail runners, mountain bikers, and road bikers in the Kaldoaivi wilderness area in Northern Lapland has commissioned the research. The purpose of the project was to explore the customer experience and examine how the awareness of the event could be improved particularly among the trail running community. The research aimed to detect whether customer experience of Kaldoaivi Ultra Trail participants could be enhanced even further, and whether any tactics or strategies could be implemented by the organization to increase the customer experience and the marketing efforts to maximize customer satisfaction and event awareness. The theoretical framework guided the research process and acted as a foundation. The research utilized a mixed-method, sequential design approach. As a quantitative method, an online survey was utilized. The survey was created with Webpropol software, the link was shared on social media platforms of the event organization to prior participants of the Kaldoaivi Ultra Trail event. The data was analyzed and visualized with Microsoft Excel software. As a qualitative method, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with five prior participants of the event via the Microsoft Teams platform. The results were analyzed with thematic analysis. With the findings of both research methods, and the insights acquired from the theoretical framework, development proposals for the commissioner were created. The proposals for development focus on customer experience and added value recommendations, segmenting, targeting, and positioning recommendations, and marketing tactics recommendations. The key implications of the proposals focus on acknowledging the customer needs, effectively addressing them in event design, marketing strategies and tactics, and utilizing targeted content across applicable marketing channels to attract the desired customer segments.

The research provides comprehension of the sports of trail running and ultra trail running, customer experiences, and marketing of small-scale sports events from a customer-centric point of view.