Assignment 15- Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

1. The segment I am focusing on is undergraduate students at the University of Florida who are studying some sort of engineering. The three students I am interviewing are Alexis (civil engineering major), Kaitlin (biomedical engineering major), and Christian (aero-space engineering major)

2. A. “When choosing among an app to purchase does price, quality, or style of the app matter the most?”

a. Alexis: “For me I would choose a free app over an app that costs money just because I feel like I would rather spend my money on other things like food or gas unless I absolutely needed the app. I would have to say I focus most on cost when I’m downloading an app for my phone”

b. Kaitlin: “It depends on the features of the app, like if its high tech and does something I want I don’t really mind paying for it as long as it isn’t a ridiculous amount. I’m really into how software works and stuff in that field so software catches my eye the most.”

c. Christian: “I look at price when I download apps and try to evaluate if the cost is worth what I’m getting, so it just kind of depends. I think I weigh all of those equally really”

3. “How and where do you buy your apps?’

a. Alexis: “I use a paypal account and just get them from the apple app store on my phone, it’s the easiest and most convenient way to do it for me.”

b. Kaitlin: “I’m that weird minority that has an Android so yeah I use the app store on my Android and I just use the credit card that I have hooked up to that to buy apps.”

c. Christian: “I use the app store on my iphone and the card that I have on my account it when I download apps.”

4. “What matters most when you think back on the 'rightness' of the purchase? What helps you determine if the purchase was a good idea? What sorts of things make you think a purchase was a bad idea?”

a. Alexis: “I think what matters to me most when I think back on my purchase, especially for an app is how much I actually use it. If I paid money for something that I never use then I would consider that I bad idea. If it’s something I use all the time and I feel like I would have a hard time without it then that would make the app a good purchase.”

b. Kaitlin: “How much the app assists me and makes my life easier is what matters most when I look back on my purchase. A good purchase, for an app at least, is going to be something that when I do use it is really helpful and puts the question of ‘was this app worth the cost?’ out of my mind. A bad app purchase would be something I paid for that is just poorly set up or difficult to use and navigate.

c. Christian: “After I buy an app what matters most to me is if I can actually use if and understand all of the features of it. It’s a good purchase if I can utilize all of the aspects of it but if I paid just to use it for one out of its 20 features then it just doesn’t seem smart to me.”

5. From my first interview with Alexis I was able to realize that price would be extremely important to some student purchasers, which I had assumed right off the bat since we are college students. I feel like I relate most with her reasoning for buying something or mostly not buying something like an app because I want to save money for more important things. However, I would be attempting to charge only .99 for the app. I also learned from Alexis that she evaluates good/bad purchase decisions based on how much she uses that purchase, which also makes sense. After talking to Kaitlin I realized that some people actually get apps for the software and the tech that goes on behind the scenes….who would’ve thought? If it has new features and things she liked she will buy it. For Kaitlin to determine whether her app purchase was good or bad she evaluates the setup of the app and how useful it is. Lastly, Christian kind of fell somewhere in between these answers. He evaluates price, features, and quality all equally when downloading an app which I believe is probably one of the best ways to do it. To decide whether his app purchase was worth it Christian looks at how many of the features he uses from the app and bases his evaluation off of that.

6. Drawing conclusions-

From these interviews, I would conclude that the segment is pretty split when it comes to post purchase evaluations and alternative evaluations. However, because of this generations love for technology apps are pretty much all bought the same way through the smart phone app store with the cards on file. This helps to make that portion of the purchasing a little bit easier. I feel as though evaluation alternatives and post purchase decisions on apps is all sort of left up to the individuals opinion and what they value in the product. Ideally I would have a useful, high tech app to over at a low price.