12A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

Segment: My first segment will be university students who go away from home, instead of anyone who frequently moves.

I interviewed five university student who have moved at least twice since they've moved to Gainesville, however only three have moved into spaces that have either been unfurnished or did not have adequate furnishings. When it came to these three students, they had two common complaints; first, the obvious, "I needed more furniture to put stuff in, what was provided isn't enough for all my stuff." The second complaint they had was in regards to their roommates, particularly who would bring furnishings for common areas. Oftentimes there was only a couch, desk, and table in the common area with nothing else. While this is average for a rental apartment, it is still nice to bring along extra chairs, tables, maybe even a desk. They've been aware of this problem for a while and have decided to simply live with the situation, having each person living in the space bring separate objects. Generally, they bring items that are replaceable, never their large furnishings. One of the interviewees actually rents furniture from a local vendor. The issue isn't necessarily one that is unsolvable, it is just a hassle to solve when it comes time, usually requiring a lot of moving and sometimes heavy lifting. When it comes to information search (if they do search for anything,) they usually don't seek out new furnishings, instead they either use UHaul to rent a truck large enough to move their belongings or look to rent furnishings for their time here. This segment of people certainly could use my product, however not many are willing to seek it out, instead looking for the alternatives of renting or moving their own furniture. In this regard, it would be rather difficult to sell my product to college students. Instead, I should market these products to both the real estate market that owns the apartments near campus as well as the furniture stores that rent out furniture. The latter would be an extremely lucrative market, as these companies are looking for cheap, expendable furniture that students are willing to pay good money for. This could be just the product furniture rental companies need.