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Dancing Personas

Garth Beyer

Personas are built, not bred.

Marketers establish their buyers’ persona to give them direction on how to communicate.

Kids establish their everything is silly and cute persona to get out of spilling the cup of juice you gave them in the pool.

I’ve established this persona of allowing myself to be vulnerable so it makes it easier to ship something each day.

Personas are incredibly interesting because they are ever-changing, always dancing. We, as marketers and as people, have the ability to influence the persona of others, but we’re also forced to update our persona when it doesn’t work anymore.

Leaving direct mail on the doorway handles of people’s homes used to work for a construction business. It fit their buyer’s persona…until it didn’t. Same with the kid and his juice. Silly and cute only works for so long. And it will be interesting to see if being vulnerable ever stops working for me. (I assume it will once it becomes constantly expected.)

While no persona lasts forever, we have a say in the longevity of it for ourselves and others.

I have a young friend who you would think is an old man by how much he aches, complains, and doesn’t care what comes out of his mouth. Not to mention how slow he drives. Since his friends (including myself) always call him a geezer and point out all the things that make him an old man, he continues to fill the shoes of that persona.

Michael and I chatted about this phenomena on our podcast (episode 9) when discussing why people become referees. Since recognizing my influence, I’ve started pointing out all the things that make my friend young and I holler at those who feed his old man persona.

Personas are simply a new name for category, and humans are naturally categorical in thinking, in acting, in deciding to buy product X or product Z, but they don’t often realize it.

Being the best you, making a positive impact on others, and crafting the greatest marketing message is almost all rooted in your understanding of the personas of those you’re engaging with as well as yourself.

 

Stay Positive & Now You Know, Leverage It

Is It This Or Is It That

Garth Beyer

Hanksy

It’s frustrating that everyone wants to categorize, compartmentalize, and label everything that enters their life. It seems as though our brain was designed as a sorting structure. I can just picture little minions analyzing each thought and deciding what folder to place it in. That may be how it works, but that’s not how we grow.

Reading up on street fartist, Hanksy, I came across this interview gem.

EA:  Speaking of serious, it seems like the moment you try and talk about art that is on the streets, you immediately run into these competing definitions—street art vs. tags vs. graffiti. Do you think the insistence on different categories has a place in the conversation about art, or is that boring?

Hanksy:  You run into all the time. It’s frustrating. It’s like asking “What is art? What isn’t art?” I feel like the terms mean different things to different people. One person’s vandalism can be seen as another’s artistic expression. It is what it is. The internet, and people in general, will always attempt to lump things into categories. And they’ll always argue over it. When I first moved NYC, I’d go on these long runs, all throughout lower Manhattan. And I’d see Muffin Milk everywhere. Different versions. And I’m like, “Wow this guy sure loves cursive.” Turns out it’s a t-shirt company or something. Is that street art? I considered it to be, despite the end goal of selling merchandise.

It’s one thing to be objective, it’s another to be subjective. But that categorization of either is exactly my point. Everyone has their own view. We grow by understanding how others categorize and label their experiences, not by doing so to ourselves.

 

Stay Positive & Don’t Just Read, Read Others

Garth E. Beyer

Photo credit

As promised from yesterday, here are five new sources I read from.

TED talks are lying to you – I don’t usually read Salon, but this was cool.

Arts & Letters Daily – always a good place to find variety

Dreamscape – images and music speak as loud, if not louder than words

It’s Nice That – it’s nice that this is so nice…just awesome

Neotorama – nothing more than neat stuff (not really something to read, but a swell way to break between reads)

Bonus: Here’s a test to discover if someone sees your point of view (HT to David Pink.)