12A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1
I interviewed 3 people for this assignment. The first two people did not have a need for my product. These two people were similar to me, 21 year old college students at different schools around the country. While this didn't lead me to obtain any information for this assignment, this led me to believe how small my target audience really is. For my product to succeed, it will have to dominate my target audience because it doesn't really expand to all age levels yet.
The 3rd person I interviewed gave me all the information I needed for this assignment. My dad's lifelong friend, a 48 year old who moved to America from Israel 27 years ago, has a need for my product. His need becomes most evident when he's put in a situation where he finds himself most uncomfortable. This could be when he's at home, at work, or even with friends. When he's at home and needs to use technology to show his friends, he becomes uncomfortable. When he's at work and he needs to show a powerpoint to his boss to show his work, he becomes uncomfortable. When his friends share him a link through Twitter and he doesn't know how Twitter works, he gets uncomfortable. This uncomfortableness is through an inability to adapt to one's technological environment.
When this person becomes aware of this need. His first move is to turn to google. He googles in step by step instructions to accomplish things that are relatively mundane for the rest of society. This is very time consuming and also very embarrassing for this person. The amount of time this person could be able to save knowing how to do these simple things is astounding. He also looks up the simple things on google rather than trying to understand the advanced prospects of the products he owns. Using google to understand how advanced facets of a product is very common, but for extremely simple tedious parts, it's seen as redundant in many people's eyes.
I've learned a lot about the average person in my target audience's need awareness and information search. I've learned how this need occurs and what I must do to counter this natural instinct information search that occurs through these people. While it will be tough to combat what is instinct among these people, I feel like my product does enough to eliminate this instinct amongst the vast majority of these people in my target audience.
The 3rd person I interviewed gave me all the information I needed for this assignment. My dad's lifelong friend, a 48 year old who moved to America from Israel 27 years ago, has a need for my product. His need becomes most evident when he's put in a situation where he finds himself most uncomfortable. This could be when he's at home, at work, or even with friends. When he's at home and needs to use technology to show his friends, he becomes uncomfortable. When he's at work and he needs to show a powerpoint to his boss to show his work, he becomes uncomfortable. When his friends share him a link through Twitter and he doesn't know how Twitter works, he gets uncomfortable. This uncomfortableness is through an inability to adapt to one's technological environment.
When this person becomes aware of this need. His first move is to turn to google. He googles in step by step instructions to accomplish things that are relatively mundane for the rest of society. This is very time consuming and also very embarrassing for this person. The amount of time this person could be able to save knowing how to do these simple things is astounding. He also looks up the simple things on google rather than trying to understand the advanced prospects of the products he owns. Using google to understand how advanced facets of a product is very common, but for extremely simple tedious parts, it's seen as redundant in many people's eyes.
I've learned a lot about the average person in my target audience's need awareness and information search. I've learned how this need occurs and what I must do to counter this natural instinct information search that occurs through these people. While it will be tough to combat what is instinct among these people, I feel like my product does enough to eliminate this instinct amongst the vast majority of these people in my target audience.
Jordan,
ReplyDeleteIt is disappointing that you were only able to find one person that had the need you were investigating. It would have been helpful to you if you could have found other people that were interested in your product but at least you have discovered that your service could have a very small market size. I feel like there is a lot more information needed about your market as it does appear to be very small. Good work conducting the interview, definitely continue to look for more information.
Hey Jordan,
ReplyDeleteI also share a similar find of how potential customers become very aware of their need when they realize that use of technology becomes inevitable. Although there may be ways to perform an action without technology, it may be much easier with the use of it. It was interesting to read that you found embarrassment in your interviewees when they do not possess those specific knowledge. However, I can see this being a case when the society we live in today is increasingly built upon technology.