15A- Figuring Out Buyer Behavior #2

I decided for this portion of figuring out buyer behavior to choose 3 additional students who attend UF on their Gainesville campus as they are a main segment in my market. These interviews were based around different questions and probes to continue to paint a picture on buyer behavior.

My first interview was of a freshman male student here at the University of Florida. When asking this respondent on how they choose among alternatives, it was no surprise that price was a major factor considering that they are a college student struggling to pay for expenses. He had said that he looks to do things that are cheap and entertaining. When posed about sporting events, he did make the remark that the performance of the team plays a factor. If there are more successful then he will be more likely to attend. As of now, he purchases most tickets and merchandise online which fits into our strategy. Most transactions he puts on his credit card to pay off at a later date. When he looks back on the purchase, he looks for the value he got out of it to himself. In sports, it could be the outcome for his team that makes him fell good or bad or even the enjoyment he had during the event or what came from going to the event.

The next interview was a senior female student at the university. Price was a major factor which was expected. When asked about sporting events, she did mention that she does not frequently attend sporting events and mostly only goes if friends or her boyfriend convinces her to go. She did say that she does everything online and very few things with cash or in person. When she thinks back on the purchase, she usually looks at the enjoyment factor that she had with her friends which is the main reason she went. The game, team performance does not matter to her and instead what matters is spending quality time with her friends.

The last interview I conducted was with another male student at the University of Florida. Considering I am a Sport Management major I came in contact with a person who has a passion for sports. These answers varied away from the previous two respondents in the fact that this person did not care about price as he values sports so highly that price would not be an issue and also that sports are so entertaining to him that the outcome does not matter and the thrill of sports will be enough for him to attend the event. He purchases all tickets and merchandise online and when he looks at the post-purchase, he looks at the enjoyment he had at the event which is usually high because of his passion for sports.

In summary, I believe we can be certain that price is a definite factor in this segment because of college and the fact that people attending events and purchasing merchandise is dependent on the fact of disposable income. Gladly, entry into the sporting will be free but obviously merchandise will not. We also learned that online is king nowadays thus we will need to utilize the Gator resources to push online sales and tickets. We got all different answers or reasons to choose this but I think we can see performance will play a factor in attendance and obviously a competitive team will play into the enjoyment of the game.