15a

Andrew Lanza
ENT3003
Professor Pryor
10/9/17

Figuring out buyer behavior pt. 2

1) For this assignment, I thought about what types of drivers would be best market for me to approach. Because the cupholder product I'm marketing is for people who tend to bring beverages with them wherever they go, I asked myself where drivers might do this most. Since i'm from Florida, I like to have water with me because it's always hot outside. I decided to interview three of my peers (with similar enough lifestyles to myself) about their water consumption, and more specifically, about their need for this product. 

2) I found that when talking to my peers about the product, each person had a somewhat different approach in their buying behavior/preferences. However, all three cited price, quality, and style/ergonomic effectiveness in their list of questions about the product. I believe price was the most concerning to my peers. The price of the product was by far the most talked about concern. I think universally something is only worth as much as it can do, so the quality should be thought of as most important. If the product doesn't work, nobody will pay for it. 

3) The product would be sold online more so than in stores, however automotive stores could sell the product near checkout lines or in a "cupholder" area. The online sales would be facilitated through a company-sponsored website for the product. This is definitely a product that would be purchased with cash, as it is a relatively inexpensive and non-durable good.

4) I think that if the customer a) never believes that he/she spent too much on the product, and b) believes that the product does its function properly, then the customer will not be dissatisfied. If the cupholder was poor in quality and broke in many cases, or did not function properly and allowed beverages to spill, it would certainly be a fluke and be viewed as such by its users. 

5) My interviews were all more thorough than previous interviews i've had to do for this course. I believe this is because the question posited at us forces us to have to learn more about the consumer than before. That is, we now have to ask enough questions to understand exactly why consumers consume. All three of my interviewees were drivers and all carried beverages in their cars. More than once it was suggested that the cupholder was potentially unnecessary, but that it could have a benefit in certain situations. It seemed overall as if the market did not need the product, but merely suggested it could have a place there. 

6) I think this segment thought about alternative evaluation in a skeptical sense, as the product seems like a surplus in many situations as-is. The purchase decision revolved around pricing and quality, as the necessity aspect was purely hypothetical for the purposes of the interviews. The consumers' post-purchase evaluation is based on performance of the cupholder to do its function, which is expected, and would take time to measure specifically. You would know right away if the product worked or not, but to tell if it was a quality product, it would take much longer to test.