12A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

1) Pick a segment. In class, we have discussed how you might intuit the existence of segments that might exist in your venture's market. For this exercise, you must pick one segment.
0 Nicotine E-cigarette Market

2) Find three people who would fit that segment and arrange to interview them. These interviews, if conducted properly, should take about 10-15 minutes. Any less, and you won't be able to obtain adequate information.
I interviewed a 20-year-old man, a 23-year-old man, and a 21-year-old woman. Both men have experienced smoking. They have shown enough interest in the emergence of 0 nicotine electronic cigarettes, and believe that if the 0 nicotine electronic cigarette can guarantee the taste, it will replace ordinary electronic cigarettes. A 21-year-old woman said that for non-smokers, 0 nicotine e-cigarettes are a good place to start trying cigarettes without side effects.

3) Begin with need awareness. In earlier exercises, you have identified an unmet need and developed a solution. If the person you are talking to does not have the same unmet, then you need to move on. You may not include this as one of your three interviews. If the person you are talking to does have the problem, then you're on the right track! For need awareness, we need to figure out at what times, situations, places, contexts, etc., their need becomes the most salient. The questions you ask should be related to determining exactly when, how, and where their need awareness occurs.
Their needs are stronger. One is from a health perspective, and the other is to reduce the possibility of violating relevant laws.

4) Move to information search. When the person you are interviewing becomes aware of their need, what is the very first thing they do to find a solution to their problem? What sources of information do they look for? When they search in Google, what are their search terms? Do they talk to friends and family?
They googled for information about 0 nicotine electronic cigarettes. They talked to friends about what are the alternatives to e-cigarettes if they are banned?

5) Report the findings of your research. Simply summarize what you learned in the interviews.
According to my interview, I got extensive information about the demand for 0 nicotine e-cigarettes, which shows that this opportunity can be implemented very well.

6) Draw conclusions. Based on what you know about this segment and what you learned in your interviews, how would you succinctly describe this segment in terms of need awareness and information search?
I will divide the market into two parts, one for each of two different target customers. The first market is for those who have used e-cigarettes. For this type of customer, we focus on the safety of 0 nicotine e-cigarettes. The second market is for customers who have not used it. For them, the taste of electronic cigarettes is the most important. We focus on the rich taste of 0 nicotine electronic cigarettes.