Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

The specific segment I'm picking is students who live off campus and don't have cars, so they rely on the bus systems to get to campus.

The first person in this segment that I interviewed lives at The Ridge, which is about 1.5 miles away from campus. He doesn't have a car, so you would think that he would take the buses to campus. However, he hates having to wait for the bus when they're not guaranteed to be at his house at a certain time. So his solution to this is to take an Uber to campus. Now obviously this isn't the most cost-efficient way to get to campus; it can cost an average of $20 to get to campus and back in one day. I asked why if he has thought of searching for other ways to get to campus and he said that the Uber is just convenient and money isn't really an object for him.

The second person I interviewed is a third year student who rides his bike to campus everyday. I asked him when he first started riding his bike to campus and he said his second year of school; his first time living off campus. His parents wouldn't allow him to bring his car to Gainesville from home, so he looked for alternative ways to get to campus. He said he tried the bus system for a few days, but ultimately he got frustrated waiting for it and having to always follow the transit app. One of his biggest issues was that his classes ended around 5, and that meant that he had to ride the buses down Archer Road during rush hour; this took at least an extra 20 minutes. He said that since then he just decided to use his bike since it allows him to get to and from campus on his own time, without wasting his time on the buses.

My third interview was with one of my roommates who doesn't have a car. She is a little wary of taking the buses and only does so when she is desperate. Instead, her way of getting to campus is to have one of our friends drive her because he has a car and has a similar class schedule. They often have to leave at least an hour before their classes to make sure that they can get parking on campus. I asked her what she would do if he wasn't able to drive her for whatever reason. She said that she would resort to taking the buses if no one else was able to driver her, but she would be very reluctant.

Based on these interviews, I think that this segment generally knows what options they have in terms of getting to campus, and which ones they are willing to implement. In terms of need awareness, they are all conscious of when this need comes up the most, and they have all developed different ways of dealing with it.