Imagining My Own Business | Part 3: Sally vs. Sam

Nikki Bauknight
Dec 8, 2022
2 min read

Updated: Feb 1, 2023

Is it just me or is it easier to market to a theoretical person with theoretical thoughts and theoretical feelings and a theoretical face to look at with a fitting theoretical name vs. a statistical snooze fest of a data-infused document lacking all things personality? You, too!? Cool. Totally agree. This is why smart people like us use personas! (Don’t get me wrong. A data-infused document gives my analytical self pure and genuine joy, so no offense to the piece of paper that gets no respect. I see you and you matter. It’s just that most people in marketing – and life in general – are visual by nature, so we/they need a theoretical person to speak to instead a sheet of data. Plus, this encourages consistency across the board – whether it’s the company’s marketing department, the peeps in PR, the executive team, production, or anyone and everyone who might be involved with understanding the target market. So, basically everyone. We’re still friends, though.)

I briefly touched on the importance of personas – and even created a persona of yours truly – in Marketing Segmentation | Where Bigger Isn’t Better. I now get to create a persona for my ideal customer! But, how? Easy! (Kind of. Not really. But, sort of.) I just need to gather all of the research I’ve done and throw together a theoretical person based on key elements that make sense for my target. I need to understand who this person is (or isn’t) so I can provide the value they’re looking for. To get all textbook for a moment, this can include general demographic details, the customer’s goals, values, and challenges, what a day in the life might look like, where they get their information, what their pain points might be (what might stop them from buying a product), fun facts, and maybe even a marketing message.

Meet Savvy Sally.

To mix things up a bit, I thought I’d also throw together a negative persona. I’m not trying to be a Debbie Downer, but there is value to creating a persona of the consumer that doesn’t meet your target marketing endeavors. In this case, while this person still has value in life itself, he’s not one I’d necessarily want to invest time or money in (no offense, sir). Although, I do think a little Sugar & Nice could make him smile and realize the world isn’t such an awful place if he opened his heart (and face) a little.

Pass the beer and meet Stubborn Sam.