12A -- Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No.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.  

So far, I think there are quite a few segments for my market: commercial fish fingerling suppliers, private pond owners, industrial fish producers, hobbyists in both poultry and aquaculture, and commercial poultry producers.

I decided to focus on the hobbyist for poultry.

Find three people who would fit that segment and arrange to interview them.

I interviewed three different poultry farmers from Northwest Florida. Each of them has a slightly different operation.

 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?

Due to the extremely rural nature of our location, most people simply check prices at local feed stores.  There is one 7 miles Northwest and one 3 miles due East.  Google really isn't very helpful.  Depending on which side of the county consumers live on, they pretty much choose the closest feed store because chicken feed is both bulky and heavy.

This opened my eyes to the possibility of offering feed delivery with my product only, thus differentiating myself from the competitors.  My product is also more nutrient dense, thus allowing me to carry more product without being oversized dimensionally.

Begin with need awareness. 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. 

1) Mrs. Herb: Mrs. Herb needs feed year round.  She needs it delivered to her house once a month and is interested in patronizing a different company if she will pay less per bag and as continue to have feed delivered in a timely manner.

2) The Paulk's hatchery: The brunt of their operation occurs from December to February.  Most of their clients need chicks for the spring sales.  Their demand for feed decreases until the following December.  Although, they do retain their layers (1200 birds) year round.  Therefore, they require year-round, consistent feed. They are very interested in saving money on feed as well as using feed that is locally sourced.

3) Chad's Gamecock operation: Chad is somewhat pickier about his feed.  He liked the high-protein makeup of my product but needs to know exactly what mineral composition the feed will have.  He is surprisingly not opposed to supplementing the feed with a mineral blend but would prefer to have a complete feed.   He also needs feed year round, so it doesn't seem like there will be much of a lull in production.

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?

Due to the rural nature of my market, Google isn't much help.  Most people buy feed from the closest feed store unless the price difference is outrageous.  Because my current location is fairly central to many of the producers and I offer a cheaper product, I anticipate few issues in penetrating this market.  Most people do seek advice from friends, neighbors, and family quite often.  Thankfully, I have a good rapport with the local community and therefore should not be hindered in a serious way.

Report the findings of your research. Simply summarize what you learned in the interviews.

One of the potential customers I interviewed is a widow and the selling point for her is convenience.  She has about 30 chickens that she keeps solely for enjoyment. She has difficulty driving and loading the feed so she has an arrangement with the owner of the closest feed store to deliver the feed directly into her barn.  Since my farm is only a mile away from this residence, I could easily offer a better deal.  The question is whether or not she would be disloyal to the man who has been delivering her feed for years just for a cheaper product.

Another potential consumer raises gamecocks.  His is fairly particular about the nutrition of his birds.  Offering a higher protein feed for a lower price definitely interested him.  He has quite a few birds so I would need to ensure I could produce enough feed consistently to serve his needs.

The last farm I interviewed is a chick supplier.  They raise thousands of chicks each year to stock agricultural chain stores.  They require a great deal of feed and are thus a great contact. They manage their nutritional levels quite closely also. This adds an emphasis on enriching my own product with the required vitamins and minerals to ensure I am providing complete nutrition to help streamline the feeding process for larger customers.

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 have concluded that most this hobbyist segment is more boisterous than I first imagined. I am going to research it further as it may allow me to start out fairly small until I get the production streamlined to run as efficiently as possible.  This has been a very insightful assignment for me.

As always, comments and questions are welcome! Thank you for reading!