Buyer Behavior pt 2

Alexis Coelho: Busy graduate student in PA school. Her schedule demands that she spend full days on campus between classes, laboratories and study groups. She usually leaves the house around 8 AM and does not return until 6PM. Although she usually packs food to bring with her, it is frequent that she will be rushed in the morning when attempting to pack and doesn’t do adequate preparation. She usually purchases food from the cafeteria and coffee shops around campus throughout the day as she is either too hungry for what she brought or wants something different. As she is a graduate student and semi-dependent on her parents, she is would need to involve them in her purchasing decisions surrounding food. They set budgets each month and likely she would need to explain what this would offer in order to change her lifestyle greatly. Inexpensive and fast options are the most important factors for her daily lunch. 

Jackie Coffey: Analyst for Florida Blue Cross. Typically, she packs something small to eat at work with the intention to purchase food from the cafeteria at work throughout the day. As her day progresses, she rarely has time to leave her office and head down to the cafeteria and often wishes she had packed food to bring with her. This has been a trend for the bulk of her career and yet never seems to place much weight on solving the problem. She simply does without eating, even at the cost of her health. When thinking about what to eat for lunch, she typically is looking for something quick as she does not have a structured break and any time away means she must stay later to make up for it. Thus, it is common for her to work through lunch. The cafeteria seems to be the only place that she considers purchasing food, although she doesn’t feel the food is great. It’s mediocre but it’s close and saves her time, which is the most important thing.

Susan Bach: Paralegal. Susan brings lunch everyday to work although she often leaves to grab food from the cafeteria that is more desirable, after eating some of her packed food. She at first says that she packs lunch before backtracking to include her other spending. She has a cafeteria in her office building and works in an area with many quick restaurants close by. She feels that money is well spent if it is on nutritious, good tasting food. She says that there are some healthy alternatives around and she sometimes will chose those; she seems to feel strongly that the healthiest option would always be to bring her own food and stick to that. 

My segment identified are busy individuals who need to eat and move on to the next task midday. These people are typically not eating for enjoyment and often skip lunch altogether. Based on my interviews, it seems that most people make this decision relatively quickly because there is a low cost investment (approximately $10 per day) and for many this is an independent decision. The only exception to this would seem to be Alexis who consults her budget with others, and thus would need more approval before making a larger lifestyle change. It seems that although these are relatively low risk decisions, there are clear patterns of behavior over time— many including an overwhelming sense of dissatisfaction and discouragement around eating in the middle of the day. To all three, lunch seems to be an inconvenience rather than enjoyable and I found this to be true in my last three interviews as well, implying that it is consistent for my segment. Customers in this segment purchase food in person at their local cafeterias or nearby restaurants and usually stick with location and ease as their most limiting factors. Price doesn’t seem to be a deterrent for many; time seems to be the greatest commodity to preserve.