Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No.1

Choosing a segment:
For this assignment, I choose a segment of UF students who live in Florida, but not in Gainesville. Therefore they make the trip to and from their home frequently.  I conducted 3 interviews of people in this segment. The first, Noah is a political science major at UF, and he travels with his brother from Gainesville to their home in Ft. Lauderdale. The second student, Hannah, is a marketing major at UF, and travels to her home in Orlando during breaks and holidays. The last interview was with Michael, a digital arts and sciences major, who lives in Miami and travels home every other weekend with his brother.

Interviews: 

In my two interviews with Noah and Michael, both of whom happen to have brothers who also go to school at UF, they explained to me that they really dislike the drive.

• For Noah, it takes around 5 hours on the road, during which his brother is driving and he is the passenger. He usually sits in the front passenger seat, but sometimes cant seem to rest at all during the drive, so he'll move to the back seat to lie down. Of course, he cant easily or comfortably lie down with a seat belt on. They drive a Volvo XC90, which is an SUV, so he has plenty of room to lie down. He just gets worried when he is not harnessed, because his brother is not the greatest driver and it is a risk.
• Michael, on the other hand, alternates drives with his brother. They drive a Mini Cooper, which is a rather compact car. When he is driving, he notices he is not usually uncomfortable sitting upright, but when he is a passenger and his brother is driving, he sometimes gets restless. He has tried putting pillows and blankets in the back seat and lying across the seats, but when he does and also buckles his seat belt, the seat belt practically wraps around his neck and chokes him. 
• In my interview with Hannah, who drives home to Orlando, usually drives by herself, so she doesn't feel the need to lie down as a passenger. Some weekends however, some of her friends will join her to visit Orlando and go to the parks. She still drives her car, a Honda CR-V, but her friends ride as passengers, one in the front seat, and one in the back row. While her friend in the front seat sits with her seat belt fine, her other friend likes to lie down without a seat belt. While it doesn't seem to bother her friend, it does bother Hannah, who would prefer if all her passengers had seat belts on. Shes tried to ask her friend to sit up but her friend says that she trusts Hannah and doesn't mind the risk.

What I learned:
I learned that students are definitely one of my target customer groups. More importantly, however,  I learned that its is not always the passenger that has the problem, but sometimes the driver. When a driver has a passenger who doesn't want to wear their seat belt in order to lie down or stretch out, it makes them worried of what could happen if they were to crash. I also learned that in smaller vehicles, it is much more difficult to get comfortably lying down, even if you have padding and pillows around you.

How Would I describe this segment:
This segment would buy the product for themselves if the had the need as a passenger, but could also buy it for their passengers if they were the designated driver. They tend to travel a lot as well, so while to some students it may be unnecessary, for those who live close enough to go home during breaks, but far enough that the drive for over an hour, it eventually is considered.