Figuring Out Buyer Behavior 2

Figuring Out Buyer Behavior 2

In my interviews, I decided to write up a list of questions and to ask everyone the same questions but this time I let them tell me in detail more if they felt that they had other information that I had overlooked.

Here is a list of the questions I asked:

1) When considering the problem of new releases coming out faster than you can purchase, how do you pick a solution?

Please rate these in order of importance: Price, quality, efficiency, ease

Are there any factors not listed here that are important?

2) Are you more likely to use this service if it is available online or in a store?

3) Are you more likely to use cash or credit on this type of service?

4) Would you be interested in monthly fees for this service rather than one-time fees?

5) After you purchase an item, what helps you decide whether that purchase was a good idea?

6) What makes you believe that your purchase was a bad idea?

Summary of interviews:

The three people I interviewed had very different answers from each other and I think that a larger sample size would help me to figure out more information.

1) When considering the problem of new releases, two out of the three said that they pick a solution based on what their friends and family advise them to. One out of the three said that they just end up buying what they can and missing out on games that they may have played if they had more money. All of the three people I interviewed mentioned that if they had a friend with a copy of a game they would play it with them.

Here is a list of what each person rated from most important to least important:

1: Ease, price, efficiency, quality

2. Ease, quality, price, efficiency

3: Price, Ease, efficiency, quality

Some of the factors that they mentioned that were not listed: Popularity, advice from family members, individual desire for a game, previous experience with a company/brand loyalty

From this list, it is easy to see that ease and price are some of the most important factors for the three people I interviewed. 

2) All three of the people I interviewed said they would be more inclined to use this service if it was available online but the nature of the service makes this difficult. They would not be able to rent the systems online because I would have to provide them the setups somehow, but I think it would be easy to make a sort of online "storefront" for this service so people understand how it works before we rent out the systems.

3) All three of the people I interviewed said they would like to use debit or credit for this service, with a preference for debit cards in two out of the three people I interviewed.

4) Only one of the people I interviewed said they would be interested in paying a flat monthly fee rather than a one-time fee. One person said they would be interested if the monthly fee was cheaper, and the last person said that they don't think they would use the service enough to warrant a monthly fee.

5) Here is what the people I interviewed said in response to question 5 and 6:

1: I think that a purchase ends up being a good idea in my eyes when I got the service I wanted and I didn't have to spend a lot of money. A lot of it has to do with comparisons so if I see a product that is similar and costs less but I have already purchased a different product, then it is kind of upsetting. That makes me think it was a bad purchase. If I paid less than friends or other people on the internet for a service or product than I feel like I made the right choice. But obviously, that only applies if I enjoyed the product but it isn't so much a big deal if I spent a little bit of money on something I didn't end up enjoying.

2: When I make a purchase it is always a good idea in my head if I got happiness out of it. Sometimes, you buy something and it really doesn't get used or I really don't care much about it. That is how I know I made a bad purchase, is if I kind of forget about it, but I think as long as I get two or three uses out of something I generally don't care much about spending the money. For something to be a good product, though, you really have to enjoy it somehow.

3: After I buy something, I don't usually think much about whether it was a good or bad purchase until I talk to someone else about it. A big part of whether or not I feel like it was worth it is that social validation. Sometimes, it comes from media though. Sometimes I read something on Twitter about a product and how other people are disappointed in it, and it makes me really regret buying something. Otherwise, I don't really regret my purchases and I don't really feel great about something I've purchased because I just don't think about it.

Based on everything I heard from my interviews, I would say that people looking for products in this market care most about ease and price. When it comes to alternative evaluation that is what they are most concerned with if they are looking for a product or a service.

As far as purchase decision, people are much more interested in using debit cards than credit cards or cash. They are more inclined to pay one-time fees unless they get a discount for a monthly payment. This could vary between groups but I only interviewed three people. I am pretty confident that people prefer not to pay in cash from what I gathered in these interviews.

For post-purchase evaluation, people seem to make their decisions on whether or not a purchase was good or bad on the enjoyment they received, how well-priced an item is, and also base it on how their friends or the media view the product. Across the board, it seems that people don't regret purchases if they are not very expensive. This service would have to be very affordable if I wanted to make sure that people did not regret it, or it would have to be highly acclaimed on social media and word-of-mouth.