Assignment 12A - Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

Choosing a segment 

For this assignment, I choose a segment of parents. All three of the interviews were with parents of children who are currently enrolled at UF. One of them is the parent who has to pay two leases for their child over summer, their existing lease in Gainesville and one in Philly, where their child interned. Another interviewee is the parent of a freshmen who has not thought about where their child will live during summer. The last interviewee is the parent of a graduating senior, who has opted to live in a dorm the entirety of his four years here.

What I learned 

Need awareness: 

• From these interviews, I learned that the actual customer base may be extended to (or even replaced by) parents as opposed to the actual students. It became evident that a lot of students rely on their parents, prepaid or something of the like to pay for housing. All three of the interviewees admitted that this would be a good service for UF to be a part of. However, some interviewees felt more passionately about the problem and its corresponding solution than others. For example, the parent that had to pay two leases talked about the financial burden and how he wished there was a better alternative to housing in Gainesville. On the other hand, another interviewee (the one that is the parent of the freshmen) was not completely aware of this need until I had mentioned it because they haven’t had to think about it yet. However, upon me explaining the likely predicament that will come up in summer for their child, they expressed more interest in my solution.

Information Search:

• One thing that my interviewees brought up was the feasibility. This is something I had considered in a previous assignment. I was hesitant about UF’s willingness to partner with off-campus housing but I let them know that it is just a concept at this point and if it were to have enough of a base to implement, then I would look more into statistics/projections of profitability and other benefits for UF in implementing this solution. Until then, these interviewees told me that they would be looking for alternative solutions such as subletting from someone who resigned (so that their child won’t get kicked out) through the UF Facebook page or ask UF alum to see how they’ve handled this problem thus far.

How I would describe this segment 

I think that there are some parents who are aware of this problem, and have found adequate solutions such as having their child stay in a dorm the whole time they are at UF, but I think there are some parents who aren’t quite aware of this problem. This is not an evident problem at other universities such as USF, so parents can only learn about this problem if their child goes through it or through word-of-mouth. Overall, this segment saw merit in my solution as they want what’s best and most convenient for their child.