Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

For this exercise I scouted out three new members of my businesses market segment to interview in order to learn several specific things about them. This information included what the biggest influencer to purchasing is, how and where they complete their purchase, and what matters most to them when determining if something was a good or a bad purchase. The three people I interviewed were all individuals who are University of Florida students who plan to be in Gainesville next year for only the school year and have not signed an apartment or house lease yet. All three of them are not planning to be in Gainesville for the summer months and would either like to find a lease that will not charge them for those months or somehow find someone who wants to sublease it.

Coincidentally, all three of the people I interviewed agreed about two specific attributes of apartments that are most important to them when shopping for one. These are price and location. Either one of these are important enough to sway these people away from an apartment or house, even if it has everything else they are looking for or more. This is primarily because they prioritize being as close to campus as possible, since Gainesville has terrible traffic and the on campus parking is scarce, and as college students their budgets are very tight. In addition to this, these students seem to not care too much about apartment amenities or features, as they have access to a majority of the amenities most apartment complexes have on campus.

Real Estate agents in Gainesville appear to be very irrelevant to the rental market scene with this segment. All three individuals I found explained that they as well as their friends all use word-of-mouth and the internet to find different apartments and houses available for rent in the area. With that being said, none of the three of them signed their leases fully online. All of them felt that it is extremely important to see the property, take a tour, speak to their leasing agents and property managers before signing any lease. Additionally, one of the people I interviewed pays their rent with cash or checks in person, one pays online through a resident portal linked to a bank account, and one pays online using e-checks.

When determining whether or not their purchase was a good or bad decision, this segment of individuals made their decisions by assessing how happy they were with the location, the helpfulness of property managers and their staff and reliability/quality of the property which more specifically was based on things like all the appliances worked, hot water, WiFi, door locks and so on.

Overall, these findings were mostly expected. One thing that did surprise me is that price was less important when determining value. While price is one of the most important aspects while shopping, it does not seem that price is particularly focused on when determining value.

These findings help to draw conclusions about not just the unique aspects of our business, but also the different aspects that are still as important. These include what else to offer, how to advertise and how to reach our target audience.