James: A Persona

James is a 60 year old male, nearing the last few years of his career, and getting ready to focus on his retirement.

What does James think and feel? First, he thinks often about his wife, Karen, and his three daughters Jenna, Courtney, and Laura.  His wife is recently retired from working in school administration. His daughters, each two years apart, are in various stages of getting married and preparing to have kids. Financially, he wonders if he has put enough money away to have a comfortable retirement and he also considers how much a wedding will cost for his youngest daughter, Laura.  He has already paid off his house, and has only a few remaining payments on his & Karen's two Lexus sedans.  Career-wise, James wonders if he has made a worthy contribution at his law firm. Since making partner 15 years ago, he has worked long hours and made sure to mentor the upcoming associates and new partners. He has also taken to spending more time on the golf course with his clients, and wonders if he will be able to continue this golfing lifestyle when he leaves the firm.  He also wonders what life will be like without having the law firm to occupy his time throughout the day, and he thinks about what it will be like to spend his full days with Karen.

What does James see? He sees the majority of his friends reaching the same life stages as him - looking towards retirement, planning their lives after careers, and ensuring they are financially stable.  He is more inclined to pay attention to advertisements for financial seminars, workshops, and investment opportunities. He is also concerned about his health. He makes sure to go to the doctor regularly and visits the health club at least 5 times per week. When he works out, he likes to play racquetball with other law-firm buddies, swim, or lift weights.  On the weekends, he often enters local running races and considers himself a weekend warrior.  He watches his diet closely, with the exception of dinner time and drinking wine, and he takes multivitamins daily.  He also looks more intently at travel opportunities in which he can visit places with Karen, as well as visiting his daughters.

What does James say and do? James always makes sure he looks well-kept and groomed when in public. He is rarely seen in shorts - instead he prefers to wear khaki pants or slacks and a polo shirt when he is "dressing down" or going out casually. Upon nicer occasions, such as dinner or drinks with friends, he wears business casual clothing. He prefers to shop at Nordstrom, Brooks Brothers, and specialty men's retailers.  His golf shirts are typically from Tommy Bahama.  When James goes to the gym, he wears Nike branded apparel. 

In his free time, James likes to watch sports, read travel magazines, and collect wine.  He likes to go out to dinner, primarily at upscale restaurants and wine bars. He is rarely the one who purchases groceries - Karen takes care of this - but when he does, he shops at upscale grocery stores like Central Market and Whole Foods. He collects various types of wine and likes to invite his friends over for wine tastings.

James experiences a few main pain points - largely focused on finances, family, and health.  He wants to make sure that he has enough money to last him & Karen throughout retirement while still leaving enough for his daughters and grandchildren. He wants to ensure he spends adequate time with his family. And lastly he is concerned about his health and Karen's health. While he is not currently facing any threatening issues, his health is always at the back of his mind and he is especially conscious of aches and pains and potential ailments.

Finally, James hopes to gain a solidified feeling of accomplishment over the last few years of his career. He is nervous about not making a solid contribution at his firm, and people forgetting about his accomplishments upon leaving.  He is constantly worried about his daughters, wanting to make sure they are happy and successful.  He is also especially concerned with his retirement accounts and making sure that he will live a comfortable retirement. 

Blog Post 1 Assignment - due Feb 6

Blog 1 - Creating a Persona - Due Feb. 6

Well, here it is... your first blog topic. Think about the kind of information that a marketer would need to create a detailed and rich persona of someone you know fairly well, but who does not fit within your segmentation profile (skeleton).  The goal is to play with a tool that is intended to help you begin to gain empathy for someone who has a background and/or experiences that are different from yours.  With that in mind, choose someone who is more than 5 years younger or older, not your gender, and is not in the MBA or MPA program (or just finished or about to enter).  Beyond that, I'll let you figure out if the person is dissimilar enough from you to benefit from the exercise (so there is no need to clear your choice with me or Joanna).  

Keep in mind that this is public blog and that it is probably best not to use real names, so consider using an alias for the person. I'd be curious to know your relationship with this person, but if you have any concerns that they might read this and be upset, you can certainly choose not to tell me that.

With that in mind, create a persona for this person in a way that would be very valuable for marketers. Remember, what we are looking for here are detailed and nuanced descriptions about them that would lead a marketer to discover or identify key insights.  Of course, what you provide may just be the first nugget and the researcher might have to dig deeper to uncover the real insight, but the information you provide should be a great start.

To give you structure, I would like you to use the Empathy Map in the creation of your persona (which is on our class slides, the Business Model Generation book, and I also describe it below without the visual canvas).  I will also encourage you to use this in your project. The Empathy Map has 6 sections (numbered) and sub questions (bulleted) for you to consider:

1. What does he or she think and feel?

-- what really counts?

-- major preoccupations?

-- worries & aspirations?

2. What does he or she see?

-- environment?

-- friends?

-- what the market offers?

3. What does he or she say and do?

-- attitude in public?

-- appearance?

-- behavior towards others?

4. What does he or she hear?

-- what friends say?

-- what bosses say?

-- what influencers say?

5. What are his or her pain points?

-- Fears?

-- Frustrations?

-- Obstacles?

6. What does he or she hope to gain?

-- Wants/needs?

-- Measures of success?

-- Obstacles?

Please remember the length requirements for blogs as well as the grading criteria (all of which are available in the syllabus and on this class blog home page). Have fun with it!

Customer Insights - Spring 2012

This blog will be a documentation of my thoughts on Customer Insights, a McCombs School of Business graduate course taught in the Spring of 2012.  Enjoy!