Persona Based Marketing

By M. H. "Mac" McIntosh, CBC

Meet Bill, he's the owner and CEO of a growing, mid-sized manufacturing company. Bill is in his early 40s, wears glasses and tries his best to squeeze in an early-morning workout whenever he can. He prefers to wear golf shirts and khakis, donning a suit only when he has to. Bill drives a late model SUV with a booster seat in the back seat for his four-year-old daughter. He's harried, and worries about managing his company's growth. He wants to leverage technology to increase operational efficiency and customer satisfaction, and to offset the rising costs of doing business, but doesn't know where to start.

Helen is his director of sales. She's 32, single, a competitive runner, and is partial to 80s rock. She drives a new BMW convertible. She struggles with managing a dozen salespeople, many who are 10 to 15 years older then her. Helen wants the company to invest in a new CRM system to replace the contact management they long ago outgrew, but wonders how she'll convince Bill and the company's CFO to spend the money.

Bill and Helen are not real people, but they're examples of one of the most powerful tools you can use to better connect with prospects and customers: persona-based marketing.
Persona-based marketing is part Hollywood characterization and part business analytics. It involves constructing a fictional customer-based on real-life data and intelligence-and then using that character as the touchstone for promotional and selling decisions.

The concept of persona based marketing is extremely interesting and can be directly applied to my Heritage Week event proposals. The primary purpose of the use of mobile devices within the event is to educate inform and interact with the consumer to enhance their visit and place into context what they see. However, like all commercial ventures, revenue must be generated to pay for the initial investment and ensure it can continue once the event has ended.

This model of persona based marketing should be considered when targeting consumers with advertisements through their mobile devices. I need to cater for as many theoretical personalities as possible. For example a family with young children may want to purchase toys for the children, in stark contrast to a middle aged single man who may be interested in something with more substance, such as a book or tour guide. Similarly consumers may wish to utilise services that are not integral to the scheme but can still generate revenue for the Heritage Area site. For example the use of coffee shops within the site.