Project Overview
In this project, we were tasked with creating customer personas for an upcoming campaign for an online bedding and home goods store, Brown’s Bedding. We collected customer data using market research, analytics, and survey questions. The majority of customers were concerned with either the cost or variety of the bedding available. Based on this data, we created two personas: the Budget Buyer and the Variety Shopper.
Project Execution and Results
The first step was to sort the customer data and identify concerns. We did this by finding the Goal column header in the customer data spreadsheet. We selected the dropdown arrow and chose Sort A → Z. This brought the Budget Buyers to the top and sent the Variety Shoppers to the bottom. We then reviewed the information in the Concern column and recorded the most common concern for each customer type in the blank Personas table.
The next step was to examine the demographic data for patterns. We reviewed the demographic data for each customer group to identify any patterns or trends. We did this for each of the demographic categories, including Age, Location, Family, and Education. We then recorded our findings in the Personas table. For example, the data in the Age column indicated that most of the Budget Buyers were in their mid-twenties to mid-thirties. In contrast, most of the variety shoppers were in their mid-thirties to mid-forties.
The third step was to fill in demographic information for each persona. We went to the customer personas template and used our findings to fill in the Who sections for the Budget Buyer and Variety Shopper. We picked a name to represent each persona, chose an age within the range we identified for each customer group, entered the most common location (city or suburbs) for each customer group, described a family type that broadly reflects each customer group, and added an education level that matches each customer group.
The fourth step was to describe potential barriers for each persona. We considered each persona’s main concern and how it might prevent similar customers from completing a purchase and reaching their goal. For example, the Budget Buyer’s main concern was buying eco-friendly products. If the company sells affordable products, but their website doesn’t make it clear how they source and manufacture those products, that could become a barrier to purchase.
The final step was to choose an image for each persona (optional). We reviewed the avatars on the second page of the template and selected an image to represent each persona by copying and pasting it into the Who section.
Our final completed personas included the following elements: name, age, location, household, and education information that reflects the data of a customer group, and 1-2 possible barriers. We saved our work to demonstrate our experience to potential employers.