"A great offer will genuinely move a customer to a desired “After” state…
...and great marketing simply articulates the move from the “Before” state to the desired 'After' state." - Ryan Diess
Ultimately we want to create an irresistible offer to our target (who we affectionately named Matt last post). What does Matt want?
The process of understanding a market is iterative. Our first sketch is always off. But by articulating what we believe, we are able to begin validating (or invalidating) our thoughts with reality.
The main tool we use to accomplish this is called a Customer Avatar.
Sketching the Before State
The first section of my avatar is always the before state. What does the average day feel like?How does Matt experience his day to day?
I am really trying to experience life as Matt. To do this, I utilize a few tricks.
- The Customer is the Main Character - We all view the world through first person. When I write, I place our customer (Matt) as the hero.
- Start in the morning - articulate everything. What time do they get up? What are their first thoughts? What app do they open first on their phone? Why?
- Focus on setting - Setting is one of the easiest things to image, and it gets your mind in the right state to begin understanding the harder questions of internal struggle and psychographics.
Matt's Average Day (Before State)
To help illustrate, I've included what I wrote for our target market, Matt.
Matt wakes up at 5:49AM.
His alarm has been blaring for 4 minutes but he's just become conscious of it. He punches the button down. For the next 10 minutes he moves quickly on autopilot. It's the same every morning. Plus, he gets to "sleep" an extra 10.
Play Music - Spotify through iPhone ear buds. Kendric Lamar playlist..
Gets Dress - compression shorts, workout shirt, headband, socks.
Brush Teeth - 1 minute. Colgate. Never flosses.
Pre-Workout - 2 scoops (Hawaiian Punch flavor) + ice + water. Shake well and chug.
Matt is now ready. His last ritual before going out: double knotting his beat to death Nikes.
It's just shy of 1.5 miles to the gym. He makes it in 11.3 minutes.
Today is leg day. Matt loves leg day. Matt wishes he dreamt of leg day because he loves it so much. Unfortunately, he never remembers his dreams.
As Matt walks in he sees Jerry, aka "P-Ski" (no one knows why they call him P-Ski), and his girlfriend Courtney are already there.
"Ready?"
"Always"
Music blasting and 80 minutes later he is spent. He catches a ride back with P-Ski and Courtney to his place.
The first thing in the blender is a banana. That's quickly followed by two raw eggs, 2 scoops of cookies & cream protein, 2 ice cubes, and somewhere around a cup and a half of skim milk.
It takes longer to blend than drink.
Next is breakfast.
Like his shake, Matt hasn't switched up his breakfast since he started working out 136 weeks ago.
Two handfuls of spinach get tossed into a hot skillet. A little salt. A little pepper. Then he adds the beans and three eggs.
He wolfs it. Matt hops in the shower, dresses, and is back in front of the fridge in less than 7 minutes.
It's 7:40. He's got a gallon of water in his left hand, two prepped snacks and lunch in his backpack, and Kendrick Lamar in his ears.
It's a good day.
4 hours later Matt is popping a large tupperware container into the microwave.
At the ding, he takes the 8 ounces of chicken breast and plops it on his salad: 5 oz spinach, a carrot, and sliced tomato. Lunch time.
3 hours later Matt is at Whole Foods. Having bought the same group of ingredients for the past year or so, he is flying. First he hits the produce section.
Spinach, carrots, onions, broccoli, tomato, bananas, lettuce.
Next he is grabbing four packages of chicken breasts before hitting the dairy.
By his cart it looks like he is shopping for a small family. In reality it's stuffed with the core ingredients he needs for the week.
Conclusion
This is the first step in understanding Matt.
As we research, talk to real customers, and begin selling, our understanding will improve. This story will be rewritten, closer and closer to how Matt lives without our product.
Next, we'll be diving into the harder questions. What is important to Matt? What does he care about? What does he view as his core responsibilities? What pain does he feel, and what would he wish for if he met a genie?
If you liked this article, you can catch up on the series below.
Live Case Study - Selecting a Target Market
You can find the sister series Urban Farming here.
Selecting Our Crops! | Urban Farming Day 1
Understanding DTM! | Urban Farming Day 2
Spacing Crops | Urban Farming Day 3
Lastly, all proceeds go to farm.
I'm documenting for a few reasons.
First, as tribute to the amazing content producers before me. You've given me confidence to start this project, and I hope others will be inspired in the same way.
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Stephan