12A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

1) The segment I am choosing for these products is high school students.

2) Conducted interviews with three high school students.

• Emilio P.
• Valeska L.
• Denisse G.

3a) Emilio lives on an island called Key Biscayne. His island has experianced high amounts of flooding in recent days due to yearly "king tides." However, Emilio has noticed that with these tides come a great deal of pollution; particularly plastic, on to his streets. He is witnessing first hand the issues associated with plastic pollution. 

3b) Valeska lives in Miami Beach. She loves surfing but recently hasn't been able to go out on to the water due to high levels of seaweed caused by a lack of oxygen reaching seafloor phytoplankton. This is caused by trash on the surface blocking sunlight from reaching levels beyond that of the surface. She, like Emilio, have both witnessed how pollution can affect us in so many ways.

3c) Denisse lives more inland. She lives about 30 minutes away from the beach. However, she is in her schools' ocean conservation club. She may not have to deal with flooding and polluted water, but she has learned a great deal about how the oceans have both short and long term effects on the world we live in.

4) When I interviewed these students, they seemed to be very open to finding solutions. I asked them whether or not they believed using more sustainable and eco-friendly products such as metal cups, metal straws, and reusable water bottles would be a good first step in both spreading awareness and doing their part in becoming "green." They all jumped at the idea. They went on to do further research on pollution statistics and researched even more possible alternatives to work with.

5) Summary includes all parts of number 3, and number 4.

6) I believe this is a perfect target segment as high school students seem very open to change. Convincing older people seems to be complicated for several reasons. These reasons include lack of awareness, lack of care, or they view it as an inconvenience to switch now. High school students are just beginning to get a taste for the real world so it would be in their best interest to ensure they have a world to live in.