Meeting with Pre-planners
I met with a Dutch Catholic woman in her late 60s who had actually discussed her funeral requirements with her son. She communicated that she wished to be cremated and not buried as she did not want to place a future financial burden on her children, as the maintenance of the burial plot has to be paid for every 10 years. She was against customising her coffin with a sleeve. She felt that any personal affects should be placed in the coffin.
The second person I met with was a Dutch Catholic man in his early 70s. He was very much against the customisation of his coffin as it was not traditional - the requirements for his funeral.
The third person I met with was a Dutch man in his mid-40s who thought the concept was childish, and did not like the idea of images on the coffin. He also preferred a traditional coffin.
All were shown the printing machine and examples of creative and designer coffins, but were very much against them.
Do not give up! It may well be a niche market, you just need to better define your persona. Do you think that is it also difficult to talk about it? And do people tend to be defensive/skeptical/annoyed by just questioning your funeral preferences?
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Luca
Indeed, very relevant interviews here! You have to understand the many different perspectives. It's up to you to relate it to your hypotheses: are the people you interviewed part of your target market? If indeed a niche, a random set of interviews is highly likely to come from the mainstream market, and not to be seen as a rejection of your hypothesis about the existence of a niche market. For instance, are these three interviews pre-planners? I don't get that impression.
ReplyDeleteBut nevertheless: very useful this! Still this woman in her late 60s expressed being open for "inside-customization". Perhaps this market is bigger? Do I see a pivot? Something like: customization of the inside of the cover, for close relatives only? With the outside still looking traditional (also for the more distant friends/family who will only show up at the funeral itself?). Over time, this could be a way to "educate/prepare" the market, who knows...just a quick thought to push your thinking...
Oh, I am sorry, they are pre-planners (looking at the title of the post). In that case I would like to see some more details: to what extent were you able to cover in your interviews your assumptions about jobs, pains, gains?! Put differently, at the end of the day, did these interviews help you to get a better understanding of different possible customer segments (within your target market)? Linking it to your previous post: where are you most likely to get to 820 in sales (and where not)?
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