Figuring Out Buyer Behavior

12A-Sketching out the Beginning of the Buyer Behavior Process

Pick a Segment:

I chose the segment of middle-aged full-time working women who usually need evening wear for business functions. Because women are working more and more, they will need evening wear, furthermore, since 65% of American women are plus size, the INDUSTRY will most likely pique their interest. My goal is to find out if working women are willing to spend extra on evening wear that caters to their body types and has more quality.

Report the findings of your research:

I interviewed three women. One professor and two nurses. The professor had two daughters, the first nurse had four children and the second nurse had 5 children. After these interviews, I realized that all these women don’t mind spending more on gowns they believe will flatter them more. When talking to each woman, they all stated that when they become aware of their need for an evening gown is when they must attend a conference and they go into their closets and realize they don’t have a good dress. They then begin to be filled with dread due to bad experiences in the past. The nurse says she hasn’t had bad experiences just that she likes wonderful things which causes her to hurt her wallet. They then began talking about how they start preparing to buy gowns. Most of them shop way in advance because some of the gowns they order online tend to not fit in certain areas so they must get it tailored. One of the ladies stated she sometimes doesn’t attend the event if it isn’t mandatory just because she doesn’t want to go through the hassle. For one of the nurses, she stated before she steps foot into a store, she goes online and googles search phrases such as plus size gowns near me. For the second nurse, proximity is important to her. She would like to go to the store and try it on because sometimes one part of the gown doesn’t fit in a certain area. Also, the first nurse stated that because she is so busy she has her kids do the research for her first and check if the styles are “hip” enough after they filter the bad stores out for her, she then goes and visits those stores. When talking to the professor, she said her sister where’s the same size as her so she usually refers to her advice on the best stores to go to.

Draw Conclusions:

Based on what I know about this segment and what I learned in my interviews, women are really concerned about how gowns fit on their unique body types and how their time is being spent when searching for gowns. Although these women are worried about the sizing, they believe the customizer would help reduce their stress. Because they love to search before they go ahead and purchase a gown, I think it would be do good to have a friendly user website and a strong supportive online community. I believe it would also be very important to increase good Word of Mouth advertising for Industry since most plus size women go to the stores their family/friends recommend to them.