About Debrian Travels

I launched Debrian Travels in April 2015 with the general plan to focus on travel experiences and planning as well as points and miles. I had the notion that my target audience was for "people like me," but I did not clearly define who that person was. Over time, my content began to meander, in many ways trying to mimic those blogs that catalyzed my interest in points and miles, venturing into areas that did not align with my capabilities. When I read the classic business book Good to Great by Jim Collins, I learned about the Hedgehog Concept. I started to think seriously about Debrian Travels within the context of that concept and soon concluded that I had to relaunch my blog with a clearly defined target audience while focusing on those topics about which I was most passionate.

My Hedgehog Concept

The Hedgehog Concept "flows from deep understanding about the intersection of three circles: 1) what you are deeply passionate about, 2) what you can be the best in the world at, and 3) what best drives your economic or resource engine." As a hobby blog, circle number 3, my economic engine, is not of immediate importance. Obviously, for a blog, an engaged audience returns over and over which increases traffic and, ultimately, advertising revenue. Audience engagement results from content which is developed as an outgrowth of circles one and two.

Passions

My travel passions were obvious to me: experiences, planning and points and miles. First and foremost, when I travel, I want to have the richest experiences I can. Experience means different things to different people. For some, it is exploration and discovery of new and unique places or immersion in a destination's history, culture and activities. For others, it is indulging in luxurious or aspirational travel - premium airline cabins, first class train cars, five-star hotels, luxury spas, or fine dining. For me, experience is a combination of both. Including all of this in a trip along with effectively using my limited time requires a significant amount of preparation. That is directly relevant to my second passion: planning.  

I love laying out an itinerary to make the most of my time, finding flights with "interesting aircraft," and researching hotels to find the best combination of location, luxury and cost. It is rare when I do not rebook parts of a trip multiple times so as to optimize my arrangements. Since my personal travel philosophy is to have high quality experiences without breaking the bank, my third passion, points and miles, is crucial.

My desired travel experiences do not fall within the realm of "budget travel." I want the fly across an ocean in the spaciousness of a first or business class seat. I want to save time by staying in a centrally located hotel, sometimes at high-end properties. While I do not want to spend with reckless abandon, I don't want to pinch pennies while experiencing foreign lands. All of this carries a cost, but to keep these costs under control, travel rewards are critical. Effective use of points and miles partially funds my travel. Though I do not see points and miles as a hobby as some bloggers do, I do have a passion for earning miles in as many ways that I can and, later, efficiently using those those rewards to see the world.

What can I be the best at?

With my passions identified, I had to ask myself what Debrian Travels could be best at? This was the hardest question to answer in defining my Hedgehog Concept. Given the extensive competition among travel blogs, even when narrowing the pack to those emphasizing points and miles, being the best requires one of two things. Either outperform existing competitors at what they do, or, given your capabilities, find and address an underserved niche that targets a sufficiently large potential audience.

Many of the existing miles and points blogs are written by professional bloggers who are able to publish numerous daily posts including breaking travel news. However, as a hobby blogger, I cannot hope to replicate their volume or news-breaking ability, not to mention that their audience is fully served. Other blogs focus on niches such as family travel, frugal travel, and esoteric methods of earning points and miles, none of which align with my passions or expertise. However, what I did not find in the blogging landscape was a large number of web sites that talked to people like me: working professionals seeking rich travel experiences while holding costs in check, possibly by leveraging reward points and miles. I quickly realized what I can do better than anyone else: talking to "myself" about my travel passions.  

Target Audience

In distilling my Hedgehog Concept, a byproduct was a clear definition of my target audience.

My average reader is a working professional who makes a sufficient income to allow her to travel internationally on a regular basis. She desires rich experiences during her travels that include culture - museums, historic sites, local festivals - as well the actual journey itself - first class airfare or train tickets, luxury hotels - but could not afford as often, if at all, if paying for those experiences out-of-pocket. Ultimately, she wants to optimize her travel "experience value" which seeks a balance between high experience and low cost. To control costs, she may be willing to forego certain experiences or she may offset her expenses by leveraging travel rewards to obtain free or reduced travel products, e.g. airfare or hotel stays.

Even if someone does not match all above characteristics, I intend to present the content of Debrian Travels in a way that will allow readers that only partially align with the average reader profile to still obtain value from the blog.

Mission Statement

Having defined my Hedgehog Concept and simultaneously having sketched out a profile of my target reader, the final step before relaunching my blog is to draft a mission statement to guide me as the website grows and gains new features.

Debrian Travels will speak to working professionals who are passionate about travel. These individuals seek to maximize their travel value by enjoying premium experiences at a reasonable cost. The blog will discuss techniques to maximize this value through planning and preparation while leveraging travel rewards to lower expenses. I will offer personal success stories, review my travels, analyze relevant news, and present tutorials to help others maximize their travel "experience value." Content will be structured so as to be relevant to those readers who do not completely match the profile of the average reader of the blog.