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Creating the Target Audience Persona

creating the target audience persona. In the last lesson you learned that selling to a pain point is effective and helpful for both you and your customers. In this lesson, you're going to learn all about creating a target audience persona. This will be backed by a lot of research so it may take you some more time, feel free to pause the video and just go do a ton of research. It might take you a few days, but just get on that research while we work to define our target audience, I want to introduce you to a concept by Alan Cooper. Alan Cooper is a software designer and programmer. He created the persona in the 80s, it was a way to empathize with individuals and it helped him open himself up to the mindset of people who would be using his software. A persona is defined as a fictional character created to represent the different user types that might use a site, brand or product in a similar way. A persona is one of the most important pieces of branding. Every company needs a buyer perso...

na. No matter if they're a politician or charity, in the case of a charity, instead of using the word bio persona, we would use the word donor persona or for a politician, we would use the word voter persona. So no matter what kind of brand you have, whether you're even a celebrity, a charity, a politician, a makeup company, you need a buyer persona. A target audience persona, creating a persona is an effective strategy for keeping your brand concise and targeted. The persona includes a detailed back story about a single fictional person. Do not use a real person as your persona. The persona will be a combination of your core customers and to be one fictional person. Your persona should also remain consistent. If your persona lives in a general democratic city, they probably didn't vote for a Republican. Try to let the research form the persona accurately make sure to be extremely detailed with your persona. I will take you through an example in this lesson, the persona allows you to connect with your audience and design your product or service to fit their needs. You will also be able to look back at your persona through every phase of the branding and design process by asking would insert their name here by this. Does this product or service speak to my persona when making big decisions? You can always come back to your persona and ask yourself if you're being consistent with your personas once and needs exploring your target audience can be very time consuming and you may have done a lot of it already. If you're just getting started, I have some tips for you guys simply start by Googling your product or service. This will not be your brand specifically, but rather a competitors brand or service say you are going to start selling perfume, you might want to start Googling perfume and the perfumes out on the market, then try to google the people who are using this product or service, try to really get a handle on what your market is looking for. You can also look up forums on your topic and be able to see what your audience is saying. For example, I've looked up articles on brand education and I found that most students in those classes love when the teacher is concise and simple, so I make sure to always be concise and simple. I know that you guys don't have time to waste on fluff. You guys are all running businesses so you're busy. Don't assume anything about your target audience. They are young. So they like millennial pink. Right? Well I don't know, did you research it or just hear it in passing somewhere. Look up comments and look for your audiences, frustration and goals that competitors aren't meeting. Look up forums and reviews. Even an article can give you insight, look at case studies and market research, conduct surveys, look at competitors and what they have learned from their own research and how they are displaying it. Look for products, your audience already uses a different product or service than what you are selling, learn how to use audience insights on facebook to gain more knowledge of your markets interest as you continue on your research, you'll be able to narrow down your focus into one specific person and don't worry there are millions of this one type of person. So you're not targeting one person. In reality, you're targeting a huge group of people, they will just have similar interests, hobbies, goals and challenges as an example, I will take you through the persona for a brand I designed called Wild belly after I took time to understand everything about my target audience for wild belly through audience insights, surveys and case studies on larger brands with huge marketing budget, I was then able to create persona based off of my findings. Wild belly is a restaurant catered towards young, professional, outdoor loving and a charitable target audience. First, we will get a photo for our target audience, this should be an anonymous person, you can either sketch this or find a photo online, we have a photo here of matt Walsh, this is just a stock photo, he definitely looks like someone that would enjoy the wild billy brand though, we start with the name make up a fictional, serious name, just like matt Walsh, this name will allow you to bring up the persona in real conversations as you're designing your brand messaging and products for them. Let's take it a real persona I made for Wild belly together and then you can kind of get a feel for how you will write your persona. So matt Walsh is 31 years old, a male and he lives in Denver colorado, he is from Chicago and he moved here two years ago, he is the marketing manager at a robotics startup and he makes $75,000 a year. Matt's hobbies. Matt enjoys all things outdoors. In fact, snowboarding is the main reason he ended up in Denver for matt, snowboarding is like meditation, he lets go of his worries when he's flying down the mountain, he feels more connected to the universe when snow is flying towards his face while he sweats for matt, the mountains are spiritual and they're a huge part of his well being. He hikes and bikes the mountains in the summer and make sure not to miss a weekend snowboarding in the mountains in the winter. Matt loves going out for drinks after a long day of snowboarding with friends, he can get along with different types of people, but there is only a small group of friends he sees weekly. He also loves concerts, matt dabbles in all sorts of music such as contemporary folk music and classic rock. Matt also loves playing with his dog and meditating every day. Matt looks forward to his longtime dream of learning how to brew his own beer. Remember all of these details about matt are not made up their based off of the research, we've done surveys, looking audience insights, that sort of thing goals. Matt's main goal is to live a full and happy life. He moved from Chicago to Denver to work at a robotics company which works on robotic systems that will safely recycle matt thrives on new adventures and cannot wait for the chance to move somewhere where he can incorporate his love of the outdoors as well as work on a new challenge. The mountains are withdrew matt to Denver, but his lifetime goal of improving life for the environment and its inhabitants are what keep him hard at work. Matt wants to have a family one day, but he isn't in a rush like most people his age sure, he dabbles in dating apps like his acquaintances, but matt isn't actively looking for anything serious challenges. One of matt's ongoing challenges is to find meaning in what he does. He feels like he's in a good spot now, but he isn't sure if he wants to continue marketing for the rest of his life, he is still learning about who he is as a person and what he wants for his future naturally Matt carries some tension because of the uncertainty in his life and like many others, he worries about making more money and learning how to save money. Matt does spend a lot of money at bars and expensive dinners throughout the week, perception of the world. Matt is an all around positive person, but he sees huge issues like global warming, America's obsession with consumerism and the fact that text messaging is taking place of face to face conversations, he personally feels that he is making a difference, but some days he isn't fully convinced what makes matt happy Besides his overwhelming love for powder days, matt also loves a strong connection with his friends and his nieces and nephews. His favorite combination is a local craft beer, his family and his dog, some of his favorite hobbies include drinking stranahan whiskey, attending shows at Red Rocks, researching at the Denver Museum of Nature and science, marijuana Neil Degrasse Tyson listening to podcasts and fiddling with his iphone As a marketer, Matt has a fondness for good branding. Patagonia is the holy Grail matt loves the winter olympics. The Chicago bulls will Ferrell Warren Miller, classic rock, contemporary, indie folk playing and listening to the guitar and finally laughing as loudly as possible at various comedy shows. What does matt fear? Matt's major fears are not making a difference, moreover, wasting his own time. He fears that his life will slip away before he reaches old age without making an impact on the world or throughout his own life. He fears that he will stop being present or settle for a career. He hates how does matt feel when he interacts with wild belly, Matt feels inspired Each time he steps foot into wild belly, he feels that he is contributing to the greater good, He feels that he is a part of something bigger than himself and that puts him at peace while Billy makes him feel welcome. He used to love the lodge bar near his house, but he never felt welcome more at ease. He never felt like the atmosphere inspired a connection with the guests, matt loves that. Wild belly is much more inviting and fun. It doesn't sacrifice a clean and contemporary atmosphere. Why does matt choose wild belly? Matt loves it. Wild Billy stands for something greater than beer and pizza. He loves their mission, the community and most of all the atmosphere of Wild Billy, he loves that. He can gather with friends for happy hour or take a date later in the night. Wild Billy is cozy, inviting, calm and fun. Matt loves it. Wild Bill reminds him of the mountains and a long day of hitting the slopes, but he also loves that. It is in the middle of Denver, Wild Billy is near the city without being too visible. This makes the bar feel exclusive, even the wild belly is entirely inclusive. Alright guys, now it's your turn to create your audience persona. Remember matt Walsh as an example. So the point of the persona is to narrow down your focus and target one specific person, so get to work