Think you are going to a pharmacy since you have a headache. Because the pharmacist knows a lot about chemistry, he could talk about measuring agents, chemical bond or the latest experiments. However, you expect the pharmacist to give you clear, simple and direct instructions on how the medicine is going to help you feel better, the daily dosage and what precautions you should take.
Understand the mindset of the people you are talking to is key when communicating about products or services. Thinking about the age, occupation, cultural levels or daily life habits make easier to recognize their needs, values and therefore enables to create a more effective communication.
Creating brand personas is a good approach to better understand who we are talking to. The objective is to generate a fictitious persona, but it should be based in real facts about how that kind of person would actually be. This process is something you do not have to share in your webpage or social media, but an internal exercise to better understand the kind of people you are talking to.
There are lots of ways to approach this exercise. Below are some questions as a basic guideline to answer, but you can also create an Instagram or and Facebook profile… you can get as creative as you want!
In terms or architecture, what are our main audiences? Do we have to communicate our projects and ideas the same way to the client, developer, other architects or society in general?
- Name
- Age
- Gender
- Salary
- Location
- Family
- Education
- Work
- Hobbies
- Last holidays
- Favorite trip
- Mean of transportation
- Computer literacy
- Social media
- Preferred means of communication
- Values
- Biggest fear
- Biggest accomplishment
- Brands she/he loves
- Brands she/he hates
Some more extended articles:
– How to Define Your Target Market: http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/06/defining-your-target-market.html
– Marketing personas: The Complete beguiner’s guide: https://blog.bufferapp.com/marketing-personas-beginners-guide