Personas for consumer marketing
This post is adapted from the Using audience personas to improve digital user experience strategy guide, on why traditional audience segments miss the mark and how psychographic personas can lead to success today.
Consumer marketing uses personas to understand why customers gravitate towards certain brands or products.
Researchers identify the factors that distinguish “types” of customers for that market, and compare the segments side-by-side on those criteria. In this next section we’ll examine an example of a demand segment for pet food to demonstrate personas for consumer marketing.
| Loving Indulgers | Caring Companions | Active Nutritionists | Health-seeking Providers | Tolerating Functionalists | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Relationship | As child | As family member | As active partner | As pet | As farm implement |
| Price sensitivity | Low | Moderate | Low | Medium | High |
| Geo-demos | Empty nester | Upscale families | Single/DINKS | Mid-market families | Large rural households |
| Dog-o-graphics | Small purebreds | Lovable mutts | Large purebreds | Respected mutts | Utilitarian hounds |
| Benefits sought | Dog’s choice, human-like | Fun, variety, balanced | Nutrition, performance | Basic nutrition | Least expensive |
| Info sources | Self, family | Retailer | Vet, retailer | Retailer | — |
Chart courtesy of How Companies Win by Rick Kash and David Calhoun.
Notice how the demographics are treated as secondary to psychographics. While some personas are more common in certain demographics—for example, Active Nutritionists are most common in dual-income no-kid households—that’s not the main differentiator between the personas. It’s the holistic picture of their attitudes and behaviors towards pets that will determine what kind of dog food they’ll buy, which ultimately is the most important outcome for consumer marketing.