Segment: The segment I am selecting for this exercise is college kids, ages 18-22. Specifically, the ones who are regulars at the bar and can be seen sucking on a vape on any given ladies night.
Interviews:For these interviews, I have done what I have done previously and gone straight to the source. Midtown is full of drunk college kids almost every night, and it wasn’t hard to find three kids repeatedly lifting a Juul or Stig in their mouths.
Findings: The consensus that I was led to based on the information that I received was that while some people don’t own a vape, they tend to use them in social situations, like at a bar. This is the time and place where the most amount of people vape at once due to availability. This slightly hurts my idea, since my idea banks on people turning in their own personal vapes to me. Obviously, this is impossible if the person who vapes doesn’t actually own one. Nevertheless, the time that the consumer’s need is most salient is typically when they go out and hit the town for a few drinks with their friends. Some people get their addiction started this way as well, as they wouldn’t normally vape in a sober state. So, I’ve identified one of the sources of where people are first exposed to vapes and potentially become addicted to them as well. When people become aware of their need, the very first thing I found that they do is go take another hit of their vape. Once they get some nicotine in them, they realize they need to be doing the exact opposite of what they just did two seconds ago, hit a vape. Since most of their parents don’t even know they vape, the most likely candidate to receive their “I need to stop vaping” speech is their friends. Most of the subjects I heard from have tried to give up vaping, but whether it is everyone else continuing to vape around them, lack of motivation over a period of time, or not caring enough to quit full-time, they always find their way back to their vape. I am hoping that by giving them a reward or some enticement to quit, they can save themselves from the side effects while being rewarded for making a good life decision.
Conclusions: I would say that most of the people who vape in this segment are aware of the bad habit they have and the need to get rid of it. However, the motivation that was around briefly due to the ban is now gone, as no real enforcement of the rule has been seen yet. As more fatal cases appear each day, more kids in this segment are becoming scared and wanting to kick their habit to the curb. I believe this segment is very aware of their unmet need, however, in terms of their information search, it is mostly them going on WebMD and googling some of their side effect symptoms. This is rare though because most people don’t have any symptoms yet. Need awareness is good, them searching for information on how to quit/where to go to quit is below what I was hoping for. But this might just be the opportunity I need, as I could be the first popular “vape quitting” site on the internet.
Hello Christopher,
ReplyDeleteI am glad you were able to find quality instances of how vapes were used. I never thought about the social aspect of vaping but it makes a lot of sense. When I visited Gainesville for a football game recently, I noticed at a gas station that Alachua County is changing the age for tobacco to be 21. Additionally, new retailers that sell tobacco can't be located within 1,000 feet of a K-12 school. I'm glad to see some new regulations, and I hope that impacts the distribution of cigarettes and vapes in the area. However, I see the flip side where some college students can be over 21 and distribute tobacco products to the lower class-men. These impacts may benefit or harm your idea.