You can’t sell a product or service, however great you think it is, until you find customers for it. There are some entrepreneurs who create a product without an ideal customer in mind. It might be a passion project or a personal problem they are trying to solve. But when you take on an innovation project, it makes sense to have a customer avatar template on hand so you can sell to the right person at the right time and with the right message.
We’ll explain a little better with the example of two billionaire businesswomen.
Take Sara Blakely, founder + inventor of Spanx. When she started out, she didn’t have an ideal customer or customer avatar template, only a problem that she needed to solve for herself. She wanted shapewear that could be worn under white pants and not look awkward. So she created a product for her own problem (Spanx) and figured out how to sell it to more women.
Fast forward 15-odd years later, and Kim Kardashian took the same type of product (shapewear) and enhanced it for a specific customer avatar: customers who wanted fashionable shapewear, and in particular, BIPOC women who could never find the right shade of “nude” coloured undergarments. So she had a customer avatar template when she began: fashion-conscious women of colour who wanted comfortable and stylish shapewear.
Both women found success: but having a clear customer avatar certainly helped with the Kardashian brand, her celebrity notwithstanding.
Download the Customer Avatar Template now.
Customer Personas
In traditional business, entrepreneurship and marketing classes, students are taught about customer personas. Hypothetical “characters” you would like to sell your products to, crafted around certain factors:
- Demographics: age, gender, income, education etc
- Geography: Region/location
- Behaviour: Tendencies, habits, patterns
- Psychographics: Personality, attitude, interests
- Needs: Needs and must-haves of the individual
- Values: The economic value they are getting from your product
With customer personas, you are grouping people based on specific traits which you may or may not be completely accurate. For example, you may have a group of customers in Iceland who are very interested in purchasing swimwear and swimming gear because they have access to a heated pool throughout the year.
However, with a customer avatar template based on the Jobs To Be Done theory, you are putting the problem in focus and not hypothetical personas.
Customer Avatar Template
Looking at customers through a ‘Jobs-to-be-done (JTBD)’ lens fundamentally changes how we approach our customers. We study:
- How customers, markets and needs are defined
- How markets are segmented and sized, and ultimately
- How ideas are constructed and tested.
The tangible, real-world benefits of your product or service should help a customer overcome their struggles. The Customer Avatar Template helps you place customers into different categories/types or “avatars,” based on the Job To Be Done (JTBD) or the problem for which they need a solution.
There are 4 customer types/avatars based on the JTBD theory.
- The job beneficiary (the person who wants the job done/problem solved)
- The core job executor (the person using your product to get the job done)
- The product lifecycle support team (the person who is the supporting act in your product)
- The purchase decision-maker (the person who makes the purchase)
A customer avatar template is made using the theory of who needs to get the job done, who does the job, and who buys the product that gets the job done. Based on whether you are selling B2C or B2B, the avatars could be one person or many different people.
B2C: If your product is a maps application and your customer is a long-haul truck driver, then the job beneficiary, executor, support team and decision maker are all one person: the driver. He/she has a job to do (getting to a place on time) he/she will execute the job (driving) he/she will be the support team (working or using the app) and he/she will be the purchase decision maker (purchasing the app).
B2B: If you are selling a scalpel, then the customer avatar template will have 4 people involved.
- Patient (job beneficiary)
- Surgeon (job executor)
- Support staff/nursing staff (product support team)
- Hospital admin/procurement team (purchase decision maker).
Using the customer avatar template, you need to speak to each of the avatars.
Get Your Customer Avatar Template
Creating your own customer avatar template is a great starting point to refining your messaging — and even your product or service.
You can download it here (link to downloadable page)
If you’d like to learn more about our 15-week online course in STEM innovation, business and entrepreneurship, visit www.newledge.io
We take you through all the steps of an innovation project — from customer to product to market.
We teach how to build, market and sell innovative products and services.
And we equip you with industry-relevant skills that can help you pivot your career.
Interested? Write in to us at innovation@newledge.io
FAQs
How do you create a customer avatar?
You can create a customer avatar using hypothetical personas (which is a run of the mill methodology and not always accurate) or use the Jobs To Be Done theory to create a customer avatar template, and work from there.
What is an ideal customer avatar?
The ideal customer avatar will be based on the customer’s core pain point (the job they need to get done). The person who needs to get the job done, along with the person or persons involved in making the purchase decisions and the final purchase, will fall within your customer avatar template and constitute your ideal customer base.
How do I research my customer avatar?
The best way to research your customer avatars is by understanding their pain points and situations and creating your solution and marketing message around it. Using the jobs to be done theory, identify the pain point or core job to be done, the core job executor (the person who will be using your product or service) and the purchase decision maker. Understand what makes them tick and what matters most to them.