Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

I went back the same gun shop that I went to before and interviewed a different 3 people in my category of people over the age of 65.

Alternative Evaluation: They all did not care about style since the lock isn’t something they would be showing off. They all cared about quality since the lock is something that needs to be able to hold up against people that are pulling and yanking on it. Price does matter but isn’t the main factor. All three people had various answers on how much they would spend. The first gentlemen said that he wouldn’t pay more than $100. The other one couldn’t think of a price tag that he would be willing to pay until he saw the lock. The last guy said he would be willing to spend up to half of the cost of his gun on the lock. They all said that they would pick quality over everything else.

How/Where do they buy: Two of the three-gentleman said they would be more likely to buy in the store. They like to look at stuff in person before they buy it.  The third guy likes the convenience of buying online so he would be more likely to do that. They would use cash because this really isn’t a big enough purchase to warrant financing.

Post Purchase Evaluation: I asked this question to everyone: When would you know if this purchase was a good idea? All of them said that they wouldn’t know unless their car was broken into and if the gun was stolen. It is one of those things where it won’t be needed unless something bad happens. It is like insurance. You aren’t glad you have it until you have a big medical bill. 1 of the guys said he would know if the purchase was a good idea if he had more peace of mind thinking that his gun wouldn’t get stolen. They also said that it would not be a good purchase if they needed to access it and if it was too slow. They also said they wouldn’t be happy if their gun got stolen.

Draw conclusions: From the three gentlemen over the age of 65 that I talked to, I think that this segment is relatively similar based on alternative evaluation, purchase decision, and post purchase decision.

Alternative Evaluation: They all said that quality was the most important. They did not care at all about how pretty it was. They would buy the lock that is the strongest. Quality over everything is a great way to sum that up.

Purchase Decision: Two of the three guys were most likely to buy it in store because they like to get a feel of something before they buy it. The last guy said he was more likely to buy it online because of the convenience. I think a 2/3 ratio of buying it instore vs online is a pretty accurate ratio for this segment.

Post-Purchase evaluation: Does the lock keep the gun from getting stolen if their car is broken into? That is essentially the only way they will know if it was a good purchase decision.

Halfway Reflection

1.     The behaviors that I have used to keep up with the requirements for this course are time management and hard work. I am not taking this course just to get the grade. I really wanted to learn what entrepreneurship was all about, so I definitely take this course seriously. I am very thorough on all of the assignments because I want to get everything out of it that I can. If you want to take this course and not just get the grade, you need good time management because some of the interview assignments can be lengthy.

2.     One of the moments when I felt like giving up in the course was one of the interview assignments. It was honestly a lot of work and I just thought it was pointless. But the more I thought about it, if I want to start a business someday, I am going to need to be doing this exact stuff. So, it really wasn’t pointless. That is what got me through that situation. I would say that I’ve developed a tenacious attitude over the past 2 months. I would say all of the hard work has contributed to it.

3.     3 tips for next semester’s student would be to plan ahead when you are going to complete assignments. Some assignments are pretty short, but some are pretty long. When I started to plan out when I was going to do the assignments, I started to get excited about them so that definitely helped when it came to developing that tenacious mindset. The next tip would be to go to the lectures. I definitely find the lectures more entertaining in person because sometimes we do some interactive exercises that don’t help the people watching at home. Those activities would get me excited about entrepreneurship. The last tip would be to take those challenging assignments and turn them into opportunities.

Reading Reflection No. 1

The book that I chose to read was Shoe Dog, by Phil Knight. I decided to pick this book because what I had previously learned about Phil Knight. When the Gator Basketball Team played in the PK80 tournament a few years ago, the announcers interviewed Phil Knight and I really admired his story. What surprised me the most was how he had, what I think of as the typical entrepreneurship story. I guess I thought that he had this one of a kind start to his entrepreneurship story. He had hard beginnings but worked through it. He first sold track shoes out of the back of his car. Obviously, that doesn’t sound like an extremely successful business. I most admire his hard work. He really had to grind through the tough times. What I least admire is that he started off alone. I understand that he may not have had a choice, but I wish he would have gotten his coach to start off with him rather than wait until he started the business to get his track coach to be his business partner. He did face adversity but not really failure. He was constantly begging the banks for more money to be able to import shoes from Japan. Obviously, his beginning of selling shoes out of the back of his car was adversity too.

Some competencies that I noticed was that he surrounded himself with a good group of people. He had a solid team around him with different viewpoints to keep the business running. I personally believe that if you don’t have people with different mindsets, your business will fail. I also think that he had the intuition to pick good athletes to wear Nike shoes. Michael Jordan being the big one.

One thing that I found confusing was the business always being strapped for cash. I understand that they couldn’t really invest much because they had to keep reordering shoes, but I guess I would have thought they would have made more profit.

If I were able to ask Phil Knight two questions, I would ask him:

If Blue Ribbon failed and there ended up being no Nike, would you have gone back and done it again? Did you enjoy the process?

If someone has an idea that they don’t think will be successful but are passionate about it, do you think they should they still pursue it?

I think Phil Knight definitely enjoyed the hard work. He was definitely one to pursue his passion so if he didn’t like the hard work, I think he would have done something else. I certainly share that opinion. I like the hard work and the grind.