Buyer Behavior

I found this round of interviews much more surprising than I did any of the others. You hear about trends in shopping with the increased use of technology and we all know our personal buying behaviors so we are apt to think that everyone acts this way. However, I found this is not the case. While it is slightly skewed to the online side, many more people than I thought still shop in stores (brick and mortar).


What I found is that while yes, price matters, the people that I spoke with were more concerned about the reputation and feedback of the product. They were more than willing to pay a little more, ONLY if the product had better reviews and was proven to last longer. Style was a close segment for my segment with price coming last. I am an avid Amazon shopper, and while I agree that quality matters I tend to sometimes sacrifice that for a cheaper price due to being on a budget.


While I expected everyone to say they shopped online, I got a lot of responses saying they did a little research on the internet but ultimately chose/prefer to shop in person. They want to be able to physically see and hold what they plan to purchase.


Post purchase, they seem to contemplate first whether it works as expected and then secondly, whether they enjoy it as much as they thought before they bought it. I think this is fairly standard for everyone but many might judge the style aspect upon first sight.


I think, overall, when evaluating alternative choices, people are more drawn to quality/customer feedback then almost equally, but slightly less, to price. While we are definitely in a time of people being below middle-class lines, if they are going to spend money on something they want it to be of quality and to last them a while. Of course there are exceptions to this and to every buying aspect but that is my perspective.

Halfway Reflection

1. Tenaciousness is a competency. The behaviors I have used in this course that I already possessed are the ability to self manage and determination. Without these two things, one definitely would not do well in this course especially because it is one where assignments aren't graded in the typical aspect. Planning your course load out and times to do your work are crucial. Also, due to the fact that things are not "graded" many people would not put much effort into them or fake them and I developed the behavior here not to do things of that nature and give it my all regardless!

2. Tenaciousness is also about attitude. A major moment where I felt like giving up was during the two or so assignments where we had to interview 5 people. I am a little shy when it comes to things like this so I was dreading it and I also work 50+ hours a week so I had to be creative about who would fit the needs but also who I could come in contact with. I was creative here and found time at work to speak with customers who I thought would qualify. I definitely developed tenaciousness during this course after failing to meet the deadline of an assignment because I put it off too long and did not have adequate time to do so. After that, I was determined to never let that happen again because I want to do well and learn all that I can!

3. Three tips I would offer are as follows:
     - Take other students' criticism constructively and not personally
     - Be vulnerable and willing to change your view/belief on something if necessary
     - Leave procrastination in the past and start assignments early

Reading Reflection

Grinding it Out: The Making of McDonald's

1. What surprised me the most about Ray Kroc was that McDonald's was not originally his. He basically manipulated the brothers into franchising and stole their name/created a brand.

I admire his ability to turn a one store business into a fast growing enterprise, which is definitely not easy to do. Especially back then when restaurants like this did not exist yet.

The thing I admired the least was his sneaky ways of business and how he manipulated the brothers into franchising and basically went against their wishes.

He definitely encountered diversity and failure but his confidence and belief in his product and his persistence eventually took him where he wanted to go.

2. The competencies Ray Kroc exhibited that I noticed while reading are definitely initiative, persistence, problem solving, creativity/innovation, and quality management. I'm sure there are others but these are the main things that stick out in my mind.

3.The part that confused me was how he manipulated the brothers into signing the rights over to franchising. I guess confused isn't the right word but I just don't understand how someone can be such a good talker that something like this would happen.

4. I would ask him how to stay so confident in an idea, even when it keeps failing or people are insisting that it will not work. I would also ask what the secret is to finding good people to help you along your journey.

5. I think his opinion of hard work was his job previous to "founding" McDonald's. He was a sales man for an equipment company, Prince Castle, that was starting to fall due to competition. There is not much harder than selling an already failing product. Then, he went from being a hard working sales man to creating an empire. The drastic change of career and the hours needed to put into something of that nature are the definition of hard work.

Buyer Behavior

For this assignment, I interviewed customers at work who I thought would fit the need based on what I observed. It took me a few tries to get three people who weren't "too busy" to speak with me for just a few minutes, but that kind of further proves my point about people these days being constantly busy which is partially what my product plays off of.

First, I spoke with a family that had three young children with them. I found out that all of them were under the age of four and the mom shared with me her troubles of getting them to sit still and/or keep them out of trouble at the same time. She and the father confessed that sometimes television is their go to while they are cooking dinner and/or cleaning the house etc. They thought the idea was a little silly at first but once I gave them the short version of my elevator pitch, they thought it was genius and said they would definitely be interested.

Second, I spoke with someone who fit my other demographic that I had in mind. I have a husband and wife who come into the store almost every day who are elderly. The husband also has a medical condition which limits his ability to walk safely. The wife has to hold him up and they walk side by side very slowly everywhere they go. They said that they do not watch much television, but if they did that this product would significantly increase the ease of their every day lives.

Third, I spoke with a group of younger kids, all in high school because I thought they were the age range who are obsessed with new technology. They basically laughed in my face and said my idea was "stupid." That's okay, I accept all feedback of course. It also showed me that I should not market to the younger/millennial demographic.

Idea Napkin

1. Who am I? That is a complicated question for most people. I am an extremely hardworking individual who is determined and at times stubborn. I believe this can help in the area of starting a new business/creating a product. I have years of customer service and management experience which are both a vital part of any enterprise. Do I see my idea actually becoming part of my life? Probably not, however, maybe in the future another venture could be.

2. What I am offering is a voice activated remote to control the TV and any accessories that one has connected to it.

3. Who I am offering it to is parents with very young children who always have their hands full and also those who find themselves having a hard time getting up and down when seated. These are two separate demographics but I feel that both of these sets of people would benefit.

4. These people would care and want this product because it would make their lives easier. Today more than ever, people are on the go constantly. Therefore, they are always looking for products that will help to simplify and create ease in their lives.

5. There are voice activated products out there already. For example, the "assistants" on cell phones and products such as Google Alexa. However, there is nothing that connects to someone's TV and the average person watches hours a day.

I definitely believe that all of these elements fit together, the idea is fairly rough but I stand behind it. Where I think I have some disconnect is the demographic. When creating a marketing campaign, a company must choose one route to follow and allow the people to decide if it works for them or not. I am stuck in between my two options of who my audience really should be.

Testing the Hypothesis 2

Who: There absolutely are people who have a lot in common that fall outside the boundary. My product (a voice operated remote) is definitely geared towards a specific type of person. While almost every American has a TV and watches, on average, a couple hours a day not all of them feel the need for something of this nature. Many people utilize voice controlled "assistants" with their smart phones but this is taking it to another level and might be seen as unnecessary.

What: I think the difference in needs here is whether one WANTS the product or NEEDS the product due to an ailment. I'm not going to lie, the second set of people I interviewed all thought I was lazy for even thinking up this idea. This surprised me a little due to similar technology already out there that is fairly popular.

Why: The underlying cause of the need definitely is different for those inside and outside the boundary. I found those with smaller living spaces didn't deem this appealing but some that I spoke with, who I know have decent sized houses, seemed more interested. Also, I spoke with a lady who has really bad arthritis and she thought this was brilliant for herself.

INSIDE	OUTSIDE
-“Millenials” -Those with disabilities/ailments -Those with large houses -Those with very young children	-Those not interested in technology -Those who do not watch much TV
-Difficulty getting up and down when seated -Leaving the remote across the room and not being able to get up to change channels/etc	-Being too lazy to get up
-Exists because there may be physical pain for those who have a medical issue -Those with young kids may have a sleeping baby/toddler on their lap	-If one is entertaining and across the room, it makes changing inputs/channels easier -If one is very interested in technology this is a sort of entertainment in its own right

Solving the Problem

So I think I jumped the gun a little bit in the "Testing the Hypothesis" assignment. There, I offered a solution and in a sense interviewed people about the product, not the problem. I see my mistake there and will know better for next time! In that assignment, my opportunity I presented was being seated on the couch and realizing the remote is on the other side of the room and you want to change the channel, turn the volume up, etc. The solution I came up with was a voice operated remote, similar to the way some use Google Assistant or Siri. This would be beneficial to lazy people everywhere, those with kids, those with a disability or even the elderly who just find it hard to get up and down sometimes. I'm not sure how plausible this idea is, or if it might already exist!

Testing the Hypothesis

1. Opportunity: The opportunity I would like to pursue is the "need" for a voice operated TV remote.

2. Who: Average American household.
What: People wanting to watch TV.
Why: Someone with a disability who cannot easily get up and down from the couch or walk across the room when they need to use the remote. Also, for people who hate getting comfortable just to immediately get back up when they realize they need to change the channel.

3.Testing the who: I originally thought of this idea solely about those who often find themselves cuddling up on the couch and getting comfortable then finding out they left the remote across the room (I do this often). However, after I started typing up the "who, what, why" I stumbled across the need for people with disabilities who could benefit from this product as well. I tested this in my interviews along with the original thought.

Testing the what: The boundaries of this need are that it will only benefit people who spend a vast majority of time watching television or it will not be worth the money to them.

Testing the why: Many people will think "Oh, I'm not that lazy to get up to grab the remote." However, that's where the disability side of it comes in. For someone who it is difficult to do so, they may really benefit from the voice control feature. Another boundary is that there are voice operated TVs but the technology is so new and they are very expensive.

4. After I interviewed the 5 people, they all looked at me as if I was the lazy one (well sometimes I am, aren't we all?) but I didn't take it to heart! Three of these people agreed that this is something that could happen fairly soon in the future and pointed out that we already utilize features like this such as Google Assistant and Siri. However, they thought that it was a little unnecessary for the average person. Another hated the idea and literally said "who could possibly be that lazy?" Interesting enough, the ones who liked it were young kids whom I work with, around 17-22 years old. My neighbor that I spoke with, who is elderly, pointed out that this would not only benefit those with disabilities but also those of a certain age group and those with arthritis, etc.

5. I thought this idea would be taken positively and with a little excitement. Maybe because things of this nature already exist in other ways, no one was impressed by the thought. I also never thought about targeting the "senior" age group.