12A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

Market Segment

My market segment is elderly people (65 and older) that live alone or independently (no caretaker).

Interviewee #1

Need Awareness

I interviewed an elderly woman at a laundromat that has an issue with robocalls and people claiming to be from the IRS. She was scammed a few hundred dollars from someone claiming to be a family member in jail. I asked her if she's become more cautious about phone calls when she's home since the incident. Her response was yes. She said it's a problem because now she misses phone calls from important people (she gave family members and doctors' offices as examples). She said after 8:00pm she ignores phone calls.

Information Search

I followed up asking her what she did immediately after the scam. She said she reported the incident to police and they told her about precautions to take. She also did some research on scams, but she felt overwhelmed with all the links and information. 

Interviewee #2

Need Awareness

I interviewed an elderly man that realized he had an issue with scams after his wife was a victim. He told me the story of how late one night his wife answered a phone call and immediately after told him to get dressed to leave the house. He remembers asking what the problem was, but she didn't give him a definitive answer - only that it was an emergency. He drove her to Walmart and she bought gift cards. Within the next hour, he said the money was gone. He was pretty frustrated that she didn't communicate with him or anyone else; she told him the person on the other end said to keep it to herself (which is a major red flag). He still feels sick thinking about that night.

Information Search

Following the scam, he contacted close family members and told them what happened. They recommended that he only answer phone calls from recognizable numbers. He said that's all they said about it and still feels exposed. 

Interviewee #3

I spoke to a woman that was a victim of an email scam. 

Need Awareness

She told me that one afternoon she was enticed by an email promising her good deals at her local grocery store. She clicked on the email and followed the directions to access the coupons. Her entire account was breached and she lost valuable rewards points and some personal information was exposed. She was very upset and questioned why google mail didn't filter the email to begin with. She admitted that something didn't feel right in her gut, but she went with it anyway. 

Information Search

After the incident, she called the grocery store and notified them what happened. Her account was deleted. She looked more into Gmail's features and set up a better spam folder. Also, she turned to her nephews that were more experienced for help. She hopes that the improved settings will prevent anymore email scams. 

Summary and Conclusion 

From these interviews, I was able to gather 3 key points. First, each interviewee felt terrible after being scammed. Second, the information search differed from each person, some contacted family and others searched online for trusted sources. Either way, the information search was almost immediate. Lastly, I learned that despite all of the useful information about scams online, these individuals found websites to be confusing and hard to navigate. These interviews were very informative and showed me how potential consumers and members in my target audience first encounter and attempt to solve the issue. Their personal stories and experience is invaluable knowledge that is helping me form my business concept. This specific segment, people over the age of 65 and live independently, is conscious about the issue and goes to great lengths to mitigate the risk of it happening again.