Persona-fied

“Personas are fictional characters created to represent the different user types within a targeted demographic, attitude and/or behavior set that might use a site, brand or product in a similar way.” As you can see in the Wikipedia definition (hey… I’m sill in college, Wikipedia still counts as a credible source!), personas are a useful tool in segmenting your target market very specifically. Personas go a step beyond segmenting, however, because they take on the personality and voice of just one person in the segment. When we first discussed this in class, I had the same thought that many critics have… isn’t this too specific? I wondered if highlighting just one person in the segment would cause you to ignore the other important attributes of others in the segment. However, I really realized the value of creating personas though our guest speaker from P&G. She spoke to us about creating what they call “placemats” of their specific “prime prospects.” When I saw the way that they laid the placemats of to visually represent a specific person, it really got my attention. I really saw the value for going deeply into a specific customer, and giving her/him a voice in order to gain an insight you might not get if you just lumped everyone together in a segment.

I’m sort of a “trust but verify” kind of person, so I started to do a little research of my own on the value of personas in the “real world” of marketing. I ran across what I think is a very useful article. From this article, I found a key piece of information: “Personas tap into a fundamental human skill—the ability to make predictions about how other people will react based on mental models of them. One can often predict accurately how a close friend or family member will react to a particular event and decide how to act based on those inferences.” I think this description spoke to me because it really explains how personas give us the ability to know the segment on a different level. If we treat the people in the segment as friends, family, or neighbors, we can use our familiarity to hear their voice, their desires, and their likes and dislikes. In essence, the idea is that I can help you design a product for my friend way more insightfully than I can for the “millennial” segment. The granularity that personas provide is an extremely useful tool in knowing our customers, even if we do need to be very specific in order to do it.

Now that I have gotten my two cents in, I think it will be a valuable exercise to create a persona for myself! Flipping through the Cohort Personas posted on the class site, I thought of two things. 1) I thought of the similarity of the visual design to the P&G placemats. I particularly LOVED that the people were even given their own handwriting. I think this was an extremely useful piece of giving each person his or her voice. 2) I saw myself relating to one type of persona, and picking another that I aspire to be. For example, I really relate currently to Megan (“Fit and stylish students: young, fashion-conscious, career-minded female students who enjoy music, sports and the latest in high tech.”) However, I find myself hoping to be Allison (“Educated working women: Childless, professional women building their careers, developing sophisticated tastes and staying fit.”) Perhaps there is another level to personas that I haven’t learned about, such as which persona you seek to be! Going from the examples I have seen with the cohorts and placemats, I have attempted to define my own persona below.

Jennifer

Spunky Student meets Sophisticated Goals: College senior, driven student looking toward the future after graduation, never standing still and enjoying being young.

Personality:

•       People find me intimidating, but most of the time I am unsure why.
•       I love to exercise, but I do it to reduce stress rather than to lose weight.
•       I am a big planner, I love calendars and to do lists to keep all my commitments in line.
•       I enjoy being an individual, I am fun loving and spunky.
•       My friends know me as sassy because I am not afraid to speak my mind.
•       I enjoy sophisticated style and tastes, but my student budget leaves me hunting for deals!
•       I love being around creativity, and most of my friends are very talented in different ways.
•       I enjoy taking care of people, whether that is going to coffee with a friend in need or cooking big dinners for all my guy friends.
•       I don’t always like taking risks, and I would not describe myself as spontaneous.
•       I work through college, but for the experience and ethic, not for the money… although I never say no to a little extra cash!
•       I enjoy school and learning, the classes I love the most are those that are so engaging I end up talking about them all the time.
•       My relationships are my most important possession. I love my family more than anything, and rely on my friends and boyfriend for emotional support.
•        I consider myself opinionated, and able to articulate my thoughts.
•       I am passionate and driven, but most of the time I wish people knew more about the caring and fun Jen.

Demographic:

·      Average age: 22

·      Average income: just enough to spend!

Lifestyle:

·      Audio/Video: Mac lover, MacBook, iPod, photography.

·      Outdoors: long runs, swimming, snow skiing, water sports.

·      Sports and fitness: yoga, healthy foods, running, playing sports with friends.

·      Connoisseur: cheap beer, concerts, cool coffee shops.

·      Home life: live away from parents, renter.

·      Other interests: photography, traveling, modern art, quirky literature, trash TV

Hope you enjoyed my persona! Thanks for reading J