15A- Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

Three Interviews: For this assignment, I interviewed three potential customers to determine their buying behavior in response to three different products: A $300 pair of Beats headphones, A $20 pair of JLab headphones, and a $10 pair of generic earbuds.

            Interview #1- Craig: Craig preferred the $20 pair of JLab headphones as they meet his minimum buying criteria – on-ear design – while not being too expensive. When asked if the style and/or quality of the product influenced his decision, Craig responded with indifference toward style and indicated that the quality seemed acceptable relative to the price. However, he was not particularly enthusiastic about the JLab headphones style nor quality.

Interview #2- Julie: Julie also preferred the $20 set of JLab headphones as a “middle ground” between the premium Beats and the low-cost generic headphones. According to Julie, “Beats are a bit pricy, and the JLab headphones would probably have the same function.” Julie also reported that she would probably buy the headphones in a retail store so she could physically evaluate the product before purchasing.

Interview #3 – Mike: Mike indicated that he would buy the generic earbuds. In his words, “I don’t use headphones very often, so if I needed a pair, I would probably buy the cheapest option.” Mike also voiced surprise that anyone would spend $300 on the Beats headphones; in his view, such a purchase would be extremely frivolous.

Conclusions: This segment appears to be very sensitive to price and moderately sensitive to quality. Based on Mike’s response, it seems that buyer behavior in this market is directly related to the frequency of the product’s use by the buyer. A buyer who uses his/her headphones daily may be more willing to pay slightly more for a better fit to their needs. However, while buyers may appreciate premium features and quality, they are generally not willing to pay a premium price for them.