Segment: the grocery shopper in a household of 3+, aka moms
1) Find three people who would fit that segment and arrange to interview them.
Customer Interview 1: April, shopper for household of 7 (+2 pets)
Customer Interview 2: Jessica, shopper for household of 5
Customer Interview 3: Samantha, shopper for household of 3
3) Evaluating Alternatives. The outcome of this step is to produce a set of alternatives. Customers pick from among this set of alternatives. In this step, your job is to figure out how they do their picking. Does price matter the most? Does quality? Does style? Is there more than one factor that is important to your customer segment?
All the customers that I interviewed were focused on price. They focused on price to such an extent that they were willing to visit multiple store locations in order to get the best price. Therefore quality and convenience were not as important as price.
4) How/where do they buy? Elements of the actual transaction can help characterize your segment. Is your segment more likely to buy online or in a store? Are they more likely to use cash or will they finance the purchase? Etc.
They all buy in actual stores for their groceries. Since they follow pricing trends, Target's deals or Winn-Dixie's deals attract them as customers. Target's credit card is especially interesting because they sell not just groceries but also all household items and offer 5% off, attracting shoppers AND card sales.
5) Post-purchase evaluation. What matters most to your customers when they think back on the 'rightness' of the purchase? What helps them determine the purchase was a good idea? What sorts of things make them think a purchase was a bad idea?
They all said "when everything is eaten," which is interesting because they are evaluating their purchases based on food waste but making purchasing decisions based on price!
6) Report the findings. Simply summarize your interviews.
5) Post-purchase evaluation. What matters most to your customers when they think back on the 'rightness' of the purchase? What helps them determine the purchase was a good idea? What sorts of things make them think a purchase was a bad idea?
They all said "when everything is eaten," which is interesting because they are evaluating their purchases based on food waste but making purchasing decisions based on price!
6) Report the findings. Simply summarize your interviews.
See notes above. Additionally, my customers are in a routine of shopping weekly and reviewing their fridge needs weekly. They buy the same stuff each week, so they have a baseline to tweak their purchases until they are buying "just right" amounts and type of groceries.
My customers did not feel they wasted food. They avoided food waste by using the freezer to extend the longevity of food - especially if they knew they were eating out instead of cooking at home - and by eating leftovers at work for their lunch breaks.
7) Draw conclusions. Here's the part that you'll need to be able to talk about when we meet in class. 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 alternative evaluation, purchase decision, and post-purchase evaluation?
Alternative evaluation: creates weekly list and cleans out fridge, weekly
Purchase decision: decides where to go to get best price for these items
Post-purchase evaluation: whether any food waste resulted
There are two big take-aways for me after these interviews:
1. As I said earlier there is a disconnect since the post-purchase decision is based on food waste but the original purchase decision was based on price.
2. The customers do not have a need despite data saying that US households have a significant amount of food waste. Perhaps this is the wrong segment?
I am surprised that the moms you interviewed don't waste food. We had an issue during our interviews where people didn't admit to wasting food until we told them the statistic that 40% of food supply is thrown away. I wonder if the moms had waste and didn't want to admit it. I thought it was interesting the comment about "everlasting being eaten" is how they evaluated whether it was a good purchase but then price should not be as relevant. I am happy when my kids eat their food but it is more on whether they eat health food that was not too tedious to make and inexpensive. that is like a triple win in my meal planning experience. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteTara
Hi Christie,
ReplyDeleteI'm so impressed by your interviewees - they are so much more organized than I ever have been. They are definitely price conscious, but I will say their menus seem a little boring if they are buying the same food every week! I'd get tired of that quickly. It appears that these people might not be the right folks to target for our market - maybe we need to find more people who are too busy to be this organized?
Good job on actually doing the assignment - major props.
Andrea
Great job and congratulations on doing this assignment. You are so professional during your interviews. Your interviews are so much more organized and insightful than my interviews have been. It was interesting to hear that some of your interviewees did not think that they wasted food. I agree with Tara that perhaps they did not want to admit the waste. Alternatively, perhaps they are just so busy that they do not realize the waste that occurs. I also agree with Andrea that they might not be the right targets. The other explanation is that our fridge management product is not (unfortunately) the next great idea. Thank you for your post. I enjoyed reading it and listening to the interviews.
ReplyDeleteHey Christie,
ReplyDeleteIts interesting that women you interviewed that had a family didn't feel that they were wasting money on food. I wonder if it has something to do with what we discussed in class - that families have the dynamic where you eat what you can get, resulting in less food wasted. Your insight would make me rethink our target group a little bit. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Christie. Wow, another great post on your blog. These interviews were very interesting. I have not conducted any of them yet so I enjoy seeing your work. I think the folks who do not feel that they waste food are in denial or they are outliers or something. I admire the way you get your interviewees talking. All around, I can not offer any suggestions for improvement. I am looking forward to your next posts.
ReplyDeleteHi Christie, I must say that I know quite a few family members that fall into this category. They would also say that they don't waste food. They pretty much freeze everything. But even so, I think there is a shelf life with food that is frozen for too long. There is actually a joke of a cousin that a few of say never to eat from when she offers you food because chances are it has been frozen for weeks. I do think we have a more research to do to see what our ideal segment would be. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete