Why is Buyer Persona Important?

KYC (Know Your Customer) is Not Easy

==How often do you get the chance to hear your customers describe the problems they face?== If you are an employee in a large company outside the marketing department, the answer is likely never.

Of course, if you do get the chance, it’s important to know that there are two very crucial parts to the ==core concept of buyer persona==:

1. Asking exploratory questions
2. Listening

==KYC (Know Your Customer)== is not easy. For example, in 2008, the sales of the iPhone 3G in Japan were poor. Japanese consumers were accustomed to recording videos with their phones and paying with debit cards or train passes.

Just Having a Buyer Profile is Not Enough

A typical buyer profile cannot accurately inform marketers about the buyers' decisions to purchase. Marketers often make guesses based on demographics (such as age, income, marital status, education) or psychographics (personality, values, lifestyle, opinions).

Nonetheless, buyer profiles can provide some obvious answers. For instance, reaching out to a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) via email is quite challenging. Moreover, emphasizing the spaciousness of a car's cargo area, even if it can fit a large dog, is pointless for a woman who only has time to care for a goldfish.

The most effective way to build buyer persona models is not through guessing, but by researching those who have weighed their options, considered or rejected proposed solutions, and made decisions similar to the ones you want to influence.

Buyer persona = buyer profile (who will buy) + buyer insights (when/how/why they buy)