Buyer Personas CanvasEstimated Reading Time: just 3 min

Customer Segments are the groups of people or organizations that a company aims to reach or serve with its products and services. These are fundamental since every business needs profitable customers to survive.

A good way to represent a company’s Customer Segments is Buyer Personas.
Buyer Personas are avatars of a segment and they transform the hard facts about your target audience into ‘living’ people.
Buyer Personas Model is powerful for marketing, advertising, content creation, product or service development, target support, public relations, pricing, and sales since it put the focus on the relationship that can be created between the company and the target.

Buyer Persona Model 1

Picture from xtensio.com

A helpful tool for creating them is Buyer Personas Canvas.

Buyer Persona Canvas

Buyer Personas Canvas is based on 10 blocks

1. Buyer Persona: this block focuses on understanding the archetype of our targets
Some useful questions for filling this section are
• Who are the targets?
• What is the archetype of our targets?
• What is their archetypal background?
• What is their archetypal experience?
• What is their archetypal balance of professional and personal lives?
• What are their areas of focus and responsibilities?
• What are the archetypal roles in organizations?

2. Goals: this block focuses on the motivating force which shapes the purchasing behaviour of our Target Segments.
Some possible questions for filling this section are
• What are the target’s business/personal goals?
• What organizational/private goals affect their buying behaviour?

3. Initiatives: this block focuses on the archetypal representation of the key initiatives relevant to the company’s target segments and industry. It is something Sales teams need to know since every industry has different patterns of initiatives and strategies.
Some possible questions for filling this section are
• What are the archetypal initiatives of the targets?
• What are the archetypal strategies of the targets and industry?
• Which programs and projects are important to the target segments and industry?

4. Influencers, Stakeholders, Buying Team: this block focuses on influencers, stakeholders, approvers, buying teams and how they work together. The target is to know
• The role the target persona plays in the scheme related to buying
• The full story of how people and team members interact in the buying process
Some possible questions for filling this section are
• Who are the key stakeholders?
• Who are the internal influencers?
• Who are the external influencers?
• Who are the participants in buying teams?
• What role does a target persona have in the buying team?
• Who are the participants in the approval process?

5. Buying Process: this block focuses on modelling the Buying Cycle and the Consumer Journey
Some possible questions for filling this section are
• What buying process do the targets follow?
• What is their archetypal customer journey?
• How does procurement govern the buying process?

6. Timing: this block focuses on specific patterns of timing that can show up inside certain Target Segments or industries
Some possible questions for filling this section are
• What are the seasonal patterns of the targets?
• How does formal budget planning affect timing?
• What is the usual end-to-end buying cycle?

7. Buyer Thinking: this block focuses on understanding how targets form mental patterns when going through the Buying Cycle and the Consumer Journey
Some possible questions for filling this section are
• Which attitudes hurt/help us on the part of the targets?
• What perceptions and benefits do the targets have?
• How do the targets thinking affect buying behaviour?

8. Channels: this block focuses on the preferred channels for our targets in term of
• How they want to be contacted
• How they want to buy the company’s product/service
Some possible questions for filling this section are
• Which channels do the targets use?
• Where are the targets socially?
• What external sources do targets frequent?

9. Why Buy: this block focuses on reasons for making decisions about purchasing a product/service
Some possible questions for filling this section are
• How do targets make choices?
• What risks affect buying choices?
• How do targets balance consequences and payoffs?
• How do targets thinking affect “why” choices?
• What are the unlocked drivers for decisions?
• What are the unarticulated “why” reasons for decisions?

10. Content and Information: this block focuses on which information/content affects buying behavior of our targets both in a positive and in a negative way
Some possible questions for filling this section are
• What information and data references do targets rely on?
• How do targets utilize and share content?
• What types of content affects purchase decisions?
• What content targets seek and when?
• How targets obtain and receive information?

APPLICATIONS, ANALYSIS & NEXT STEPS

Buyer Personas Canvas does a good job by helping the company figure out targets so that it will gain a competitive advantage by making informed decisions.

Anyway, the most core application of the Canvas is to be the baseline for a Brainstorming and to ask at least quarterly:
• Does it make sense?
• Could it be better?
• Does the rest of my team understand and agree? Are there additional ideas?
• Did the competitive environment change? Does the company have/maintain a long-term competitive advantage?

The output is a list of ideas/changes to be tested and implemented for a continuous improvement of the relationship between the company and the target.

Nicola Zaffonato Administrator

Business Strategy | Product Marketing | Executive Master eCommerce Management | Business Innovation Master | MSc

I am driven by my personal growth and of people/contexts that surround me.

I followed a professional path in Valentino Fashion Group and Luxottica during which, thanks to the ability to understand different businesses and interests, I was able to succeed in Operations, Merchandising and Retail.

These organizations have exploited my ability to mediate and translate needs/constraints into practice, assigning me to Project Management roles.

Luxottica relied on my ability to analyze, to anticipate things and to imagine/implement solutions by appointing me in Supply Chain Management department and assigning me to the Product Management of IoT solutions for Anti-counterfeiting and Retail digitalization.

During this professional path, I also developed my leadership by managing teams to build Processes, Organizations, Systems and Governance Tools.

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