Figuring Out Buyer Behavior, No. 1

Choosing a segment:

The segment that I chose to look at were students who bike around campus. There are many different groups of bikers that I could have chosen, but I wanted to see if I would get different answers than I usually get if I just stuck to students who bike next to the cars across campus.

Interviews:

I chose to interview one freshman who lives in a dorm and bikes to class and back to his dorm a few times each day. My second interviewee was a sophomore who lives off campus, but not very far off campus, and bikes to campus daily. My third interviewee was a sophomore who lives a 10 minute bike from campus. He bikes to class three times a week and occasionally goes to the library on campus.

Information search:

When the interviewees realized there was an initial need to increase their safety, they saw it necessary to add accessories to their bikes for drivers to see them easier, rather than adding accessories to themselves to increase their awareness. This makes sense because the responsibility of the safety of the bikers cannot only be put on the bikers themselves. When searching online for ways to better their safety, the interviewees said that they look for specific products that are known to increase their safety. These products include knee pads, elbow pads, helmets, light accessories and much more. The freshman that I interviewed added that he received a protective helmet this past Christmas from his parents because they were concerned about his safety while biking around campus. 

What I learned:

After taking a closer look at this segment and interviewing these three potential customers, I learned that these bikers are still very concerned with their safety while on their bikes. This matches with the unmet need that I have been discussing in my previous posts of increased safety for bikers. My interviewees proved to me that not everyone sees the biker’s awareness as the main issue. They showed me that it may be better to look at the car driver’s side of things and help them become more aware, rather than fixing a problem with bikers that may or may not be existent. The bikers are still very concerned with their safety, but with their concerns, they would like me to think about the drivers around them more in depth. I think that when I was deciding on what opportunity I would analyze for this class and I was reading statistics on how many biking accidents there are each year, I just assumed that I should try to focus on the bikers’ awareness rather than anyone else in the situation. Although sometimes they are, many times biking accidents are not caused by the biker in the situation. It is very important to still look at the same unmet need of the bikers’ safety, but it is also imperative to analyze each individual in these situations. I am taking into account that this segment focuses on bikers around and on the University of Florida’s campus. I think it is important to acknowledge that there are many unaware drivers and bikers on campus, and there are many times that I have seen interactions between bikers and cars on campus that could have resulted in life changes for either party.

Conclusion:

Although all three interviewees were interested in my business idea, they truly showed me that there is also a worry of the car drivers' awareness when ensuring the safety of bikers. By choosing this segment, I got great information on how students who use their bikes to get around campus specifically feel regarding their safety. There are many things that I need to think about while continuing to pursue this business idea.