Organizational Goals
A business must have
defined and detailed organizational goals before marketing plans can begin. Once these objectives are established, companies
should put their products aside for a moment and focus completely on the customers
who are intrinsically tied to these goals.
Serious efforts are required to uncover deeply hidden buyer insights.What is a Buyer Persona?
Examples
of Buyer Personas
In the U.S. presidential
elections of 2004, marketers for the two candidates segmented voters into
dozens of distinct buyer personas in order to appeal to them more effectively. Two such groups were NASCAR Dads (rural
working class males, many of whom were NASCAR fans) and Security Moms (mothers concerned
about terrorism and national security).
Later in 2008 and 2011, Sarah Palin targeted Mama Grizzlies
(independent, conservative women) and Walmart Moms (female Walmart shoppers
with children 18 or younger).
Defining
Buyer Personas
Research
“Buyer personas can be
created with tremendous meaning when they are grounded in qualitative and
experiential analysis that is focused on buyer goals” (Zambito, 2010). Interviews are the best method for collecting
buyer persona information. Marketers should
familiarize themselves with the publications and websites that their customers
read to gain an understanding their rationale and language. This awareness of buyer diction is important
for the purpose of search engine optimization.
The Goal
of Buyer Personas
The goal of
creating buyer personas is to “see through the buyer’s eyes the circumstances
that drive the decision making process” (Scott, 2013, p.167). For internal use only, they are designed to help
marketers develop a deep understanding of the real people to whom they sell. Ultimately, buyer
personas allow marketers the ability to better target and identify with their
customers.See this informative video from buyer persona expert Adele Revella:
Scott, D. M. (2013).
The new rules of marketing & pr. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons,
Inc.
Zambito, T. (2010). 10 rules for buyer persona development. Retrieved February 11, 2014, from
http://www.slideshare.net/tzambito/10-rules-for-buyer-persona-development
Hi Susan - Nice work incorporating other types of media into your blog entry for this week.
ReplyDeleteBuyer personas are a tool used in a variety of industries and products. I was sitting in a meeting for a client a few days ago, and up popped a slide with "Sara Shoemaker" - a buyer persona!
Given this is a social media course - how to do you see social tools as helping (or hurting) the creation of buyer personas? There is a massive amount of data on social platforms about who we are - as individuals, and our buying behaviors. Does this amount of information make it easier or harder for companies to create accurate buyer personas? Do companies risk getting too "niche" in their target audience / buyers since there is so much individual data? What tools would you use to help filter out the noise, and create buyer personas for your organization?
For more information about using social media tools for creating buyer personas - check out this article by SnapTrends, "Using social media analysis to market to buyer personas" - http://snaptrends.com/using-social-media-analysis-to-market-to-buyer-personas/
Hi Adrienne-
DeleteI am actually in the process of appending our customer database with buyer demographics and psychographics. I am looking at two companies, Nielsen (that we read about all the time) and Experian. Both use buyer personas in categorizing consumers. Of course, I am planning on analyzing our data and talking to customers to create our own internal buyer personas.
I think there is a danger in creating too many buyer personas so that they become unmanageable in the end. I think addressing "niche" markets and focusing on the long tail is more of a reality in social media because it is more cost effective. I think 15 to 20 buyer personas is reasonable.
I would focus on information that comes directly from our customers. I think there is a real danger in assuming that buyer preferences are applicable across multiple industries or even multiple companies within the same industry.
Hi Sue - great minds think alike, we reviewed the chapter :)
DeleteWhile you provided some great examples and that awesome cookie monster comic, I think your family's business venture and your work experience brings so much to the table for this particular topic. I'm on the "Marketers need to identify more personas" bandwagon, but you raise an important point about how many personas should a brand create. It further supports the case that marketers should avoid cookie cutter plans and treat each strategy plan as its own based on the needs of that plan. Unfortunately marketers sometimes get caught up with implementing a social media plan because they know they have to in order to keep up with competition and the expectations of their consumers. The tactics become more "me too" and often lose value and fizzle out because they aren't not tapping into specific personas.
With a business like yours, do you find that social media is more effective with obtaining new customers or driving re-purchase intent? Also, do you have opportunity to create brand advocates from those personas?
Hey Susan, this was a very informative blog post. I 100% agree that companies need to understand who their buyers are. and start using personas to target them. Too often, people get targeted with these generic messages that don't apply to anyone. How are you supposed to engage these consumers?
ReplyDeleteAs Scott mentioned, "To succeed on the web under the new rules of marketing and PR, you need to consider your organizational goals and then focus on your buyers first. Only when you understand buyers should you begin to create compelling web content to reach them" (Scott 162).
Hubspot wrote a great blog post about the top companies who "get" buyer personas. Of course they mention the obvious ones like Apple, but MySpace is surprisingly in there as well. The reason is they looked at their consumers and understood who got the most value out of their network - musicians. They then turned around and made their focus on helping musicians market themselves better (Sprung 2012).
You can read the blog post here: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33749/7-Companies-That-Totally-Get-Their-Buyer-Personas.aspx
Can you think of any companies that don't seem to understand their consumers and could benefit from incorporating buyer personas into their strategy?
Source:
Scott, David Meerman (2013-06-19). The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications, Blogs, News Releases, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly (p. 162). Wiley.
Sprung, R. (2012, October 25). 7 Companies That Totally 'Get' Their Buyer Personas. Retrieved February 12, 2014, from http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33749/7-Companies-That-Totally-Get-Their-Buyer-Personas.aspx
Hi Amanda - One comes to mind instantly (and thanks to Nash C from Group 3 for pointing this one out - )
Delete2 McDonald's in Tampa, FL are taking reservations, and offering candlelight dinners, for Valentine's day....
No, I'm not making that up.
http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2014/02/13/some-mcdonald-taking-reservations-and-offering-romantic-touches-for-valentine/
These franchise owners could clearly gain some valuable insights about their consumer base!
Susan and others - any other companies that you know of who could use buyer personas to better understand their target audience? Perhaps even your own employer?!
That is a great one! When I first read that article, I thought it was a joke. I read through some of the tweets people wrote, and most of them are negative. I wonder if McDonalds will address any of them.
DeleteThis is a good example. I can't imagine having a sit-down dinner by candle light. I wonder if any fast food chains will try to do this next year.
DeleteThat McDonald's example is hysterical!!! I think all companies can benefit by recognizing buyer personas. This way messages, promotions and general information can be better targeted. I am in the process of researching our customer base through surveys and data appends. I am sure this will help us understand our customers more. I am aiming to understand why they buy our product, what they are lacking as far as products and services from us, what they perceive as barriers to purchase etc. These answers will help us better design and target our website, direct mail and our products and services themselves.
DeleteHi Amanda-
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the hubspot blog that you referenced. I was really impressed by the Seventeen magazine example. It seems that the magazine was ahead of its time with its identification of Teena the shy teenager growing up in the 1940's and 50's. Not only did they describe her physically, but emotionally.
As I mentioned to Adrienne, I am actually in the process of appending our customer database with demographic and psychographic information. There are a lot of database companies that are still only dealing with strict demographics, like age, sex, income, etc. I plan on reviewing the information they can provide, but then I will definitely spend time talking to customers and sending out surveys, so I can come to my own conclusions regarding the definition of our buyer personas. The timing of this reading could not have been more perfect!
Great post, Susan.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that really struck me about the idea behind buyer personas is that it goes beyond merely deciding on a target market. As any marketer knows, they need to know the general audience that they must target with their message and separate that by age group, gender, etc. Basically, we must decide on broad archetypes. The idea behind the buyer persona is incredibly interesting because it basically asks you to think of the ideal person for your message and create that mishmash human being out of stereotypes of the general public. The 2004 election example you picked is spot on as these are types that if someone told you about, you could instantly identify how they would probably vote.
At first, this came across as a little offensive as, especially in a political example, makes giant assumptions about people that may come across as short sighted and myopic. However, your last section really brought the point home for me: “the marketer must develop a deep understanding of the real people to whom they sell.” The buyer persona is designed to really better understand and relate to a customer rather than keeping a vague outline in a broad age group and region that a marketer may not clearly see or understand. A marketer must then get at “what you want each of your buyer personas to believe about your organization.” (Scott, 2007, p. 125) Without the work of building a buyer persona profile, this would be much more difficult.
I think Adrienne brings up a good point about how we can incorporate this into our social media plans. In a sense, social media has made this a much easier proposition as consumers are essentially segmenting themselves. Through different Facebook and Pinterest groups and Twitter hashtags, people have picked sides on social media and have developed their own specific persona. What we can do as marketers is find those people grouped together by FB groups and different hashtags and follow that web of who these people are and what other behavioral patterns we can pick up from that.
And to Amanda’s point above, I couldn’t think of any current examples of companies that are so egregious in their lack of understanding of their own buyer personas. JCPenney is the one that leaps directly into mind but I’ve beaten on them in a few other comments, I’m actually starting to feel bad about it. But when the company completely got rid of sales, replacing it with a confusing pricing system, it became an immediately embarrassing blunder. The move completely misunderstood its regular customers and how they shopped. It only helped speed up the company’s downward slide.
Works Cited
Scott, D. M. (2007). The New Rules of Marketing and PR. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
JCPenney's is another great example. I remember in a previous class, we read about a car company that created an advertisement targeted for millenials. Instead, the ad was more successful for baby boomers. Do you think there are any positive outcomes to this?
DeleteHi Nash-
DeleteYou bring up a great distinction between target market and buyer personas. Cindy Kelly (2013) defines the difference between buyer personas and target market as "specificity". She provides this example:
Target Market: “Women with children”
Persona: “Mary is a college graduate, married with two children and marketing director. She worries about her brand presence and hired a firm to redesign her website. She uses the web for…” You get the idea.
We can see from her example how buyer personas are much more personal and descript.
Kelly, C. (2013, October 31). Buyer personas: the special ingredient in a successful marketing campaign - inbound marketing & PR agency in Tampa, FL [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://mediafusionnow.com/buyer-personas-the-special-ingredient-in-a-successful-marketing-campaign.php
Hi Susan -
ReplyDeleteI read in your commet on Nash's post that you previously owned a gift basket business for 24 years - you're a fantastic resource for us!
In your experience owning a business - did you use buyer personas? What were some that you developed?
If you didn't - looking back - do you think you should have? Do you think it would have helped / hurt your advertising efforts if you had designed buyer personas?
Hi Adrienne-
DeleteIt's a long story about our family business. My grandparents were Italian immigrants and peddlers of fruits and vegetables (by horse and wagon). My father eventually opened a gourmet shop and introduced gift baskets on the side. When he saw that the basket business was taking off, it became the main focus.
My father was somewhat ahead of his time and started a catalog before catalogs became commonplace. He passed away when I was in college and I joined the business when I graduated along with my mother and brother. While the internet was a great opportunity, it also opened up a lot of competition. I saw the writing on the wall with the recession approaching in 2008 and we were forced to sell. It was a very difficult time after having the business in the family for 104 years (from peddlers to cataloging/internet).
I still work there now. The new company I belong to has a wine basket business and baby basket business as well. We were able to add wine to our fruit and gourmet baskets which worked out great.
We always looked at the traditional demographic information - age, sex etc., and surveyed our buyers. The surveys were a great way to understand how we were performing and they gave us great product ideas. We never really created buyer personas. This is a relatively new concept. I favor the research aspect of the business and am really excited to augment our database with this behavioral and psychographic information.
If you are interested in taking a look, our websites are Capalbosonline.com, winebasket.com and babybasket.com
Susan,
ReplyDeleteSince the movie "Mr. Peabody and Sherman" is coming out, I can safely mention the "Wayback Machine" right now and all those younger than me might get the reference soon..
Your post summarized Scott's buyer persona strategy very well. What I found interesting when conducting aligned research is that Phillip Kotler (yes, that Kotler who authored other textbooks we've used in our program) wrote in the Journal of Marketing in 1965 of different "behavioral models for analyzing buyers" (pg. 37).
In his review, it was less the personas that Scott describes than an almost personality review. "Marshallians" are practical, rational and looking for the best buy to do what they need it to do. "Pavlovians" like free samples and respond to repetitive advertising. "Freudians" are equally interested in symbolism (does this as they are to functional or economic concerns. "Vlebenians' are focused on those who are swayed by several levels of society -- culture, social class competition, reference groups they identify with and more. Finally, "Hobbesians" try to reconcile individual gains with organizational ones.
While the terminology is quite different today rather than 49 years ago, the idea remains the same -- know your customer well and define an authentic message that speaks to him or her.
Mike
Reference:
Kotler, P. (Oct 1965). Behavioral models for analyzing buyers. Journal of Marketing, 29, pp. 37-45. American Marketing Association.
Hi Mike-
DeleteWhen you mentioned Kotler as being the same author whose books we have read in the past, you reminded me of an interesting aspect of social media as it applies to our learning process.
I, too, have come across online articles, blogs, slideshows and YouTube videos written and produced by the experts we are reading about. I have found that this additional material really helps my understanding and complements our reading. Besides that, it makes me feel like I am connecting with the authors on a more personal level. I have considered this a number of times and you gave me the opportunity to finally express my thoughts.
That is so interesting that Kotler in 1965 devised these behavioral models for analyzing buyers. It sounds like he was way ahead of his time!
I have not really thought of buyer personas being useful in the B to B market. But as I have gone online, I have found a number of articles specifically directed towards the B to B use of buyer personas. "The key is to ask about the problems buyers were trying to solve when they selected your product and what results they got from using it. The goal is to put the purchase in the terminology and view of the buyer. If you can articulate your product value in buyer terms, you’ll be vastly more effective" (Ogden, 2012). This is particularly useful information for me, because we have both consumer and corporate purchasers.
Ogden, J. (2012, April 3). Silverpop - buyer personas are the foundation of great B2B marketing programs [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.silverpop.com/blogs/email-marketing/buyer-personas-for-b2b-marketing.html
Hi Mike - I really like that you brought up this article. Lest we all forget - the buyer personas that are developed are actually based on data, data that is collected through analyzing and capturing patterns of customers - i.e. a "Digital Footprint". It reinforces the idea that identifying the behavior patterns allows organizations to better define the consumer, and optimize the offerings and services provided to them.
DeleteA holistic digital footprint does beg the question of accuracy though. Take me for example. Recently - a handful of my late 20-something friends became pregnant, and I purchased a number of baby related items. All of a sudden, my home (parent's) address (where I haven't lived since the summer of 2010) has been inundated with direct mail flyers, addressed to me, for Similac - a baby formula.
You can imagine my parent's surprise :)
Yes - I've been buying baby-related items. Yes, I'm in the most popular age demographic for pregnancy. But a resounding NO to my needing baby formula! It goes to show - data can get you a result - but unless your data is complete - you can misread your target consumer.
First and foremost, this made me laugh and it brings to mind a new buyer persona -- Adrienne the Baby Show Guest du jour...
DeleteAnyway, yours is a great point. No matter what the data tells you, you can still be off course with some segment of your population. Conversely, think of how many people Similac accurately hits using the process they are using. And, you yourself already have a history with the brand, even when you didn't need it yet, so they score points there as well.
It's fun to consider the variable from soup to nuts on things like this.
Hey Adrienne, I had to step back and laugh because I have been hearing similar stories like that as well. It's all apart of "Big Data", that term that keeps popping up in the marketing world.
DeleteYou may have heard about that Target scandal a few years ago. Based on a teenager's shopping behavior at Target, she was sent baby coupons in the mail, and her mother found them.
Another, although hypothetical scenario, is a woman using her boyfriend's laptop to browse the internet. While going on a certain site, she finds a retargeting ad for engagement rings from Tiffany's. She now knows that her boyfriend has been browsing the internet for engagement rings. Talk about ruining the surprise!
Do you think Big Data will help marketers better target consumers, or do you think it is ruining the concept or privacy for consumers?
Source:
Hill, K. (2012, February 16). How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did - Forbes. Retrieved February 16, 2014, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did