15A – Figuring out Buyer Behavior No. 2

3) For college students, price and ease of use seem to be the most important factors in buying a product. For the group that I am focusing on (lower classmen, Greek life members), style is also an important factor if the product will be used around their peers.

4) A lot of the people (even beyond the three I interviewed) stated that they love to use Amazon (especially with Prime) for buying products. They don’t really have consistent buying times among those that I interviewed. Some responses include: when they were shopping for others they purchased for themselves, when they were bored, if there were good deals on items that they liked. For my product, they would have to pay cash as the price would be relatively low.

5) The people I interviewed wanted the product to work for however long they needed it to. They don’t want to spend any portion of money and not be satisfied because stitching is poor, the fabric/colors deteriorate, or there is a lack of warmth in colder months (especially for long sleeves/pants). If they enjoyed the product when it was used, they all said they felt they made a good purchase. Otherwise, if the product functioned like intended (and hopefully beyond), then they said they would be content with a purchase.

6) Carolina, Joshua, and Megan were the three people I interviewed. They were all receptive to my product when I mentioned it, but they felt a little uncomfortable talking about buying habits (I think this is because they didn’t want to admit what they felt was unusual behavior, such as a lot of online shopping), so I had to coax out some information by letting them know “they had the most conservative habits,” or “you seem pretty frugal compared to the other people I interviewed.”

7) As it is, I think that the target group displays a lot of behaviors that would suggest relatively frugal buying habits, but most of the people I interviewed don’t seem to actually be that frugal. Therefore, while price is important, I think quality and style is one of the more valued decision makers (for both evaluation and purchase). Contentment seems to mean a different thing to everyone, but they all wanted a product that lasts.