Best Buy Personas

Hurray! Another company who gets it. Best Buy is using personas to redesign their stores. And they have more than one persona. Another Hooooyaaaah. They have Buzz (the young tech enthusiast), Barry (the wealthy professional man), Ray (the family man) and, Jill.

In the Washington Post’s article – Retail – Profiling for Profit, Best Buy talks about “Jill” and the changes they made to the store in order to accommodate her.

"Jill,"is a  code name for a soccer-mom type who is the main shopper for the family but usually avoids electronics stores. She is well-educated and usually very confident, but she is intimidated by the products at Best Buy and the store clerks who spout words like gigabytes and megapixels.

 Ok – I’m smelling stereotype here. But let’s see what changes they’ve made to accommodate Jill.

 

Pink, red and white balloons festoon the entrance. TVs play "The Incredibles." There is an expanded selection of home appliances as well as new displays stocked with Hello Kitty, Barbie and SpongeBob SquarePants electronic equipment.

Well – you’ve certainly made the store more “kid friendly.” What else

 

To customers, this group (devoted to helping Jill) is known as personal shopping associates, and its members wear pastels instead of the royal blue shirts that other salespeople in the store sport.

Do the pastel shirts still clearly mark them as Best Buy Employees? Why change the color of the shirts? Did this cause any confusion? Does Jill wonder why an employee in a pastel shirt is helping her while men are helped by the normal looking employees in the usual branded colors?

 

The employees offer to walk her to her car in the rain with a pink umbrella. 

Ok, love the umbrella, but why that pink again? Why not use the big bright brand colors? Make her last image of you an umbrella that’s branded with your colors instead of “pink”. 

 

We’re officially stepped off the train into stereotypeland. So what else?

The music over the loudspeakers has been turned down a notch and is usually a selection of Jill's favorites, such as James Taylor and Mariah Carey. 

Ok – Stop. James Taylor? James Taylor?????? Mariah Carey, ok if it’s her latest album – but James Taylor???? What else do they play, Anne Murray? John Denver? Look at any Adult Contemporary playlist (they target the coveted female 25-54 market) and will you find James Taylor? No. What you will find is Kelly Clarkson, Maroon 5, Sheryl Crow, Shania Twain, and Matchbox 20.

I’m not saying Best Buy has Jill completely wrong – there is definitely a “mother” who “lives for her children” who would be thrilled to be greeted by Sponge Bob Square Pants and The Incredibles playing on the TV’s. Training employees to be helpful without spouting “techno speak” and making the environment less testosterone driven is definitely going to help your sales with women.

Best Buy’s increase in sales speaks for itself – they are obviously having success thanks to their better understanding of “Jill.”

But I think there’s a minimum of one other female persona they need to address. How about the Type-A woman business owner? Or a more electronically savvy divorced woman who’s setting up a home of her own and looking for a wide screen TV?

 Here are a few interesting statistics to ponder:

1 – women spend more on technology than men

2 – women are involved in almost 75% of all electronic purchases

3 – women are increasing interested in gadgets, from DVDs, to iPods, to digital cameras for themselves and for their families

Best Buy may have more personas that weren’t cited in this article, but if they don’t, I’d have to ask – you feel men are different enough that they need at least 3 different personas to encompass their different buying processes. Do you think all women can fit into one persona? 

Another question – how do you handle “Jill” on your website? Hmmm – may have to take a look at that. Let me fire up my pink computer, grab my pink notebook and ponder the site through my pink framed glasses. (wink)

Comments

[Judd]

"Do you think all women can fit into one persona?"
You hit the nail on the head. As a recently reformed Buzz, now a Ray I have to say that fact stuck out right from the start. I guess anyone not fitting a stereotype has to fend for themselves while the stereotypical ones get special treatment.

[Mike]

They don't group everyone into the one group, the groups they named are the profitable ones that they target. If you don't fall into a group they aren't going to ignore you, they just won't target you.

[Suz]

There are more female personas such as Carrie which is very high tech, to Maria which is married to Ray, theres also a persona to Jill. So each male has a female counterpart.

[Joanie Fagan]

I produce a nationally touring standup comedy show called 3 Blonde Moms, and our demogrpahic buys our tickets in bulk. We talk about all of this that you write about,we are in a secret society, or so it seems at times, and we are shoppers of the world. We research products, use word of mouth to purchase wisely, thank you for all of this information and validation!

[dust]

Tdwu4D gps34JsDl901Wp4kV

[herefast123]

http://www.batteryfast.co.uk/gateway/6500358.htm gateway 6500358 battery,

[herefast123]

http://www.batteryfast.co.uk/acer/bat30n3l.htm acer bat30n3l battery,

[Viagra Online]

I think it is true what you say on this site, in fact in the university recently a study on this and it is very true, thanks for the info!

[Small Business Loan]

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Thank you,
Paige

[Small Business]

Great article! I do think that women have insights on gadgets and technology! I think women do more research before buying something as to men are more splurge when they see something they like.

Small Business
http://www.ezbusinessloans.com/faq.html

[Business Loans]

I recently came across your post and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that it caught my interest and you've provided informative points. I will visit this blog often. Thank you.

[refurbished computers]

They don't group everyone into the one group, the groups they named are the profitable ones that they target. If you don't fall into a group they aren't going to ignore you, they just won't target you.

[Nursing gowns]

cool! interesting post! The latin word derived from the Etruscan word "phersu", with the same meaning, and its meaning in the latter Roman period changed to indicate a "character" of a theatrical performance.

[red cross cna classes]

H, as sick as it sounds I completely agree. It is about time an american car company gets their "box." The styling of this is no worse than any others, and in some cases it appears better.

I hope designers kept what I feel to be one of the best features of these type of vehicles (Xb, Fit, Cube), that being the entrance height of the vehicle. I think that is one of the biggest reasons older folks like them, they don't sit low and the seating position is upright.

What worries me about this vehicle is that under the GMC label, it is likely to be priced higher than others. But hopefully there would be a little badge engineering, with some style modifications...

[Dave]

Your brief comments on the musical selections for Jill left me amused and frustrated in equal portions. Way back in '99, I did a little empirical research paper about musical selection in the retail environment. I found that very few retailers actually 'knew' their clientele. A&F and Lane Bryant were on the top of my list; these cats really got it and nailed the perfect soundtracks for the ultimate shopping experience. While I have noticed in the past 10+ years, services like XM have somewhat improved musical selections so that they were more appropriate for the customers actually shopping, I am still completely baffled by some musical choices. Despite the best efforts of marketing teams to create something like a typical persona, music is one of many soft areas that go understudied and therefore misunderstood. Most people are not conscious of music selection while shopping (other than volume), but deep within, "Jill" may feel ill at ease hearing "You've Got a Friend". Tsk. Jill might run away screaming, if it weren't for the nice people in pastel.

[business card scanner]

Being in charge of the marketing of electronic stores is much harder than any other store, you have so many phases in the road for a great sale - from making the potential buyers to need or want stuff like you sell, throughout make them come to your store and until make them buy something..so many problems in the way.

[angie]

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Thank you,
Business loans

[angie]

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog
Business

[TysonDalokohs]

So how do they determine the persona of a specific product or an entire product line? What would be the persona of a service like copper repipe? Is it a man? Concerned housewife? Who makes these decisions?
http://www.copperrepipe.org

[Thomas J. Couzens]

Marketing to Women is the "Now" and will continue to grow in the future. Men need to understand the "hint" language that women have. With the rise in the economy due to women, they will continue to earn more and influence more decisions.

Thomas.

[wooratommye]

click silver apple pendant silver chain jewelry for more silver dragon jewelry silver circle bracelet with confident

[Logo design]

Not a big fan of the subject but a good read none the less.

[EV SSL]

Thanks for the sharing this with all of us, of course What a great site and informative post. I will bookmark this site. Keep doing your great job and always gain my support.

[Renew SSL]

Great source of information to share with the readers that's awesome i will take advantage from this and will these stuffs will be available for the users.

[Long Beach Island Rentals]

Good work. This is some important stuff that you have shared here. Hopefully people will like it.