12A- Figuring Out Buyer Behavior 1

Choosing a Segment:

For this assignment, I chose a segment of middle-aged, successful and wealthy men, who own boats and store them at a marina. I chose this segment of the population because these are the types of individuals who would most likely benefit from my service. The first interviewee, Bryce, is a software engineer who enjoys spending his weekends boating and keeps his boat in a marina. I chose to interview him because I wanted to hear about his experiences with keeping a boat at a marina and if he was satisfied with his current marina. My second interviewee, Johnathan, is the owner of a plumbing company. He partakes in competitive fishing tournaments and is the captain of a very large center console vessel. I chose to interview him to see if he believes that a market for my service exists among competitive fisherman. My third interviewee, Eric, recently inherited a large sum of money, some of which he spent on a large boat. I chose to interview Eric because unlike the other two interviewees, he has little marine knowledge and does not spend a large amount of time on his boat.

Interviews:

I began each interview by asking how many hours a month each individual spends on a boat. Bryce answered “about 10-15 hours each month.” Johnathan answered “more than 50 hours a month during the seasons when most fishing competitions occur, and 20-40 hours a month in the off season.” Eric answered “some months I spend zero hours on my boat and some months I spend as much as 20 hours on my boat; it all depends on if I am preoccupied with other things.” Based on the answers that each person gave to my first question, I was able to confirm that they would all be appropriate candidates for my interview.

I then followed up by asking if they were satisfied with their current marina. Bryce gave me a very insightful answer. He explained to me how even though his boat is only 26 feet in length, he has switched between three different marinas. I asked him if he would explain why he made this change and he told me his experiences at all three of the marinas. He said that at the first marina, he felt as if the workers were not passionate about their jobs and were doing the bare minimum while on their shifts. He felt that they had a “negative attitude” and was unhappy with their service. He then moved his boat to a second marina, only to have the lower console of his engine stolen two months after he made the switch. He told me that he failed to read through the terms that the marina set when he chose to store his boat there, and was very upset to find out that he was responsible for the costs of the theft. Fed up, he chose to pay a premium price to keep his boat at a high-end marina. Bryce says that he is now happy with the services that the marina provides and feels that the workers actually wish to be there, unlike the first marina. When I asked him what he does for maintenance and cleaning, he told me that he cleans the boat himself after every departure and takes the boat to a mechanic for maintenance. I then asked him if he would pay an extra monthly price for my service. I explained how in the long run, it would save him money on maintenance, and he told me that he would be interested in such a service. My only concern is that he did not feel that he had a need for such a service until I explained to him the convenience that I offer. This made me feel confident about my sales pitch, but I lost some confidence as far as my original idea. His favorite part about my idea was that I combined what would normally be two separate services into one- basic maintenance/restoration and cleaning. He said that he would sign up for my service only because he would be saving time and money by using one all-inclusive service instead of two independent services.

Johnathan told me that when he takes his boat out prior to a competition, he takes care of the cleaning himself. He also believes that most competitive fisherman do the same. The one thing that Johnathan told me is that a huge opportunity exists on the day of the actual tournament. Fishing tournaments are timed, so boat owners do not have time to clean their boat when they come in, as money is on the line and they need to spend as much time fishing as possible. He told me that he believes that many competitive fishermen have the need of boat cleaning and would likely pay for my service, not on a monthly basis but instead as a one-time service. He explained how many of the fishermen run boats that cost hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, and are competing for prizes that range into the millions of dollars, so a one-time cleaning fee is negligible in the grand scope of things. He said a very similar thing to Bryce: he did not exactly realize that he had this need until I explained to him how my service would make his life more convenient.  

Eric had a different and more simple response to my questions. He told me that he has no problems with his current marina. When I asked him if his current marina cleans his boat for him, he said no. He then went off to say how he barely cleans it either. I explained to him how this is very bad and will cause the value of his boat to decrease greatly. I asked him what he is currently doing to satisfy the need that he has of cleaning his boat, and he answered by saying that he normally just asks the workers to rinse down his boat. When I told him about my business idea, he was very excited and said that he would definitely subscribe to a service such as my own.

What I learned:

I learned that people with marine knowledge actually do not feel that they have such a need, although when I explained my service to them, they said they would pay for it simply because of convenience. The person that I interviewed that lacked marine knowledge said that he does not have an existing solution to his need of cleaning his boat besides doing the work himself. Based on his response, I learned that it may be successful to target people who own boats but do not actually use them on a regular basis.

Additionally, I learned that I have the potential to expand upon my original idea. I learned that instead of just offering a weekly/monthly service, I can be profitable by offering boat owners with a one-time payment for my service. I can target competitive fisherman and send a fleet of workers to clean their boats when they return from the competitions to weigh in the fish. This also made me realize that a market exists with large yachts that post up at marinas while they are traveling long distances. They could also pay a one-time price for my service to board their vessel and clean everything while they make landfall.

How would I describe this segment?

I was unpleasantly surprised to find out that this segment did not feel an immediate need for my service, and was only interested in the service once it was described to them. I believe that this may be only be the case because no similar business exists and they had never thought that someone else could come and clean their boat for them. However, in the end, this segment would be interested in my service and led me to believe that more people than I originally expected could benefit from my service.