How advertising and marketing influences consumer behavior
Javier Ramirez
Liberty University
BUSI 520: Strategic Marketing Management
Muriel Wilson
January 23, 2022
Advertising and marketing
By understanding your target market, you can create more effective advertising and
marketing campaigns that are better able to reach and influence potential customers. This
could include things like targeted social media ads or using customer data to create more
personalised email campaigns.
Social and digital marketing is particularly important in today’s landscape, and it’s
important to stay up to date with the latest trends. You can learn more about social and
digital marketing with the Creative Strategy for Emerging Digital Media ExpertTrack by
Ravensbourne University and Moving Brands.
Customer service
Your customer service team will be more able to meet customers’ needs when you
understand what your customers are looking for.
Actions you can take include:
Training your team on the most common customer queries
Making sure your customer service channels are easy to use
Incentivising employees with customer service bonuses to encourage positive
behavioural changes
Learn more about motivating positive behaviour change with
FutureLearn’s Behavioural Economics: Employee and Customer Behaviour.
What is a buyer persona?
A buyer persona is a fictionalised representation of your ideal customer. It takes into
account things like their demographics, behaviours, interests and needs. Creating a buyer
persona can help you to understand what motivates your target market. The knowledge can
then be used to make better decisions about marketing and product development.
A buyer persona is a fictionalized characterization of your best customer(s) based on
information about them and how they use your product or service.
These descriptions mirror your various market segments, with names to match the
type of buyer. You might have Stylish Sally and Practical Polly and Discount Daphne as
personas in your clothing business, for example, all representing different categories of
buyers with similar backgrounds and habits.
In this case, Sally might be primarily concerned with looking snazzy at any cost, while
Polly is focused on finding more functional, long-lasting outfits, and Daphne really only buys
when you have a great sale, but is great for clearing out last season’s merchandise.
To create a buyer persona, you need to gather data about your ideal customers. You
can do this with several different methods that will prompt consumers to give you their
details.
But personas are more than just clever names. They provide a description that helps
you attract more buyers just like them, by personalizing your marketing messaging to attract
them.
Personas help you better understand what your customers are:
Thinking
Feeling
Concerned about
Hoping
Expecting
Planning
Believing
Most businesses have multiple buyer personas that they sell to, but don’t go
overboard in developing dozens. Start small and expand as you start to differentiate among
your various customer types. One to five personas should be plenty to begin with.
Negative personas
Just as you want to identify buyer personas you hope to attract and do business with,
you may also come across customer types you do not want to do business with.
Negative personas are buyers who waste your time and resources with no intention to
buy, or a low possibility of buying. These personas might include, for example, Questioning
Quinn, who peppers you with question after question about how things fit, your return
policy, and whether you can hold something for her, when, in the end, she doesn’t buy
anyway.
Or Returning Rachel, who will buy lots of outfits and return them right before the
return period is up; you suspect she wears the pieces, too, making them harder for you to
resell.
Negative personas reduce your company’s profitability and interfere with your ability
to serve your ideal customers. So you’ll want to keep them in mind as you craft your
marketing messaging.
Researching your personas
To prepare a list of your buyer personas, you’ll want to pull together as much
information as you can find on them, to better understand them and why they buy from
you. These sources of information might include:
Industry articles about today’s consumer
Your customers, whom you may ask to take an online survey, or that you interview
personally in-depth
Your website, to determine how your customers find you and what websites they
arrive from
Keyword research, to discover how your buyers articulate what they are looking for
—the words do they use—which you might want to use in your marketing
Sales reps, who interact with your customers, or your distribution outlets
Non-competing colleagues in other parts of the country, who may be willing to share
their company’s buyer personas
Building a buyer persona
To create your own buyer personas, you’ll want to try and paint a complete picture of
who they are, taking into account such things as:
Demographics: age, gender, income level, education
Psychographics: attitudes, beliefs, personality
Why they bought your product: what primary purpose
Where they bought your product: in a retail store, online, at a discounter
How your product is used: what functions are most important to them
What solutions it provides: how does it enhance their life or solve challenges
How often they buy it
Objections: why would they consider not buying it
Communication preferences: is email the only way they communicate or do they
prefer texts or calls or print?
Together, these descriptions and characteristics help you picture your ideal customers,
so that you can talk directly to them about their wants and needs, and help them to see why
your product is the perfect choice for them.
Methods for creating buyer personas
1. Online surveys. You can use online tools like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms
to create a survey that you can then share with your target market.
2. Competitions. Offering a prize in return for customer details is a great way to
incentivise people to take part.
3. Social media. Use social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to run
polls and ask questions that will help you to understand your target market better.
Once you have this data, you can start to create a profile of your ideal customer. This
should include data such as their age, gender, location, occupation and interests.
This information will allow you to segment your target market to create more effective
marketing campaigns. The concept of Behavioural Segmentation is an important part of
marketing segmentation.
Buyer persona examples
Here are a few examples of buyer personas for a clothing brand:
Steve, 22
Steve is a busy university student who likes to socialise with friends and go to gigs and
festivals. Steve also likes watching Netflix, playing video games and going to the gym or
going for runs. He is active on social media and likes to keep up with the latest trends in
fashion. He mainly uses Instagram and follows fitness influencers, fashion bloggers and his
favourite bands.
Interests: Music, fashion, social media
Needs: Affordable, trendy clothes
Wants: To be able to express his individuality through his clothing
Helen, 35
Helen is a stay-at-home mum who likes to take her kids to the park and go for coffee
with friends. She likes to keep up with the latest trends in home decor, and she loves to
read. She is active on social media, especially Facebook, and follows a lot of fashion bloggers
and interior design accounts.
Interests: Parenting, home decor, reading
Needs: Comfortable, affordable clothes
Wants: Clothes that are comfortable and easy to care for
Beth, 30
Beth is a busy professional who works long hours. She likes to relax on the weekends
and spend time with her family and friends. She likes to go out for dinner and drinks, and
she enjoys going to the theatre and the cinema. She is active on social media, and she
follows a lot of celebrities, fashion bloggers, and news accounts.
Interests: Socialising, films, theatre
Needs: Smart, stylish clothes
Wants: Clothes that make her feel confident, professional and stylish
Stewart, 25
Stewart is a responsible consumer who is environmentally conscious and only buys
from brands that are sustainable and ethical. He likes to buy quality items that will last, and
he is willing to spend more on items that are made ethically. His hobbies include hiking and
he loves being in nature. He is active on social media, especially Instagram, and he follows a
lot of travel bloggers and accounts that promote sustainable living.
Interests: Sustainability, nature, hiking
Needs: Ethical, sustainable clothes
Wants: To be able to express his values through his clothing
Buyer persona uses
As you can see, each persona has different needs and wants. For example, Steve will
respond better to discounts and promotions, while Stewart will respond better to a
marketing message around corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social change.
Once you have created a buyer persona, you can use it to make decisions about your
business such as which marketing channels to use or what type of products to develop.
Additionally, you can use your buyer persona to create more personalised and effective
content including
Email campaigns. By segmenting your email list according to the needs of each
persona, you can send more targeted and relevant messages that are more likely to convert
into sales.
Social media content. By understanding the interests of each persona, you can
create social media posts that are more likely to be seen and engaged with by your target
market.
Website copy. By understanding the needs of each persona, you can create website
copy that is more likely to convert visitors into customers.
