Why develop a buyer persona?
It's been proven that consistent brand presentation across all platforms increases revenue by up to 10-20%.
Developing a strong brand identity is crucial for any business looking to stand out in a crowded market. But, have you ever considered how understanding your target audience more deeply can play a vital role in shaping the development of your brand identity and your overall marketing strategy?
That’s where developing buyer personas comes into play.
These fictional representations of your ideal customers can provide valuable insights into their wants, needs, and behaviours, helping you create a brand that resonates with them. Over the years, this valuable insight has played a pivotal role in our development of our client’s brand identities.
Understanding the importance of buyer personas in brand identity development
Without a clear understanding of your audience, you may end up wasting time and resources on marketing strategies that don’t connect with your customers. Buyer personas allow you to tailor your brand messaging, tone, and even product offerings to specifically target the needs of your audience.
The key steps to create effective buyer personas for your business
To create effective buyer personas for your business, there are a few key steps you need to follow.
Research
Start by conducting thorough research on your target audience. This includes gathering demographic information, such as age, gender, location, and occupation. Additionally, delve into their psychographic data, which includes their values, interests, and preferences.
If possible, interview current customers to gain valuable insights into their buying behaviours and motivations. Ask them about their pain points, challenges, and what solutions they are looking for. This will help you understand their needs and how your brand can address them.
Develop a character
After gathering all the necessary information, start developing your fictional buyer personas.
Give each person a name and create a detailed profile, including a photo, background information, goals, challenges, and preferred communication channels.
Think about their personality. Things to consider might be; their buying habits - do they buy own brands or branded products at the supermarket? What car do they drive? Who do they vote for? Do they take risks or play it safe? Are they extrovert or introverted? Do they actively look for new products or only do research when needed?
On the face of it, this exercise may sound very exaggerated or hyperthetical, but having a deeper understanding of their personality will help you to tailor your messaging more effectively.
Below is a real life example of a buyer persona, the areas shown here are not exhaustive but serve as a useful starting point:
Often, we take our client’s buyer personas and include them (and their associated brand values) into an initial stylescape. Stylescapes are a carefully selected mix of images, textures, colors, shapes, and fonts that convey the overall look and feel of a brand identity, and lead us to develop further visual elements, serving as a starting point for further exploration.
So if you are struggling to visualise who your customers are, then try the exercise above.
Developing your potential clients into 'real' characters, will help you to understand who you are targeting, making your messaging more relevant.
Once you have established who your ideal customer is, then arrange a meeting with your designer who will be able to take this information and use it to help develop a brand identity for your business. Your brand identity will be the foundation of your marketing strategy. If done correctly, it will resonate with your newly identified customers, driving long term success.
