Developing Buyer Personas

     As a nonprofit, government organization, the Education and Incentives Office is structured under Recruiting and Retention Command of the Texas Army National Guard (TXARNG). Education and Incentives offers a service [as oppose to a product] to potential, existing, and former military members and their families. As a recruiting and retention tool for our parent organization, our overarching goal is to enable access to benefits and incentive entitlements and promote higher learning to enhance our forces. We want all 20,000 members of our organization to have the opportunity to receive entitlements they are eligible for (incentives) and also to pursue higher learning in the civilian sector whether it be a degree, certificate, license, or apprenticeship program (education). What we are selling (so to speak) is financial assistance, in many cases up to 100% of program costs.

   

  “A buyer persona is essentially a representative of a type of buyer that you have identified as having a specific interest in your organization or product or having marketing problem that your product or service solves” (Scott, 2013). To learn about our buyers in order to develop specific personas, we would simply interview current and potential customers. When we visit units to conduct information briefings, we would ask the audience to fill out a survey. This method would allow us to reach potential customers. When we have customers visit the office, we would also ask them questions in order to gather this information. Two popular examples of buyer personas for the TXARNG Education & Incentive Office would be:

GI Joe (aka "Mr. Undecided"). Mission first, education later...

GI Joe: a Soldier, between the ages of 18-24 in any Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) that joined the TXARNG out of high school. He joined the military to serve his country but chose the TXARNG because he has aspirations of going to college full-time to pursue a civilian career that would require at least a Bachelor’s level degree. He knows college is important to be competitive in most career paths, but has a hard time choosing which college to apply for admission. He has an idea of some major areas of concentration he is interested in, but is generally undecided. Because of his indecisiveness, coupled with employment and service in the TXARNG, he stalls on applying for school. While there are many education benefits available, navigating through each one to figure out what he is eligible for is confusing. He may get deployed overseas or even within the state. He may be required to attend other training for his MOS that is in another state. “I’ll just wait to go to school until after I finish this mission/training”. In addition to degree paths and determining financials, he needs help figuring out how to balance work, school, and military service. He is active on various social media sites but most active in Facebook and Instagram. He communicates solely via text. He relies on the internet for information and finds paper “so 2010”.    

GI Jane on her way to the Education & Incentives Office...she's mission focused.

GI Jane: a Veteran, between the ages of 35-40 who has served for at least 10 years in the TXARNG. She has been deployed at least once since 9/11. She is now married and has children. She’s used some of her education benefits in the past and has obtained a Bachelor’s degree. She has no desire to pursue a graduate level degree.  Her oldest child is at least middle school age. She has chosen a career in the military and intends to continue to serve until she is eligible to retire. She has a good job and makes a middle range salary but hasn’t saved a lot of money for her children’s college. She is concerned about how she and her husband are going to be able to pay for their children to go to college in the near future. She knows that there are some options out there that her kids are qualified for due to her service and deployment time but she has no idea where to begin to find out the details. She is extremely busy balancing family, work, and military service. She plans ahead and relies on her calendar for all of her tasks and appointments. She prefers to speak with a “live” person. She is active on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. She subscribes to Women’s Health magazine. She opts in for push notifications for coupons from Target and breaking news from CNN.

     According to Scott, “You should develop an editorial plan to reach your buyers with focused content in the media they prefer” (2013). Both GI Jane and GI Joe are active users of social media, however they prefer different communication mediums. GI Joe may prefer to communicate digitally, while GI Jane prefers a mixed messaging of traditional and new media. Additionally, GI Joe’s needs are personal in nature while GI Jane is planning for her children’s future. In order to focus the content, we would leverage social media that appeals to GI Joe to reach his buyer persona. Our website might encourage him to “follow us” and we may dialogue with his buyer persona digitally at first to develop a rapport, then in person much later in the process if necessary. For GI Jane, we may focus on web content to steer her buyer persona to call or visit our office in person because we have guidance counselors standing by to give her personalized and individual attention to meet her needs.

Thanks Mike Arcigal for a great discussion topic for Week 4. I look forwarding to reading yours, Kelly, and Brian’s comments on this topic!

References:

Scott, D.M. (2013). The new rules of marketing and PR: How to use social media, blogs, news releases, online video, & viral marketing to reach buyers directly. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons