15A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

Interviewee #1

For this exercise, instead of using friends of mine who might give skewed answers, I went to Turlington during busy hours to randomly select interviewees. Interviewee #1 is a sophomore male named James. I was told that the most important feature of the Hurricane Survival Kit (HSK) is the quality of the content. He told me that a complete and effective HSK will be bought first over a cheaper but less inclusive alternative. He told me that as a college student, he gets little financial help from his parents. However, he told me that his parents would probably be more than willing to help James invest in a HSK that will actually offer resources and protection. This piece of information opened my eyes to how inelastic this product is. As safety is usually a #1 concern during a Hurricane, a more complete HSK would attract attention from more prospective customers.

Interviewee #2

Interviewee #2 is a freshman female named Samantha. Samantha is in the same market segment as James, but gave a very different answer. Samantha is completely independent and self-sufficient. She does not receive money from her parents for any college expenditures. Because of this, she told me that a mixture of price and value are the most important indicators for a HSK purchase. She told me that since she spends her own money, she would be looking towards the cheaper section of the alternatives. At the same time, Samantha does not want to put money towards something that does not offer value to her. This eliminates alternatives to the HSK that may be very price-friendly but offers little to no Hurricane help.

Interviewee #3

The last of the interviewees was another sophomore male named Cody. Cody had a very similar response to James. Cody told me that he occasionally gets financial help from his parents for large expenses. However, his personal attitude towards the product was one of a value-focus. Cody wants to make sure that once he makes the purchase, that it was indeed the correct one, and that he will not regret it going forward. In other words, Cody wants 'the most bang for his buck'.

Conclusion

I have realized that although most products can get away with tanking the prices and sacrificing quality, the HSK cannot. Safety and emergency supplies are relatively inelastic, so customers would not drastically change their demand for the HSK with a drastic price change. When creating the product, now that I have conducted these interviews, I would focus on jam-packing the most content I could get into the HSK. I would ficus on customer satisfaction and retention rate as I sell my product.