Customer Insights - Blog 1

I'm about to dig deep into the persona that is Janet Loraine, a 62 year old female whom I have known my entire life. She is my best friend’s mother, and I happened to meet my friend when I was only one. Well, I personally didn’t introduce myself to him, but our moms met in a “mommy and me” class (yes they have that) and the rest is history. This should be pretty interesting, because as I sit down to write this I actually have no idea how it is going to go. Hopefully well I guess!

So where is she at now? She got divorced many years ago and now lives on her own in Southern California in a very nice condominium. She actually just bought the place about 3 years ago and she loves it. It is incredibly well decorated with cool gadgets, artwork, and some big screen TV’s. It isn’t too big but definitely more than enough for one person, and even enough for when her son and his friends (yes that includes me!) come over to hang out and watch some football and eat her food. She loves providing for her son and his friends and can typically be found on a football Sunday making breakfast burritos or at the very least heading to McDonalds to pick up some egg McMuffins. She’s from Miami and is a Dolphins fan despite knowing almost nothing about football. As is the case with most mothers, I believe she likes to cheer for them so much because her son does and it is a way to stay connected. NOTHING in this world is more important than her son, and even with all the positive things going on around her, he is truly all that matters. Does she spoil him? Absolutely!

Janet works as head of human resources for a large logistics company where she probably manages over 200 people that work in the warehouse. She has been with this company for over 10 years and has moved up into a pretty powerful position given the tremendous job she has done. She loves her job and the people she works with. Janet speaks fluent Spanish, and given most of the workers in the warehouse are of Hispanic descent, she is able to interact with them every day. They really love her and look up to her and her decisions. These relationships are incredibly important to her and make going to work a fun and rewarding experience.

In her free time she likes to be social. She has several close friends and they like to go out to dinners and for drinks (more often for drinks!) fairly often. Ketel on the rocks with some muddled cucumber does the trick for her. No crappy vodka here! I’ve shared more than a few cocktails with her in my day and while I consider myself a professional drinker, she ain’t too far behind me that’s for sure. She also goes on several mini-vacations with the girls, where they sit poolside and drink cocktails and go out to nice dinners. Janet definitely loves to laugh and be social – always with family and friends.

She is her own person, not heavily influenced by others and she is always extremely kind to those around her. She’ll watch TV and will talk about the latest hot reality TV show, and is definitely up to date on all the important celebrity gossip. She likes to spoil herself as well from time to time, most recently a few years ago she bought a brand new Mercedes. She’ll also dabble in some new jewelry, and will often go out for dinner at her favorite sushi restaurant. She’s willing and able to spend money on nice things but she is more interested in expensive experiences with the people she cares about as opposed to tangible items.

Janet is incredibly happy with her life at this point. She has a great job which she loves. She has very close friends she goes out with a lot. And most importantly, she has her son. She would do literally anything for him and most of what she does in her life revolves around making sure he is ok and taken care of. I don’t know this for sure but I am highly confident her biggest fear in life is anything happening to him. She would love grandkids, so yelling at him to find a girlfriend and get married is a top priority on a daily basis. Lord only knows how much she would spoil that grandchild I should probably start thinking about getting in the baby clothing business for when that time comes!

So that was fun! Janet’s persona is pretty simple on the surface, though I imagine if we dug deeper it would get more complex. She has a pretty set routine of working during the week, socializing with friends and family during the weekend, and constantly interacting with her son during all of that. So now I have to think, if I were trying to market to Janet, what products and services would I provide? I’ll get back to you.