Assignment 15A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

Segment: Demographics, specifically, the younger generations from ages 18-24.

Person #1: The customer that I interviewed is a full-time college student and has a job as well. He stated that price does matter the most to him and so does quality. If a product or service has better quality, it will most likely be more expensive to offset the cost spent by the company. Style does not matter to him as much as price and quality. The factors that are important to this customer are price and quality. These factors are important because he does not want to spend a lot of money that he needs for school, and if it is less expensive, he prefers it to have better quality. He said that he is more likely to buy his products in-store to make sure he receives his purchases at that moment. This customer is more likely to use his debit card to make his purchase since he has direct deposit with his job. This purchase is not Business-to-Business (B2B). The thing that matters the most to this customer when he thinks back on the purchase is dependent on the price and quality. He determines that the purchase was a good idea if he got great quality for something not that expensive. The thing that would make him believe it was a bad purchase is if he got something that is expensive but later finds out he could’ve gotten it for less money. Also, if the purchase did not have great quality at all and was either cheap or expensive.

Person #2: The next customer that I interviewed is a female full-time college student, who focuses on school. She determined that price does matter the most when she is making purchases. Also, she stated that quality does not matter all too much, however she does value style when making a purchase. She said quality doesn’t matter too much to her because she is a student that is tight on funds. The two factors that she finds important are price and style. She values the visuals and looks along with the price of the purchase. Since she is very focused on school, she prefers and is more likely to make the purchase online with her debit card. The purchase is not B2B. The things that matter the most to her when looking back on the purchase are mainly if she made an expensive purchase and if she liked the style. This customer determines if the purchase was a good idea if she got a lot of use out of her purchase and didn’t spend a lot of money. She determines the purchase was a bad idea because she doesn’t use it at all, or the purchase is expensive with bad quality.

Person #3: The final person that I interviewed was a part-time student because he is currently in graduate school. He said that price to him does matter the most to him. He stated that quality does matter along with style when he is making a purchase. For this customer, three factors that are important in his purchase decision are the price, quality, and style. He mentioned that he is more likely to purchase in a store with cash because he does not like to have debt. This transaction is not a B2B purchase. When he thinks back to his purchase, he decided that the price, quality, and style of his purchase is what matters. This individual says that already graduating with his bachelor’s degree if his purchase has great quality and some good style then that would make it a good idea. He mentioned the purchase was a bad idea if he spent a lot of money to find out that the quality was very cheap, and thus doesn’t get to use it as much.

Summary of Interviews: The interviews that I conducted I learned that different people value different things. For example, one person may value price and quality but not style, or just price. I think it is all dependent on the person’s values, and as the entrepreneur, you need to meet all customer’s needs, not just a few. Another thing I learned from the interviews is that quality does matter in some type of way, maybe a little or maybe a lot. However, all the people I interviewed mentioned that they wouldn’t want to buy something cheap that didn’t last long. So, the longevity of the purchase is very important to customers in my segment. I was not dealing with B2B purchases, it was Business-to-Customers.

Conclusions: I would describe this segment by their choosing based on first what can they afford, then how good is the quality and finally, they look at the style when making an alternative evaluation in this segment. The purchase decision that describes this segment is a customer buying from a business in person with mostly cash or money in their bank account. This description fits their purchase decision because this younger generation doesn’t want to be in debt, so they pay with the cash that they have. Finally, I would describe this segment’s post-purchase decision by getting the most bang for your dollar. This description explains that this segment wants a purchase that can last and will not cost them a lot of money. Also, the purchase would be worth more than the price for the customer.