Why using personas is wrong.
Successful marketers tell you to find your target market and develop the persona to whom you target all your content.
This will limit your potential or kill it entirely.
The persona you create will be the average of everyone in your target market.
But no one is an average person, so you will be targeting no one.
Target the extremes, particularly the high-end, so that you can charge a higher price.
Consider the advertising for Malborough cigarettes.
The advertising for this brand was so successful they became the #1 selling brand globally.
Their advertising appeared to target cowboys.
The slogan was "Come to Malborough Country".
98% of their customers were not then or ever likely to be cowboys, so why did those ads work so well?
No one really knows, but it seems that most of their customers wanted to relate to the cowboy lifestyle.
Were any of their customers cowboys?
Some of them probably were, but most were not.
The advertising people didn't establish a persona for their customers; they created an image their customers wanted to relate to.
Look at Coca-Cola's ads.
Do you think many of their customers are those young, fit people they often use?
I doubt it.
More of their customers would be overweight and unfit, but that's not the image they portray because their sales would plummet.
Nobody wants to see themselves as they really are.
We all want to see ourselves as we would like to be.
Don't build your ideal customer persona based on what they really are; build the one they want to be.
Your sales will thank you.
Regards,
Brent.
P.S. This is Christmas Eve for me, so some of you will get this on Christmas Eve, and some will get it on Christmas Day.
Thank you for reading my emails and for buying the things I suggest.
I plan to take a short break but will return in a day or so.
Merry Christmas to those who celebrate that, and Seasons Greetings to those who don't.
May your celebrations be joyous and spent safely with loved ones.
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