Objective

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I was given a task to observe people crossing the street and categorize those people into a useful number of segments and create personas to represent one of those segments to creatives and PR folks.

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It would be great if we had the resources to deal with everyone as an individual. But in the advertising world stereotypes are useful. Persona is the kind of thing that will make you think "Oh, okay! She is just like my classmate Amy!". In general, those segments will be used to tailor campaigns differently depending on audience. In present case, the campaign message is: "binge drinking".

 

To really comprehend what makes each segment all different from others, we must also understand the attitudes, values, and behaviors of various segments. The question is: Can one infer attitudes and values from the behaviors of people crossing the street? The answer is, sort of … What I will do is to organize the data into a coherent model that segments the audience based upon the way in which they perceive the task of crossing the street and the behaviors they use in accomplishing that task. Then I will grasp the human insight that behaviors reflects – why do people behave like that? What does it tell us about them? How should we talk to them in the future?

 

The flow chart and the table below shows how subjects are put into different segments.