Alex Clouser- Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No.1 Assignment 12

1. I believe that a segment that would exist in my venture's market would be retailers.

2. For my three interviews, I chose to interview an older friend who has experience in retail, a person I worked with who used to be upper management in retail, and a current employee at a retail store.

3. Need Awareness: All three of the people I interviewed had the same problem with data collection; they wanted to increase data collection, but were scared of losing business because of the social stigma relating to data collection and privacy. My friend who has experience in retail, Jimmy, said that his need for data collection becomes most prevalent when trying to determine what items would be more successfully sold if they were on sale and which items he would make more money from by not putting them on sale. I spoke with my old coworker, Rachel, and she described that her need for data collection becomes most salient when trying to decide on future clothing lines to put out in stores based on consumer history and also when deciding on pricing for items based on consumer history of the consumption of similar products at similar prices. A current employee in retail, Mark, stated that his need for data collection stems from trying to figure out which products to market to consumers and to personalize his selling strategy so as to maximize his commissions, instead of trying to market things that people will surely not buy specifically to them.

4. Information Search: When Jimmy encounters his problem, he immediately begins to ask friends and family what they would be more likely to buy more of if it was on sale. He said that he also checks historic sales to see if similar products that were put on sale did well, or would be better suited at full price. Rachel said that she tries to find a solution to her problem through looking back at sales data and history to see which products historically do well enough to warrant introducing a brand new line that would sell well. She said that for pricing, she also does the same thing by looking at historic prices for similar products and using them as a baseline for future pricing. She said that this method is not 100% reliable though because historical data cannot predict what consumer behavior is at this moment in time and there are differing variables that may have been in place back when the item sold well, such as social or economic factors that played a part in the success of the item, which may not be replicated in the near future. Mark looks for a solution to his problem by also asking his friends and family and anyone he can about their preferences, so that he can market more current preferences to people. He also tries to stay up to date on current trends and such so that he can make generalizations about a wide range of consumers and more accurately market to a mass group of consumers, such as young adults buying different and more up to date products than older, retirement age consumers.

5. I learned in these interviews that while many already have solutions in place to deal with these problems that they run into, they are not always reliable solutions. The most common solution to these problems is through the opinions of other people, namely asking friends and family what they think about a certain product, which is not a terrible solution but certainly not ideal as you cannot judge the masses on the opinions of a few. I learned that there is certainly a business opportunity that has presented itself, and that there are customers who are waiting for the solution to come very eagerly. All of my interviewees said that they would invest in a business such as the one I have proposed, as it would save them time and probably be more accurate than their current measures in place.

6. I believe that the retail segment should be my main target because there is so much opportunity for data collection in this segment, as evidenced through my interviews. This segment has great need awareness and the information search solutions that are provided are not as reliable and accurate as they should be. I believe that this creates a perfect market for my opportunity to thrive in.