Recently I worked with with a client who designs children clothing using vintage fabrics and patterns.

I wanted to help my client, Nancy, market her designs to local retailers and it was an intimidating prospect.  The independent store owners to whom we were selling were struggling because of a slow economy and they were extra picky about taking on untried vendors.

We needed to make a strong case that store’s customers would love her designs.

But how? Neither Nancy nor I had much experience in retail marketing.

That’s when I remembered a tool from my advertising days: the Customer Profile.

Imaginary Customers to the Rescue!

When I worked in advertising I created “product usage profiles” about consumers who bought a lot of a particular product.

For example, I’d gather information on people who bought a brand of tea in the last six months and create a list of other products they were likely to buy.

This was all based on scanner data: what people bought at stores using bar code scanners.

I might find that people who purchased that brand of herbal tea are more likely to read romance novels, to purchase imported cookies and pastries, and use expensive gift wrap.

The big list of product usage data was helpful but I needed to go one step further for the copywriters and designers whose job it was to create advertising.

To create words and images that truly resonated with audiences, the writers and designers needed to write and design for “real human beings”. So I would write profiles taking the data and filling in the blanks to imagine a person they could relate to.

The result was a Customer Profile: a composite character representing the buying habits of many actual customers.

Now keep in mind of course I was working for a large agency with millions of dollars available to do this kind of research.

What about my client, Nancy, whose access to research information was quite limited?

Creating Customer Profiles for a Small Business

Nancy and I got together and compared notes on what we knew about the people who bought her designs. We looked at where these folks lived, the jobs they had, whether they were married, their age, hobbies, and interests.

This was all based on a handful of individuals so it was hardly scientific nonetheless we ended up with two “customers” who felt pretty real to us and seemed to capture the two types of people most likely to be interested in her designs.

One customer profile was a gift giver. We named her “Peggy.” Peggy was a happily retired  grandmother who was always looking for fun, unique gift ideas.

The other customer profile, “Loree,”  was an expectant mom who was unhappy with the baby and toddler clothes she saw in most stores. She wanted a few fun pieces that would be cute and practical for her soon-to-be-born daughter.

Based on what we now knew, we had a much better idea of how to reach these prospective customers. Specifically we were able to:

• Identify stores where these customers were likely to shop.
• Set a price range for different designs
• Identify events these customers might attend
• Identify the social media sites they might be hanging out on
• Identify media (newspapers, magazines, radio, and TV) they were likely to read or experience

We could then approach store owners saying, “Hey, here’s what we know about the kinds of people who love these designs. We used this information to come up with suggestions for what outfits will sell best in your store and how to price each outfit.”

When we helped store owners sell to their own customers, it became a lot easier for them to say “yes.”

Our imaginary customers: Peggy and Loree, saved us a lot of time, energy, and money when it came to figuring out the best strategies to effectively market Nancy’s designs.

Creating Customer Profiles for Your Business

The easiest way to create customer profiles for your own business is to begin with what you know about your best customers.

Look at:

1. Demographic Information

Such as age, gender, where they live, profession, children and age of their children, products and services they buy, events they attend, hobbies they have.

2. Psychographic Information

Also referred to as lifestyle, attitudes, and values are elements that drive the behavior or your customers but can’t be objectively measured. Do your customers care about creating a sustainable environment? What kind of music do they listen to? What generation do they most identify with?

Then Fill in the Blanks

Observing your customers will give you a lot of useful pieces. The next step is to do some creative filling in the blanks. You are making assumptions based on what you know.

For example, it’s probably safe to say that someone who recycles regularly, does their own composting and buys products that use biodegradable packaging is interested in environmental sustainability.

Want to see some Customer Profiles developed for marketing? Click here to view the profiles I created for my vintage clothing client.

Using Customer Profiles in to Make Your Marketing More Effective

As you write your customer profiles, you’ll notice, how real they will begin to feel to you. This is actually a good thing because it means you’re related to these profiles on more than an intellectual level.

From my own perspective I’ve found it’s so much easier to create effective marketing when I’m able to really “get” my customers at a more personal level. The more I feel I’m walking in my customers shoes the easier it is to connect with them via marketing.

If your customer profile is complete, you will begin getting ideas about how best to market to them. Specifically:

• What kind of tone do they respond to? Formal? Informal? Technical?
• What situations or events make them aware that they need to buy your product or service?
• If it’s a big purchase how do they create a “short list” of brands/vendors to consider? For example, do they read product reviews on the Internet? Ask for recommendations?
• Do they prefer buying online or do they want to go to a brick and mortar store? Or some combination of the two?
• What events do they regularly attend? Are there opportunities to make your brand visible at these events?
• What kinds of social media do your customers use? Again, is social media something you can use to get the word out about your product or service? Can you use social media to demonstrate how you help customers and to build relationships with prospective customers.

Bottom Line

Make believe isn’t just for kids. If you’re a small business owner and find yourself feeling overwhelmed about the prospect of creating  marketing that will actually reach and influence real prospective clients, try creating a customer profile that represents your best customers.

With a little creativity your imaginary customer can help you add very real revenue to your bottom line.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 15th, 2010 at 1:12 pm and is filed under Marketing Success Factors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.