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How to define your Brand Avatar

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✍️ This Article is in Work In Progress and it's content subject to change.
Understand and define your target audience

Create your target audience beyond demographics,  targeting broadly yet precisely and integrating the brand into the buyer's life and aligns with the customer's identity and purpose.

Targeting Avatars

Building What the Market Needs, Not What You Want

Understanding the Buyer Persona

To create a brand that truly resonates, you need to immerse yourself in the mindset of your target audience—the 🧝 Avatar.

This isn’t just about demographics; it’s about understanding the individuals who will be impacted by your brand messages. As a marketer, your role is similar to that of an ethnographer, someone who studies and documents cultures and social behaviors through observation. You must deeply understand both yourself and your clients, acknowledging and setting aside any prejudices that might cloud your perspective.

Be obsessed by the Avatar

People who buy from your brand are not you. Step outside of your own frame of reference and focus on the needs and desires of your customers. Your goal is to be obsessed with the avatar, thinking deeply about their lives, challenges, and aspirations.

The Avatar Transformation Ladder

Let’s look at the different shapes our Avatar takes:

The Avatar Transformation Ladder

  1. Audience The general population, encompassing anyone who may be exposed to the brand → Unaware: The buyer doesn’t know they have a problem or need.
  2. Prospects Individuals who have the potential to become interested in the brand → Awareness: The buyer realizes they have a problem and starts looking for solutions.
  3. Leads Those who have expressed interest in the brand → Consideration: The buyer compares different options and thinks about which one is best.
  4. Customers Recurring buyers who make regular purchases, often without requiring personalized services or ongoing support → Purchase: The buyer decides to buy and completes the transaction.
  5. Clients Long-term buyers who engage in a more personalized relationship with the brand, often receiving tailored services or support → Loyalty: If the buyer is happy, they stick with your brand and might recommend it to others.

Target Broadly Yet Precisely

To remain competitive, avoid alienating potential customers by targeting too narrowly. Don’t over-niche; instead, target broadly but with precision. Brands that grow successfully appeal to a wide audience. Mass marketing with a single, simple message optimized for reach is often the most effective way to drive sales.

Remember, the customer needs to understand what makes your brand different —you already know what’s different, but does your prospect knows it?

Give them what they want

For example, when targeting electric vehicle users, don’t overly narrow your focus to a specific persona like “John, a 30-year-old tech worker in San Francisco who drives a Tesla. This and that income, listen to this music”, that approach will get you nowhere. Instead, consider the broader group of EV users who may face challenges with their vehicles.

By focusing on the pragmatic needs of the market, you ensure that your brand’s solutions reach a wider audience.

✍️ Next Steps
  • Identify your Avatar Needs & Desires for each steps of your Avatar Transformation, notice how the patterns can evolve the closer your Avatar warms up to a sale.
  • Identify your Broad Target, how are they aware of the differential factors of your Value Proposition?
  • Give them what they want, Identify the pragmatic needs your Brand resolve.

Profiling

Identifying the Prospect

To create a compelling brand Avatar, think abstractly but stay rooted in reality.

We’ll use a model inspired by the Logical Levels to define it with precision.

The Avatar Logical Levels

Spirituality & Purpose

✍️ Define their Vision & Ambition

This level explores the Avatar existential aspects, such as:

  • What is their overarching purpose or raison d'être, seeking fulfillment through choices, including brand interactions?
  • What is their spiritual or philosophical outlook guiding their values and brand alignments?
  • Define their Ambition:

Identity

✍️ Define their Mission & Role

Identity is the culmination of the Avatar self-concept, emerging from:

  • How they perceive themselves, including their self-image and aspirations?
  • What are the internalized narratives about themselves that influence their buying behavior and brand preferences?
  • Define their Identity:

Goals, Values & Beliefs

✍️ Motivation & Permission

These are which choices guiding the Avatar actions, including:

  • What values motivate their choices? like ease, comfort, sustainability or quality...
  • What are the deep-seated beliefs that shape their worldview and influence purchasing decisions.
  • What are the Goals, aspirations and outcomes that they seek to achieve?

Competence & Capabilities

✍️ Emotion & Intellect

This is how achieve their own choices, their Avatar’s skills and potential, impacting:

  • How is their ability to navigate life’s challenges and setbacks?
  • What is the depth of their expertise in relevant areas of your Brand?
  • What are their health and financial stability, which influence purchasing power?
  • What can they achieve?

Behavior

✍️ Action & Reaction

This is how the Avatar behave, representing their actions and reactions, influenced by:

  • What are their innate, unconscious drives like desires and emotional triggers?
  • How are the interactions with Brands ?
  • How do they seek social validation?
  • What are the conscious choices, needs and habits, including shopping patterns and brand loyalty?

Environment & Community

✍️ Opportunities & Constraints

This is where the Avatar lives, and with who — their space, culture, and the time they live in. The environment encompasses:

  • What are the places and location they frequent?
  • Which are the social groups and communities shaping their perspectives and behaviors?
  • Which zeitgeist or spirit of the times influence their tastes and purchasing decisions?

Integrating Your Brand Into the Avatar’s Life

Ensuring Your Brand Fits Seamlessly Into the Customer’s World

To successfully integrate your brand into the life of your target avatar, consider how your brand can transform various aspects of their experience:

  • PurposeOwnership
  • IdentityClient
  • BeliefsConviction
  • CapabilitiesExpertise
  • BehaviorBuying Habits
  • EnvironmentAvailability

Frameworks

Fill the fields to generate your prompt.

Spirituality

Identity

Goals

Capabilities

Behavior

Environment

All answers
Spirituality [Insert Avatar Spirituality] Identity [Insert Avatar Identity] Goals [Insert Avatar Goals] Capabilities [Insert Avatar Capabilities] Behavior [Insert Avatar Behavior] Environment [Insert Avatar Environment]