Lessons

Lesson Info

Creating Your Customer Persona

1 Now, if you haven't guessed already, 2 we're gonna be taking the page out of Lululemon's book 3 because they, as a brand, 4 understand their target audience better than anyone. 5 Now, apart from that, why would I choose Lululemon 6 as the example to show you how to create a target persona? 7 Well, out of every brand out there, Lululemon stands tall 8 as one of the best examples, as they understood exactly 9 who they were trying to sell to from the very beginning. 10 And this is one of the two key things 11 that helped Lululemon grow so fast. 12 And the second thing is they had single product focus. 13 So they only sold one type of product, 14 which were the super tight yoga pants, 15 which really enhanced the ladies (bleep). 16 So where do we start when we're trying 17 to craft your customer persona? 18 Well, first we need to know who we are trying to target. 19 Now, at the moment, we've already confirmed 20 what problem you're trying to solve, 21 and we also know how you're gonna ...

solve that problem. 22 So the question we have to ask ourselves now is, 23 who has that problem 24 and who needs that particular solution 25 more than anybody else? 26 Now notice who I said more than anybody else, 27 and this is where so many brands go wrong. 28 Now, while this is leaning a little bit more into marketing, 29 which is a little bit later on in the brand building 30 process, we need to touch on it briefly 31 because we need to understand what we are doing. 32 You may have heard the term before. 33 If you market to everyone, then you market to no one. 34 So the first step, before you even try to understand 35 who you're trying to sell to, you need to make sure 36 that you have it drilled into your mind that you only need 37 to learn how to sell to one specific type of person. 38 I know it sounds counter-productive, 39 but if you take one thing from this entire course, 40 let it be this, narrow your scope down to one single type 41 of person and learn how to expertly communicate with 42 that target demographic. 43 This is what all smart brands do. 44 They target the person that is going 45 to either desire their product most, 46 or is going to essentially give their product the most 47 awareness and the most exposure, 48 and then they pinpoint all of their efforts 49 and resources on targeting 50 and communicating to that type of person. 51 Now, don't get me wrong, other types 52 of people will end up buying your product and services. 53 This is called the spillover effect in marketing. 54 And the spillover effect is essentially a compounding effect 55 where you have one positive association 56 or you put one positive effort forward 57 and you get a benefit from that particular effort 58 or association. 59 For example, if Lululemon targets women who are successful, 60 independent, have disposable income, who are sexy, 61 who are fit and healthy, 62 and who own their own condo, then other women 63 who aren't quite up to that standard 64 or have that level of freedom 65 and that standard of life will desire 66 to have the same products as a woman 67 who is in that position. 68 So what does this mean for you? 69 And I'm gonna sound like a broken record here, 70 but number one, sell only one product. 71 I cannot stress that enough. 72 And number two, sell to the most desirable person. 73 Okay, cool. 74 Now we've got that out the way, 75 let's start actually building your customer persona. 76 And just so you have some additional guidance 77 and support in regards to actually building your customer 78 persona, I'm going to add an additional lesson 79 after this one, which is completely unedited, 80 which is simply me actually building a customer 81 persona in real time. 82 I just wanna make sure you have all the support you need. 83 But without further ado, let's start covering each section 84 within the customer persona sheet. 85 Now remember, we've already covered 86 what problem you want to solve. 87 So the first step is to actually understand who needs 88 that problem solving. 89 So we need to imagine what type 90 of person would actually have that problem. 91 And then we can start with the really simple stuff. 92 So if we are creating this character, 93 we need to give them a name, 94 we need to think how old they might be, 95 what is their, you know, status? 96 Are they married, divorced, single? 97 You know, are they dating? Do they have any kids? 98 Do they have a dog? Where do they live? 99 You know, why do they live there? 100 What type of home do they have? 101 Do they have a condo, a house? 102 Do they live with their parents? 103 All of these things, which are already structured out in the 104 sheet that we've gave you, is going to help you 105 to really start the crafting idea in regards to what type 106 of person we are trying to sell to. 107 And this in turn will give you a little bit of an idea 108 and insight in regards to how that person spends their time. 109 And once we have the basics in place, we can then start 110 to craft a story around this person. 111 This is why we really have to put ourselves in 112 that person's shoes. 113 And this section should essentially cover things like, 114 what does their day look like? 115 What are their habits? How do they actually spend their day? 116 What types of things do they do in their spare time? 117 What is their feelings like throughout their day? 118 Do they like their job? Do they not like their job? 119 Do they feel like they're underappreciated at work? 120 All of these things that go 121 through a regular person's mind on a day-to-day basis, 122 we need to pick up on that. 123 We need to get into the mind of the customer 124 and then write it down as clearly as possible. 125 And you need to ask yourself questions in regards to what 126 that person's day might look like. 127 You know, are they busy or do they have a lot of time 128 on their hands? 129 Are they quite impatient? 130 Or do they, you know, 131 not really care about getting things very 132 fast or very quickly? 133 All these little things are gonna really help you to kind 134 of create a character almost so 135 that you can then understand the type of person 136 that we are going to be 137 communicating with a little bit later on. 138 Because we all know the more you know about somebody, 139 the better you can connect with them. 140 And a really great way that I find to research people 141 and try to get a really good idea of, you know, what type 142 of character might be interested in the problem 143 that I'm trying to solve is look at 144 things like social media. 145 Think of people that you know. 146 Think of people that you may have came across 147 that fits the criteria that you will want 148 to sell to in future. 149 Use your experience, even go one step further and go out 150 and actually speak to people about the 151 problem that you're trying to solve 152 and ask them their opinion. 153 You are going to get a lot of answers, 154 and the more clarity that you have at this point, 155 the better. 156 It's also pretty important to think about the pain points 157 that the person that you're trying to sell to has, 158 that's going to force them to buy your product. 159 Well, I shouldn't say force, 160 encourage them to buy your product. 161 Now, think of this story as kind of 162 like an insight into their day-to-day life, 163 their everyday decisions and habits. 164 For example, as I said before, do they like expensive coffee 165 or inexpensive coffee? 166 Do they talk to people generally when they come to work? 167 Or do they just keep themselves themselves? 168 Are they introverted, extroverted, all these things. 169 Just get it down on paper 170 and write down as much as possible. 171 Really start to create this character in your mind. 172 Now, the next step, once you finish the story, 173 is to find four logos from brands 174 that this person would be associated with. 175 So for example, if you can see 176 that person using an Apple computer, 177 then put the apple symbol there. 178 If you can see them drinking a Starbucks as opposed 179 to a cheaper coffee, then put a Starbucks symbol there. 180 You're essentially collecting a couple of brands 181 that you feel that that person would 182 already be interested in. 183 And next, you need to take a little bit of time 184 to summarize this person up in just four words. 185 Now, this could take a little while, 186 but take some time to assess the person themselves, 187 their story, the brands that they're associated with, 188 what's important to them, 189 and then write down four words to describe them. 190 No more, no less, just four simple words to describe 191 that person in the simplest way possible. 192 You know, are they smart, elegant, stylish, caring, 193 loving, you know, innovative, all these things. 194 Just pick four words and stick with them. 195 Once you're happy with them, 196 we're ready to move on to the next stage. 197 So last, but by no means least, once we have the four brands 198 in place, we have the four words in place, 199 the story and the basic info, 200 the last step is to decide 201 where this person is spending their time on social media. 202 Unfortunately, we do spend a lot of time on social media. 203 Even if we don't like the platform, 204 we are kind of addicted to it at this point. 205 So figure out where this person spends most of their time. 206 Do they spend more time on Instagram? 207 Do they spend more time on Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok, 208 depending on their age, their interests, 209 et cetera, et cetera. 210 You are gonna know this better than anybody else. 211 So choose two or three platforms 212 or even just one if you feel they're only gonna be 213 interested in one and put to that icon, 214 which is already in the document ready to go 215 for you on their customer persona. 216 Now, if you've been following along in this lesson, 217 then your customer persona should be coming 218 together quite nicely. 219 And by now you should have a much clearer idea in regards 220 to the type of person you're gonna be wanting 221 to sell to, connect with, 222 and ultimately what their pain points are so you can sell 223 to them more effectively later on down the line. 224 And trust me, this is going to be absolute gold 225 for you when you get to the stage 226 of building your visual expression, your marketing, 227 your product development, 228 and your brand management, which is later on in the brand 229 building process. 230 But now we have your customer persona in place, 231 the next step is to analyze your competitors 232 and find their strengths and most importantly, 233 their weaknesses, 234 so we can find opportunities to beat them. 235 I'll see you in the next lesson.