Personas can be a force multiplier in reaching your three categories of non-customers – the Edge Non-customers, the Refuse Non-customers, and Unknown Non-customers.
Algorithmically-Generated Personas are great for humanized representation of your existing customers presented in understandable chunks of information. These data-driven personas are great for team communication while creating content and designing systems, along with customer presentations to the C-level folks.
Using gap analysis, one can identify and then create Gap Personas representing those who are just like your existing customers, but for some reason, you are not reaching them. These are the people who should be your customers – the potential customers. Gap personas can help with marketing and advertising to reach these gap customers.
You can create Anti-Personas to identify the customers that you do not want. Anti-Personas can be used to avoid wasting organizational resources on a customer segment you do not want to interact with.
Personas are also great for identifying your non-customers — the people you want as customers but don’t yet have. There are three types of non-customers, and persona can help with each.
The Edge Non-customers are those that know of your product but for some reason have not yet become customers, even though they want to. The reason is often price, quality, customer service, scale, or something else related directly to your product or organization. Once the pain point is identified, Edge Personas can help the organization devise effective tactics to address and identify channels to communicate the solutions to the Edge non-customers.
The Refuse Non-customers are those that know of your product, for some reason rejected it, and are using some other competing product, often products that are not even in your industry. Refuse Personas can help the organization brainstorm effective long terms strategies and product evaluations. If successful, Refuse Personas can help to communicate the new products or service solutions to the Refuse non-customers.
The Unknown Non-customers are those people that your company has not even considered as potential customers for your industry’s product or services. Unknown Personas can help the organization evaluate and define new markets, products, and services. If successful, Unknown Personas can help to guide the organization during the development of these products and services.
So, the different types of personas and their use
- Algorithmically-Generated Personas: existing customers
- Gap Personas: potential customers
- Anti-Personas: people that you do not want as customers
- Edge Personas: people that know of your product but for some reason have not yet become customers
- Refuse Personas: people that know of your product but for some reason rejected it
- Unknown Personas: people not even considered as potential customers
Interested in methods to create personas (of any type)? See …
Jansen, B. J., Jung, S. G., Nielsen, L., Guan, K., & Salminen, J. (2022). Strengths and Weaknesses of Three Common Approaches for the Creation of Personas: Strategies and Opportunities for Practical Employment. Pacific Asia Journal of the Association for Information Systems. 4(3), Article 1.