Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

Figuring out Buyer Behavior

Segment: College and Post-grad students, and young adults.

Areli Jacobs 

(24 years old, Advertising Design Graduate, Female, Mexican).

Areli was aware that she was not eating very nutritious food, but she declared she could barely find the time.

"I spend most of my time at the studio, I am currently working on freelancing projects, as well as some work I need catching up with. I usually skip breakfast, eat something quick I grab from the mall in front of the studio (usually fast food), and for dinner, I have taken out frozen dinners, or if I am not too exhausted, I cook something and eat leftovers for the next three days. I'd love to cook meals, but I'd have to meal-prep and I don't know how I don't know or have time to research several recipes to cook on a weekend." said Areli.

Areli usually asks her mom for recipes, she also googles and tries to do "Buzzfeed" recipes, but they are too long and have too many steps and ingredients. They are also not super healthy. She tried a subscription service "Blue Apron" once, but she says it was too pricey and recipes were too complicated and time-consuming.

Cayman Martinez

(25 years old, Food and Resource Economics student, Male, American)

Kaiman is passionate about work out and keeping in health, but he also lacks the proper time management, skills, and knowledge of varied nutritious recipes to put them in practice.

"I usually Wisk some eggs in the morning, have some chicken and rice for lunch or dinner, and sometimes have a slice of pizza. I don't know how to cook much else, and groceries are expensive"

He would like to have a more varied array of meals, and also has a very specific amount of caloric intake he must get every day for his workout routine. He is looking, mostly, for variety and price value.

He doesn't really research much, he may sometimes google YouTube tutorials on protein shakes or high-protein meals, but hardly ever actually cooks them. 

Laura Molina

(25 years old, Nursing student, female, Chilean)

Laura lives with her parents, older brother and sister, their spouses and their kids. Usually, Laura's mom cooks for everyone, and she is used to delicious home-made meals.

However, she just started practices outside of her city, and living in residence halls with the other medicine and nursing students has become really difficult. She survives on pre-made frozen meals, yogurt drinks and instant soups. And lots of coffee.

As a health student, she is aware of the importance of a nutritious meal, and she misses her home-made food she is used to. She worries that, once she finishes school and leaves to do her internship and begins working the very intense shifts of a nurse, she will not have time or energy to cook. She knows how to do it because of her mom teaching her, and she is her go-to source of information, but she believes she would highly benefit from a service that does the decision making for her and alleviates some of the pressure of having to cook every day.

From my interviews, I learned that young adults, specially while in college or recently out of, struggle to organize their time, but are interested in bettering their food habits and would love to have a more nutritious life style. Things like time efficiency, recipe variety, affordability, time saving options and comforting familiar foods, are valuable for them, and they would pay for a service that could make it easier for them to plan, prepare and balance the food they consume, while also leaving time to engage in their various activities during their very busy weeks. 

I believe that there are currently no other services that could cater to all the needs of this busy young adults while also caring for their health and nutrition and help them learn how to meal prep and cook. While there is information about all of it online, it is all fragmented, and they tend to get discouraged when having to collect all the pieces. I also noticed that, despite them having an interest on wanting to eat healthier food, there is a lack of interest on HOW to balance healthy meals, how to prepare them, which ingredients are needed and how to have a variety of recipes, which is why they tend to prepare the same few recipes they know, over and over.