How to Describe Consumer Behavior

Describe consumer behavior of your product or service.

Write about a specific person in a target segment. One who uses your product or service. Use descriptions to represent target segments.

Why write a description of person who typifies a segment?

You get a clear view about target prospects and customers. The person makes the market segmentation real, in your mind.

Descriptions of real people help you develop products and ads. You develop products, services, and ads for specific people, not abstract segments.

Written descriptions of people in segments focus management attention, unite understanding, and align purpose. Product managers, ad managers, marketing managers, sales managers, production managers, and executives have the same descriptions.

If your person typifies your target segment, he or she is the one everyone in your organization needs to understand. You want to know the person as well as your good friend or neighbor. Who they are, what they do, what they think, and what they feel…about your products or services.

You are counting on people in the target segment to give you revenue and profit.

How to describe consumer behavior and attitudes

Take the findings from depth interviews or focus groups, and then describe and classify four or five segments.

First, label each segment.

Then write a description of a person who typifies each segment. It can be real person or fictitious person. Use a real real person if you can. It's reality.

Describe each person in one or two pages. Use respondents’ word for word quotes to highlight specific points. Add a picture of a person. Give the person a name. Use persona descriptions as a marketing research tool.

Include the following items in each description:

Behaviors

• how they use the product
• how they buy the product
• how they become aware of the product
• media they use

Attitudes

• why they use the product
• problems they are trying to solve
• needs and wants
• features they like and dislike
• benefits they seek
• perceptions, feelings, and beliefs
• why they select one brand over others

Demographics

• age
• income, assets
• gender
• profession
• family size
• marital status
• geography
• education
• ethnicity

You can also do the same for business markets by describing business segments. Use corporate data, and describe attitudes and behaviors.

• job title
• job responsibility
• product involvement
• product buyers and influencers
• company size
• employees
• financials
• geography
• industry classification

Pick valuable segments to target. Develop products, positioning, and advertising for each target segment.

Describing consumer behavior helps you to understand real people, not abstract segments.

Also see the article How to Use Qualitative Research in Market Segmentation.

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