12A - Figuring out Buyer Behavior No. 1
For this assignment, I chose to focus on the market segment on UF students without reserve parking who have a need for time utility in their daily lives. People with this need would be willing to pay for an app that helps them find parking I believed.
My interviews truly helped to reaffirm my belief that this problem is very important to this segment. The first student I interviewed is a 4th-year biomedical engineering major who also does research and volunteers at Shands. He said due to his busy schedule, being able to save time anywhere possible is a huge help in his life. He said that this is a service that he would definitely be willing to pay for. He said he didn't realize this was a problem that had any sort of solution other than to buy a reserved parking space, but that he would check if a product or service is any good on the internet. The second student I interviewed is a 4th-year finance major who also works a part-time job. While he is able to walk to class, he told me that he has to drive his car to get to work. Sometimes depending on when he is scheduled to work, he will have very little time before class so he said that every minute counts. He said that because he uses city parking, he also finds it very frustrating to have to look for parking after taking his car anywhere, even to just get groceries or something of the like. He said he talked to friends in similar situations to find out what they did about this problem. The third student I interviewed was a sophomore business management major. He said that he uses his car frequently to go to the gym, get groceries, or do other activities that are too far off campus to walk but said he gets frustrated looking for parking spaces, even if he is not in a rush to get anywhere. He said he hadn't considered searching for a solution, but generally, he would talk to people he knows about a product to see if its any good.
It seems that people don't believe that there are any solutions to their problems at this moment which would explain why none of the three people I interviewed could explain how they used information search to help. However, it seems that most people check with friends in similar situations to see how their experiences are first, and then use the internet to reaffirm that information.
Hey Francis,
ReplyDeleteI think you came up with a great solution for parking in Gainesville, I also often find myself wasting a lot pf time looking for a space. I think this is a great way to save time and also find parking garages/ spaces that they may not know about. I am wondering how you would be able to track the availability of spaces. Great post!
~Sophia Scherzer
Francis,
ReplyDeleteTime utility is very important to everyone, and it's a great segment to focus on since it includes a great deal of the population. It is important that you found that people must first believe in an idea, in order to invest in it. Therefore, people will only pay for the app if they believe that it will improve their lives.
Hi Francis,
ReplyDeleteI love this idea. I know that apps are usually not a good idea, but this app would definitely be used often and I would buy it. I personally find it so annoying spending time looking for a spot and if I was in a crunch and could reserve a spot and know where I was parking before I got there it would allow people to be more organized and cause less problems.My only concern is how would you ensure that nobody parks in the spots that are reserved.