12A- Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No.1

1)    Pick a segment. In class, we have discussed how you might intuit the existence of segments that might exist in your venture's market. For this exercise, you must pick one segment.

For this assignment I chose to choose a segment of the homeless population in Gainesville, Florida. I chose this segment because it seems to be the most vulnerable and easily targeted segment of human trafficking, according to my online research and interviews in the last assignments. Choosing this segment, I will further enhance my knowledge if the unmet need is certain for this demographic population.

2)    Begin with need awareness. In earlier exercises, you have identified an unmet need and developed a solution. If the person you are talking to does not have the same unmet, then you need to move on. You may not include this as one of your three interviews. If the person you are talking to does have the problem, then you're on the right track! For need awareness, we need to figure out at what times, situations, places, contexts, etc., their need becomes the most salient. The questions you ask should be related to determining exactly when, how, and where their need awareness occurs. 

I conducted interviews on 3 individuals in Gainesville’s homeless population and asked them what times, situations, places and contexts their need becomes the most salient. According to the interviewees, they confirmed that usually the most unsafe time of the day is at night time, when it becomes dark out. They stated that there are less people out, if any, and that may leave them as an open target. Some places that they described were the most dangerous are in less populated areas, such as outside of downtown and midtown. Two interviewees stated that any highway or location near the highway would be most dangerous as they could easily be lured, picked up, and taken out of town with an easy access of the highway. Two of the interviewees were woman, and they stated that they are more vulnerable to be a target being on the streets at night, as some people may believe them to be prostitutes and try and pick them up.

3)    Move to information search. When the person you are interviewing becomes aware of their need, what is the very first thing they do to find a solution to their problem? What sources of information do they look for? When they search in Google, what are their search terms? Do they talk to friends and family.

All interviewees stated that they are most aware of their need when it becomes dark outside. They all stated that they try to go to a well-lit area in town, such as downtown or midtown. The two woman I interviewed stated they stay out of the streets at night-time to avoid someone targeting them. The male interviewee said that he tries to avoid talking to anyone that doesn’t look familiar to him. They stated that they usually hear from word of mouth throughout the homeless population of any potential harmful predators that have targeted a homeless individual recently or if someone they knew in the population has gone missing. They said that they all keep an extra eye out when they hear news like that. Each interviewee stated that they do not have a cell phone and do not search anything on google, and they have no way of contacting any family members, nor do any family member wish to speak to them. The interviewees stated that a lot of people throughout the homeless population use drugs, and that could make them more of a potential threat because they are less coherent of their surroundings.

4)    Report the findings of your research. Simply summarize what you learned in the interviews.

After conducting my interviews it seems that the homeless population is very aware of the need for safety. From what I learned, they seem to have a decent method of avoiding being a potential victim. Throughout the community they keep each other safe by word of mouth. I didn’t expect them to have such a well communicated network throughout their population, I expected them to all independently fend for themselves. But from what I learned they network with each other whenever there is a concern of being a target. I also learned that without cell phones, they wouldn’t be able to reach for help by calling 911 if any problem did arise. So, they primarily have to avoid any situation where that would be needed. They also stated that they have been aware of friends disappearing in multiple occasions and I think that the product I created could be of great use to their population.

5)    Draw conclusions. Based on what you know about this segment and what you learned in your interviews, how would you succinctly describe this segment in terms of need awareness and information search? 

Based on what I learned on my interviews the need awareness is definitely there for the segment I chose. This segment is highly aware of the potential threat of being trafficked, and through my information search I learned that they take certain precautions daily and mostly nightly, to avoid being an easy target. They mostly rely on natural instincts and word of mouth to keep themselves from being a victim to any situation.