Personality Profiles: Finding Your Audience in the Matrix  

QUICK – Are you taking the red pill, or the blue pill?

The blue pill seems way safer, so we’re obviously picking that – end of story. On second thought, the red pill is a nice color, and taking it will make us seem brave, so maybe we should go with that one. Wait a minute, which one is more popular? Who has taken the red, and who has taken the blue? Actually, come to think of it, this is a really sketchy situation. How about you tell us what’s in the pills, where you got them, and why in the world you’re wearing sunglasses inside, Morpheus. Then we’ll make a decision.

People make decisions based on all kinds of different criteria. Some people make impulsive decisions, trusting their gut instincts and brazenly making a choice. Others are drawn to the option that makes them look best, putting their image above all else. Some seek counsel from their communities, calling upon others for their recommendations and advice. And others need to investigate all sources of information, and all available details, assessing and reassessing until they spiral into a state of decision-paralysis. Any of these sound like you?

In one of our previous posts, we talked about the difference between demographic and psychographic characteristics, and the strengths that each set of data brings to the table when narrowing down your target audience. As strong as each data set is on its own, however, they’re ultimately stronger when paired together to create personality profiles.

What are personality profiles?

In our process that we call Razor Branding™, we compile your audience’s demographics and psychographics to develop a working-image of your audience that we can reference when developing your brand strategy and creating content. We outline their age, gender, location, occupation, goals, interests, pain points, sources of influence, which social media they use, and most importantly – their decision criteria. We even give them a name and a picture to bring it all to life.

Some may say that going to such lengths is an unnecessary step in developing marketing campaigns. If you have all your demographics narrowed down, why bother adding the fluff of psychographics and developing personality profiles?

We do this because talking to one person is easier than talking to the masses. When you put your demographics and psychographics together, you can think of your target audience as an individual person. Creating content that resonates on an emotional level with an individual is much more attainable than trying to do that with the masses. 

Another big reason we do this is because people reach decisions in different ways. Hence, all the ways you can approach the red pill, blue pill dilemma. Adding psychographics to the equation allows us to examine your audience’s decision criteria, which tells us the types of content we need to create to elicit a response from them.

Now, when we talk about personality profiles and the different ways people reach decisions, we first have to tip our hats to Sanders Consulting Group, who developed the following framework for personalities based on the four components of a traditional ad: the headline, the body copy, the illustration, and the logo.

1:  THE HEADLINE

The brazenly confident, quick decision-maker

Headlines are all about following their guts. They read the headline of an article, skim the rest of the copy, and make a decision without looking back. If their decision doesn’t work out, they pivot and correct just as confidently. No stress, no sweat, and no details.

2:  t h e    b o d y    c o p y

The perpetually indecisive overthinker

The Body Copies are the exact opposite of the Headlines. They are all about the details, acting as equal opportunity investigators, spending countless hours researching websites, case studies, and everything else they can get their clutches on. They have questions about their list of questions.

3:  The Illustration

The image-concerned aesthetics-seeker

The Illustrations are all about image and visuals. They are early-adopters, making choices based on what they think will make them look the best, feel the best, and be the best.

4:  The Logo™

The community consultant

Logos are all about the “we.” They want to know who’s already tried what before pitching their tents in one camp or another, often relying on testimonials, recommendations, and reviews before making a choice.

The headline picks the blue pill because it’s obviously logical. The illustration picks the red pill to seem brave. The logo wants to know what everyone else is doing before making a choice. And the body copy can’t make a choice because they don’t have enough information and the whole situation is a bit too mysterious.

For the most part, this framework is incredibly helpful when analyzing peoples’ decision criteria and developing an appropriate brand strategy. Now, there is always room for the outliers – those who are maybe a whole lot of Headline and a little bit of Illustration, or half Body Copy and half Logo, so on and so forth. They’re a bit more challenging to nail down, but generally display more traits of one category than they do in the others. Who knows what Neo was (spoiler alert – he picks the red pill).

The point is, when you learn how people make decisions, you learn how to talk to them in a way that will matter. By creating personality profiles of your audience and analyzing their decision criteria, we can create content that speaks their language – giving them the information they need and delivering it at the right time, in the right place, and in the right way. And when you’re speaking the same language, you’re creating an emotional connection that, over time, moves consumers from states of mere awareness to genuine advocacy.

If your target audience relies on opinions from others, we know we need to develop a campaign that positions you as a trusted company, developing strategies to boost customer testimonials and then placing them in channels your audience interacts with. If your audience is concerned with images and appearances, we know we need to focus on the value your product, service, or company will add to their lives, relying on visual aids to tell the story. If your audience is the type to perform research and then research their research, we know we need to position you as thought leaders, creating content chock-full of value that they can analyze over and over. And if your audience is a headline, well, we know we need to write a good headline.

We might not wear black trench coats and sunglasses all day, but we do work to build brands that last every day. Want to find out how we can do it for yours, too? Go ahead and give us a call. If you’re on the fence, try taking our assessment. (For all the Body Copies out there, try not to overthink this one).