Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No.1

The segment that I have decided to interview for this assignment is college aged kids. In particular, I interviewed those who are more active than not because they would have a higher chance of meeting the same unmet need as myself. For this, I waited at my house around dinner time and asked my roommates and friends until I found three people with the same need. My idea is a shoe cleaning product that can help take the dirt and other marks off of shoes quickly and cheaply. I chose to interview around dinner because at this point of the day most people had already either walked around campus, gone to the gym or other places that could have potentially made the shoes dirty during the course of a regular day.

For all three interviews, the three people all began to notice their need approximately a month after the purchase of their latest pair of shoes. Two of the interviewees stated they began to notice the need slowly, whereas the last person stated that he was caught in a storm on a scooter and rain/dirt impacted his shoes. However, they did not know what to do to fix this. None of the three made a direct or instantaneous move to fix their shoes once they realized their need, however this took anywhere from 3 to 4 months to finally act on this need. All three stated that they googled "How to clean shoes". Two of the three said that the ways they found took a lot of time, and only did a satisfactory at best job of cleaning the shoes, and the third said after he used a google recommended way that there was no noticeable improvement. I have found throughout these three interviews that they all noticed their need shortly after purchasing new shoes, but took much longer to act on this need. I have also learned that they did not have a set, quick way to clean shoes. My conclusion then is that this product would be especially popular amongst college kids. The reason for this is that a college student has an ever changing schedule and thus can sometimes be restricted on time, which would make a quick use product popular. The quickness of the clean would also be a focus in the production of the item, because this quickness would lead to less effort by the consumer, who would then be more willing to buy it. I would describe this segment interviewed as very aware of their need, but not very willing to search for information or to constantly use a lot of effort to clean shoes that will then become dirty again.