A case study

A client of ours found itself in the expectation-meeting business; not the expectation-blowing-away business.

They realized that in order to exceed their customers' expectations they could no longer continue with their broad-based, one-size-fits-all marketing efforts. They needed to raise their game to a higher-level -- and to do so would require a richer understanding of their customer base.

They had questions that needed answering: What made each customer segment unique? What was keeping them up at night? What did they need most and expect from their experience?

In an effort to connect with their customers in a meaningful way, our client engaged us for an ethnographic research project. Following hours of rich interviews with their customers, we distilled their customer stories and developed five unique personas that provided client stakeholders with emotion-based inspiration and specific direction to unlocking the keys to their customers.

Not only have these personas given multiple interdisciplinary teams a deep appreciation for who their customers are, they've also enabled employees to speak with customers in their language, and exceed their expectations. 

"We know our customers now," says a senior vice president of marketing. "We get them. It's transforming the way we think about our customers, internally. Being able to have a persona overview of an example customer and being able to understand what they are about and how do you communicate with them, that's gold."