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The purpose of this assignment is to create a marketing persona or buyer persona based on a video about a real life Balinese woman named Marti Ni. A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers. It is a detailed description of someone who represents your target audience. This is not a real customer, but a fictional person who embodies the characteristics of your best potential customers. Buyer personas help businesses understand and empathize with their customers so they can do a better job of acquiring and serving them.

This is a example of a persona.

2️⃣ Additional information about market segmentation

What is market segmentation?

At its core, market segmentation is the practice of dividing your target market into approachable groups. Market segmentation creates subsets of a market based on demographics, needs, priorities, common interests, and other psychographic or behavioral criteria used to better understand the target audience. By understanding your market segments, you can leverage this targeting in product, sales, and marketing strategies. Market segments can power your product development cycles by informing how you create product offerings for different segments like men vs. women or high income vs. low income.

The benefits of market segmentation

Companies who properly segment their market enjoy significant advantages. According to a study by Bain & Company, 81% of executives found that segmentation was crucial for growing profits. Bain also found that organizations with great market segmentation strategies enjoyed a 10% higher profit than companies whose segmentation wasn’t as effective over a 5-year period.

Other benefits include:

Stronger marketing messages: You no longer have to be generic and vague – you can speak directly to a specific group of people in ways they can relate to, because you understand their characteristics, wants and needs.

Developing effective marketing strategies: Knowing your target audience gives you a head start about what methods, tactics and solutions they will be most responsive to.

Better response rates and lower acquisition costs: will result from creating your marketing communications both in ad messaging and advanced targeting on digital platforms like Facebook and Google using your segmentation

Identifying niche markets: segmentation can uncover not only underserved markets, but also new ways of serving existing markets – opportunities which can be used to grow your brand.

Demographic segmentation

Demographic segmentation sorts a market by elements such as age, education, income, family size, race, gender, occupation, and nationality. Demographic is one of the simplest and most commonly used forms of segmentation because the products and services we buy, how we use those products, and how much we are willing to spend on them is most often based on demographic factors.

Demographic data is descriptive data about people and their lives. It uses markers that describe how different populations live and define themselves. Some examples of demographics are: Sex, Age, Income, education level, presence of children. geography, residence environment (urban, rural, suburban), ethnicity, sexual orientation, family composition, marital status, religion, years of work experience

Psychographic segmentation

Psychographic segmentation considers the psychological aspects of consumer behavior by dividing markets according to lifestyle, personality traits, values, beliefs, social status, opinions, attitudes and interests of consumers. Large markets like the fitness market use psychographic segmentation when they sort their customers into categories of people who care about healthy living and exercise. While demographics tells you who your customer is, psychographics tells you why they buy your products/services.

See how one informs the other to build up this buyer persona of Meredith, a personal trainer:

Demographic profile	Psychographic profile
Female	Enjoys healthy living
Age 25-45	Lacks time to herself
Married	Enjoys Netflix box sets
2 Children	Buys quality rather than economy
Household income $75k+	Is career-orientated
City dweller	Loves going out with girlfriends

Demographics will only give you the dry facts about Meredith, whereas psychographics will give you insight into her potential buying behavior. The two together give a more holistic picture of Meredith as a customer.

There are five psychographic segmentation variables for market research:

Personality. There’s a strong correlation between customers’ personalities and their buying habits. Some of the personality filters that can be applied in this segment include: introvert, extrovert, emotional, creative, sociable, happy, optimistic and organized.

Lifestyle. A brand can design products or services for different lifestyles. For example, trainers – some people want them for marathon training, others for walking to work, casual wear or as a fashion statement. By analyzing customers’ lifestyles, the right trainers can be targeted at the right audience, and by listening to feedback, the trainers can be improved.

Social status. This affects product choice, price, and niche markets. Each social class has its preferred, and affordable, brands of clothes, grocery store, vehicles and holidays. Cruise companies typically segment their customers by social status:

Market	Average passenger income per annum
Luxury cruises	In excess of $60k
Mid-market cruises	Between $40k and $59k
Mass market cruises	Between $20k and $39k

Activities, Interests, and Opinions (AIO): This variable hones in on enthusiasts and hobbyists as well as interests like sport, politics, religious events. It could be as simple as noting that a TV viewer watches mainly comedy movies or as complex as understanding an environmental campaigner’s politics.

Attitudes: Our cultural background and upbringing shapes our attitudes. They reveal a customer’s nature, and because they are intangible, require some imagination on the part of the marketing team when deciding at whom to target a product. You probably wouldn’t offer discount vouchers to a Ferrari driver, but a parent with five children might snap them up.

Companies that have mastered psychographic segmentation. The world’s greatest brands are masters of psychographic segmentation.

Patagonia understands environmentally conscious outdoor enthusiasts and trekkers

Harley Davidson taps into the psyche of riders including their image, attitude and bucket-list trips

Snapchat understands youth and their interest in ‘vanishing’ content

Microsoft intimately knows what business people in specific industries need to succeed

Geographic segmentation

Geographic segmentation can be a subset of demographic segmentation, although it can also be a type of segmentation in its own right. It creates different target customer groups based on geographical boundaries. Because potential customers have needs, preferences, and interests that differ according to their geographies, understanding the climates and geographic regions of customer groups can help determine where to sell and advertise, as well as where to expand your business. It works on the principle that people in that location have similar needs (Links to an external site.), wants, and cultural considerations. By understanding what people in that area require, brands can target more relevant marketing messages and suitable products to customers who are then aware (Links to an external site.) and more likely to buy.

There are several geographical parameters you can use to focus your marketing efforts and target your customer base:

Location: This can be as small as a neighborhood or as large as a continent, with towns, cities, states and countries in between.

Climate: You wouldn’t try to sell snow chains to Vietnam. Climate segmentation involves selling products that are appropriate for the climate, weather, and season in a particular area.

Culture: You may have to adapt your products to take account of cultural variations and sensitivities. For example, in McDonald’s India (Links to an external site.), the menu is 50% vegetarian and has no pork or beef on the menu, to respect both Hindu and Muslim faiths.

Population: This can be population density or population type. A brand may choose to market in cities rather than rural areas because there are simply more people to buy, and urban distribution is easier. A Chinese grocery store would do more trade in a city area with South Asian communities, than in a less diverse rural farming village.

Urban, suburban and rural: These different environments require different marketing strategies. Generally, customers in cities and suburbs have more purchasing power than rural areas. Customer needs are different: e.g. a car manufacturer may target their smaller, electric vehicles at city and suburb dwellers, and larger, four-wheel-drive cars at rural dwellers.

Language: Not everyone can, or wants to, read marketing in English, Spanish, or Mandarin. It’s essential to use languages of targeted areas for labeling, online communication, and promotion.

Examples of how organizations use geographic segmentation:

A pool supplies manufacturer targets warmer, sunnier climates

• A clothing retailer adjusts its inventory according to the weather and styles of its store locations.
• Restaurant chains customize their menus according to the local tastes and ingredients available in their areas
• Home security companies may have more success focusing on high-crime areas
• Retail businesses are more likely to be successful in high-population areas
• Healthcare organizations in Florida may provide Spanish language service options in areas with large Hispanic communities

Behavioral Segmentation

Behavioral Segmentation divides markets by behaviors and decision-making patterns such as purchase, consumption, lifestyle, and usage. For instance, younger buyers may tend to purchase a bottled body wash, while older consumer groups may lean towards soap bars. Segmenting markets based on purchase behaviors enables marketers to develop a more targeted approach because you can focus on what you know they are more likely to buy.

Taken and modified for educational purposes, from https://www.qualtrics.com/experience-management/brand/what-is-market-segmentation/ (Links to an external site.) https://www.qualtrics.com/experience-management/brand/psychographic-segmentation/ (Links to an external site.)

3️⃣ Assignment formatting and reminders

1. To create a persona we are going to use the information from the video below and embellish it with other factual and fictional information. The first step in the process is to look at the four types of market segmentation presented above. Now watch the video about a day in the real life of Balinese a woman named Marti Ni. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaGS86FQJbM (Links to an external site.)
2. Open this persona template Download persona template provided and follow the instructions. Rename it with your name before submitting it.