Personas

Marketers must be constantly getting to the “root” of their consumer base. Starting with the most basic question such as who are the people who are using my product service? Why do they use my product? What about them drives their need or want to use my product? Is there something about their personal character which uncovers other potential consumer markets? Knowing who your consumers are is a crucial part of properly implementing an effective marketing program. When my company is losing market share and I am losing the amount of people who come into my store, I may be looking to target a new customer. If I change “the type of person” who I am directing my efforts to, I need to spend a substantial amount of time researching and exploring my new customer. In the article “Looking upscale, Wal-Mart begins make-over” published by the Wall Street Journal, Wal-Mart uses the concept of personas to change their target market. Wal-Mart’s share price was down 17% in the past year: thus, causing a definite business problem for the company. Unfortunately, “[Wal-Mart’s] sales at stores open at least a year, a key measure of retailing performance, have been lagging.” More specifically, the marketing objective of Wal-Mart is to increase the amount of people who come into the store resulting in an increase in sales. In the context of the article, Wal-Mart was originally targeting lower-income rural shoppers. Economic trends that are affecting Wal-Mart are due to the “country’s uneven economic recovery over the past couple of years [which has] benefited high-income Americans more than the traditional Wal-Mart customer, who values price over image.” After surveying Wal-Mart’s vast clientele, customer’s claimed that they were “starved for fashion.” Through these surveys, Wal-Mart reveals an unfilled niche in their consumers. Because Wal-Mart has most commonly been regarded as a company with “roll-back” prices, The consumer who Wal-Mart is now trying to target is identified by the name of Gracie. Gracie is “at least 25 and spend a high percentage of disposable income on fashion apparel.” Gracie adores fashion, yet she is on a budget. The position that Wal-Mart is trying to communicate to consumers is that they can now be regarded as a retail store that carries fashionable items which was spear-headed by the creation of “Gracie”. Furthermore, with the example of how important personas are as supported in the example of Wal-Mart, marketers must take the time to learn the most they can about their customer. If a marketer were creating a persona about me there would by some key insights to be taken into consideration such as:

·         Name: Jessica

·         Age: 20, College Student who is Business/ Pre-Med.

·         I am a born-again Christian. I hope to live my life that will bring God glory.

·         Ethnicity: South Indian, first-generation American. (Being Indian and first generation American is an important detail for marketers because it means that I grew up in a traditional, conservative household where the importance of God and hard-work were the foundation of my home. Products that have characteristics such as durability and are in a sensible price-range are attractive because of my cultural background.)

·           Interests: Indian dancing, singing and spending time with family. (Again, as a South Asian, my interests are driven by my cultural background. Generally, Indian families are very large and close-knit. For example, I have around 50 first cousins all around the world. So products that enable me to keep in touch with my family are very important.)

·         Family: Growing up in a household of two brothers, I enjoy playing and watching sports. I would not consider myself a “girly-girl,” but as a hobby I enjoy applying make-up for friends who are participating in weddings, engagements and prom/homecoming dances.

·         Apirations: I would like to use my resources and the knowledge I have obtained through school to impact people’s lives all across the globe whether it be through the medical field or working for a non-profit organization.

·         I value  the importance of hard-work and perverance,yet I enjoying having fun. I am not afraid to try new things and meeting new people.

In creating a suitable persona, marketers would need to flesh out the details of their customers to properly design a product that would clearly fill their needs or wants.