Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

SEGMENT:

Students who follow a fitness lifestyle.

BACKGROUND (INTERVIEWEES):

1.     Male, African American, 24 years old

2.     Male, Hispanic, 25 years old

3.     Female, White, 19 years old

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS:

1.     Do you consider yourself to follow a lifestyle related to physical fitness?

2.    Would you be interested in an application that allows you to interact with others having a lifestyle related to physical fitness?

3.     Would kind of features would you want the app to utilize?

4.     Would you pay for an app like this? If so, how much would you pay, or what features would you pay for?

5.     Are there any applications you would want the application to draw inspiration from? If so, which ones?

6.     Would you want to have advertisements on the application? If it made the application free, would you want them?

7.     If you enjoyed the application, would you refer it to a friend? Would you refer it to a friend if you were rewarded in some way?

8.     How often do you think you would use the application?

FINDINGS:

When looking over the questions given by my interviewees, it seems as if customers were most concerned with the usability and price of the application I had offered. Common wanted features included involving the ability to share posts and pictures, a way to track nutritional values of foods, and a way to track physical activity and workout progress. When asked if they would pay for these features, only the 2^nd interviewee was willing; the other two were impartial about this. However, when asked if they were willing to be provided free features if ads were placed, all 3 interviewees were willing for this compromise. This indicates that marketing and advertisements may be a large part in communicating part of this business idea. All 3 interviewees also indicated that they would be willing to refer a friend for a reward, which allows ideas such as rewards programs and incentives to work with a free-to-use application. A last question that brought similarity from all 3 applicants was the usage of inspiration from other applications. One applicant stated that he would want “a hybrid between Instagram and LinkedIn”, where the application could be “social but professional”. I enjoyed this viewpoint as it actually reflected exactly what I envisioned.

As my application is meant to be solely online, I decided not to ask participants where they would buy the service, but rather if they would pay for it. When asking the interviewees on whether or not they would refer the application, one asked whether or not there would could be a “rating service within the app” that would allow users to rate their personal satisfaction of certain service provided by the application. I thought this was a good idea as it would allow consumers to adjust which services they would be willing to provide a premium for, or where advertisement efforts should be focused.

Going over my collection of answers, it seems as if price and services tend to be the main factors of purchasing relating to my application that I am offering. Since the product is online based, there is a targeted market that does not depend on store-front advertisement and branding which allows evaluation of similar market applications online. When reflecting on how they would purchase the product, customers agreed that they would want to be able to see a system of ratings/reviews which allows them to determine whether or not they would be willing to pay for the services offered.