Watch the Pinkberry Case StudyLinks to an external site. video from the Learn section this week.

• Determine the target market for Pinkberry using ALL four (4) bases of segmentation to describe the buyer persona.
  • (Note: As you might recall from your Week 1 reading in Chapter 10 of The New Rules of Marketing and PR, a buyer persona is a short biography of a typical customer.)

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that a target market can be everyone! One of the best ways to overcome this trap is to think of your target market as an individual rather than a group. Here is a very simple buyer persona exercise that you will find helpful. And this is a great chance to be creative!

• Visualize a specific person that you think is the Pinkberry target customer. In terms of our bases of segmentation, where does this person live? Where else could they live beyond just West Hollywood, CA? Are they in an urban environment, the suburbs, or way out in the country?
• Now describe that person in terms of their demographic characteristics. How old are they? What gender are they? Where are they in their family life cycle? What is their education level? What do they do for a living, etc.?
• Move on to the psychological or psychographic profile of the person you are visualizing. What are their hobbies, lifestyle, values, and attitudes? What do they hold important to them? One of the areas to look at might be the VALS research. This may help you identify more about this specific person from the inside out.
• Finally, with this same person in your head, how can you describe them behaviorally? Do they eat frozen yogurt? Do they eat frozen yogurt from a competitor? Have they never eaten frozen yogurt before?
• Why is it important to understand your buyer’s needs and mindset when developing a marketing strategy?

Once you go through this mental exercise of visualizing your specific customer, it will be easier to use the bases of segmentation to create your buyer persona.