12A- Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

Before I started my interviews, I watched a few of the lecture videos again to touch up on my information, and I did some research on my customer profile. I did some prior research to help maximize choosing the proper interview candidates and such.

Choosing My Segment:

The segment that I chose for this assignment is those who have retired out of the military. The reason that I have chose this segment is because those that have retired out of the military have been in it for a minimum of  twenty years. Those who have been in the military for that long period of time have become adapted to the military life and may have a harder time readjusting than those who may have only been in for three or four years. As of 2015 alone, there were 26,000 individuals who retired out of the military, and the numbers of individuals in the United States who have retired out of the military as a whole exceed 1,400,000 people. 

Choosing the Interviewees:

Choosing those who I was going to interview was not necessarily an easy task. I know a lot of people who were in the military, but it was hard to actually find those who have retired out and have the need that my service required. After trial and error, I eventually found three that I could talk too. Because of the nature of my service, I kept the interviews conversational. 

Begin with Need Awareness: 

For the interviews, I found three individuals who have retired from the military. One retired from the Air-Force and two retired from the Army. 

     The first person that I spoke with was the man who retired from the Air-Force. I know him from being a baseball coach at the local high school. I asked him the basic first question about him returning from the military. Was it hard for him? He went on to tell me that when he returned, he felt a little lost. He was not sure what he was going to do with the rest of his life or what he would do when he returned home. I asked him at what point did all of this hit him? He said that it was about two weeks after he returned home and he was staying with a friend when he realized that. 

     The second person I spoke with retired out of the Army. He is a member in the community that I have known for a while. I asked him if it was hard returning home from his military service. He told me that he did not think so at first. He said that it wasn't until he was back for a few months when he started to realize that it was slightly difficult. He told me that he started to have bad dreams, and he got a little anxious in crowds. He said that he figured if he started to drink more alcohol that it would help him out. He said that it did help dampen the anxiety and all for a little while, but his drinking did start to become a little bit of a problem and his friends noticed. 

     The third person I spoke with was also retired out of the Army. When I asked him if it was hard when he returned home from the military, he did admit that it  was. He said that when he returned home that he had a good family base, and that his family supported him very well. He told me what was hard was seeing how blessed he was and how he returned home, while many of his friends and brothers never got to come home. 

Move to Information Search:

After moving through the first part of the interviews, and identified that the three that I found have the unmet need, I moved to the next part of my interviews.
     The Air-Force retiree and I talked some more about his return.  I asked him that after he realized  that he was having some trouble, what he did next. He told me that he went to his friend that he was staying with and asked him about anybody who was hiring military veterans. He said he got on google and searched for jobs for military veterans. He did not really know what he wanted to do, so he spent a lot of time on the internet to try and find out what to do.
    Upon talking with the second veteran, I stated above that the first thing that he did was turn to alcohol. He told me at first he would just drink in the evenings to take the edge off, but as time progressed, he found himself drinking more and more. He stated that he was not a drunk because was functioning normally, but at the same time he was drinking in the morning before he even left for work. After his friend made a comment to him about his excessive alcohol consumption, he realized something had to change. He said that his cousin was a counselor who helped him identify his problems which related back to his military experiences. He said that today, he still enjoys the occasional beer but otherwise is clean and hopes to keep it that way.
     The third individual seemed to have a textbook definition of survivor's guilt. He felt bad about being able to come home and live the rest of his life whereas some of his friends would never get the opportunity. After many visits to the families of his fallen friends, one of the moms told him that he should try to go to some counselling to help deal with it. Being very against counselling, he said he found a group instead of people to go talk to who shared the same feelings that he did. He said that it was good collaborating with others who understood.

Reporting My Findings:

What I came to find out from the three interviews that I conducted was that currently there are services out there in many shapes and forms that can help those veterans returning home transition to civilian life. From all three cases though, I feel like they could have benefited from having a little guidance in the aspect of service availability and such.

Summary:

I would say that for the segment that I chose, the market for the service that I am wanting to offer is definitely there. There are these individuals who have been in the military for such a long period of time and they return home back to regular civilian life. When they return home, they are feeling lost, they have all of the experiences in the back of their mind and they could just use some assistance sometimes. Some more than others.