Assignment 12 - Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

-
Before starting this assignment, I would like to inform you, that I changed my business idea slightly. Instead of selling vegetarian products to fast-food restaurants, I would like to switch to the B2C market. My new business idea is, therefore, opening a fast-food restaurant with a huge vegetarian menu (but also including meals with meat) with a lot of healthy meals.

Segment

For this exercise, I want to concentrate on the buyer segment of 18 to 25-year-old college students, which have either a vegetarian diet or live very nutrition conscious.

Interviews

1. Anne

At what time do you become aware of your unmet need for a fast-food restaurant with more vegetarian and healthy meals? (in stressful situations, on the road, in the city, after clubbing)

-> When I am going out or when I am on the road. But I feel the need especially when I am very busy, and you just want to pick up a meal

Are there specific situations, in which you typically think about it? 

-> When I see a menu somewhere, and there are no vegetarian or only little vegetarian options at all or when people talk about getting food somewhere, where I cannot eat anything

Are there any places where you would like to have a fast-food restaurant with more vegetarian and healthy meals?

-> I would love to have vegetarian fast-food restaurants by the road and close to where I live (on the way from home to school)

Do you feel this need when you are with your friends/family or mainly on your own?

-> Mainly with other people since I typically don't eat fast food on my own

What would you normally do, when feeling the need for a vegetarian/more healthy fast-food restaurant?

-> I would either don't eat anything or order fries

What source of information do you use to find a solution? (i.e., to find such a fast-food restaurant or something to eat)

-> I would look up the location or menu from a restaurant nearby; if it' hard to look it up I would also ask a local

When you would search in Google: which search terms would you use?

-> "fast-food"

2. Coray

At what time do you become aware of your unmet need for a fast-food restaurant with more vegetarian and healthy meals? (in stressful situations, on the road, in the city, after clubbing) 

-> Especially when I am stressed out and don't have any time to cook. Then it's way better for me to go to McDonald's

Are there specific situations, in which you typically think about it?

 -> no not really

Are there any places where you would like to have a fast-food restaurant with more vegetarian and healthy meals?

-> I would love to have one on campus or near Midtown

Do you feel this need when you are with your friends/family or mainly on your own? 

-> Mainly when I am on my own

What would you normally do, when feeling the need for a vegetarian/more healthy fast-food restaurant?

-> I am not strictly vegetarian. Thus I would just eat what is available; often you can also go for a side salad

What source of information do you use to find a solution? (i.e., to find such a fast-food restaurant or something to eat)

-> I would just go to the next available restaurant

6. Sharon

At what time do you become aware of your unmet need of a fast-food restaurant with more vegetarian and healthy meals? (in stressful situations, on the road, in the city, after clubbing) 

-> I would love to have a fast-food restaurant with more healthy options when I don't have a lot of time or need to have dinner really soon and fast; I would also appreciate having a healthy fast-food restaurant when I have classes for the whole day, and I have some time inbetween which is not enough to get home and cook

Are there specific situations, in which you typically think about it?

-> Typically when I am drunk and after a night going out because that's the time when I crave fast-food the most

Are there any places where you would like to have a fast-food restaurant with more vegetarian and healthy meals?

-> I would like to have one on campus or near clubs (so you could go there after clubbing)

Do you feel this need when you are with your friends/family or mainly on your own? 

-> Mainly when I am together with others because I typically don't eat fast-food on my own

What would you normally do, when feeling the need of a vegetarian/more healthy fast-food restaurant?

-> I would go to another restaurant and look for a healthy alternative (unless there is nothing available)

What source of information do you use to find a solution? (i.e., to find such a fast-food restaurant or something to eat) 

-> Internet, Google Maps

When you would search in Google: which search terms would you use? 

-> "Healthy food," "healthy restaurants"

Summary of the interviews and my conclusions

First, I would like to shortly comment on the interviews above. I selected my interview partners very carefully regarding their diets. Anne has a vegetarian diet, Coray is a part-time vegetarian and Sharon eats very healthy. The interviews were very interesting because they gave me insight into the potential buyer's behavior and let me think about my assumptions. I thought that when someone wants to eat something vegetarian and the current fast-food restaurant does not offer any proper meal without meat, that the consumer would rather leave the restaurant and look for another one than eating a side dish. But actually, that is what consumers currently do. Anne and Coray told me, that they would rather go for a side dish than leaving the restaurant. That is important to know, because although they have an unmet need for a proper vegetarian meal, they are not willing to put much effort into satisfying their need. They would rather pick something which does not satisfy their need to 100% but is more convenient for them. Thus, I would describe this segment definitely as a potential customer base. But I definitely have to take into account that they might be too convenient to switch from going to "normal" fast-food restaurants into a mainly vegetarian and healthy one.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Assignment 24 - Venture Concept No. 1

-
Opportunity First, I would like to explain the opportunity my venture concept tries to exploit. Nowadays many people have a special diet, from glutenfree to vegetarian and vegan. The trend for those special diets is increasing. Around 4% of all Americans have a vegetarian diet, and nearly 50% of all Millennials say, that they eat vegetarian. A lot of those young people cannot stick to their diet when eating outside. Especially fast-food restaurants have very little to no vegetarian alternatives on their menu. Thus, customers have to eat meals with meat instead of a vegetarian dinner, or they have to go for the side dishes, e.g. side salads or fries. The market for vegetarian fast-food restaurants is limited to regions where many young and open-minded people life, i.e. cities or colleges. In those regions, a vegetarian fast-food restaurant would find enough customers to flourish. Since having special diets is a trend, the “window of opportunity” is not open forever, but I think openi...
Read more

Assignment 18 – Create a Customer Avatar

-
Image
The customer segment I chose two assignments ago is characterized by 18 to 25 years old students who pursue a sporty lifestyle and care a lot about their nutrition. In this assignment, I would like to go a bit further and describe a very specific type of customer, i.e. to create a customer avatar. Customer Avatar The prototypical customer I want to describe is a 22-year old girl, who is a second-year student at a US university. Her major is law. She is very ambitious in her studies and strives to finish her bachelor with a very good grade. She is very open-minded and loves to travel – she even made a trip to Europe last summer. After she did an internship at a law firm in Britain, she decided to explore the European continent and made a road trip for one month on her own. Besides traveling, she loves to hang out with her friends, to cook and to do a lot of sports. From going to the gym to swimming to playing ultimate frisbee – she can’t decide what to prefer more.  When han...
Read more

Assignment 17 - Elevator Pitch No. 2

-
Image
Below you can find my second elevator pitch. Reflection on the feedback from my first elevator pitch The recommendation of including some numbers or facts in my elevator pitch was very helpful. I think that it will help the audience to understand how big the problem really is. Additionally, the listeners might take my elevator pitch more seriously because they might that I am really deep in the subject. One classmate told me that he liked the beginning of my elevator pitch a lot. He thinks that I was really good at putting the listener into the shoes of my customer. What I changed Based on the feedback, I included a statistic saying that 12% of all people between 18 and 29y identify themselves as vegetarians. Furthermore, I kept the beginning of my second elevator pitch very similar to the first one. The only thing I changed at the beginning is to address my main target group, students, directly.
Read more