Do you know your target audience?

We mean, not just whom you need to reach, but what they need, want, and feel? Do you know what makes them anxious, alarmed, or scared? Do you have any idea what they think? What fires them up?

What they’ve tried before and liked, or completely failed? What makes them assured, calm, trusting, or confident and bold?

Hmmm. Maybe you don’t know your target audience. At least not well enough to connect on a meaningful level.

We recently read an enlightening blog post from Paul Graham, one of the founders of Y Combinator, the renowned start-up incubator. In the post, Graham detailed 13 tips for start-ups. Things like:

1. Pick good cofounders
2. Launch fast,
3. Let your idea evolve
4. Understand your users, and
5. Don’t get demoralized.

At the conclusion of his piece, Graham grew contemplative and wondered, if he could tell a start-up CEO just one of the thirteen tips, which would it be.

His answer: #4. Understand your users.

At Emotive Brand, our brand strategy is geared toward making your brand matter to people. In order to do that, we need to understand who these “people” are. That’s why we start our brand strategy process by understanding them thoroughly, through our proprietary Persona Mapping Workshop.

So, who really is your audience?

What if you have multiple customers in different categories or different job functions?  How does the Brand speak to people important to your brand, no matter who they are or what they do? At the brand level, your brand should be able to connect emotionally and meaningfully across the board.

At Emotive Brand, we aim to bring our clients into meaningful dialog with the people that most matter. At every touchpoint. One of the foundational tools is our Persona Mapping Workshop. To gain an accurate picture of your targets, we bring in top people from your company, from different departments and levels. And we put them to work. Together. The focus of this workshop is prioritizing your target audiences, working hard to we understand their needs and desires so the brand can connect more meaningfully with them.

When we’re done, we have accurate, deep, emotive portraits of the people you’re trying so hard to influence. We have an agreed model of their needs, wants, influences and pain points. The resulting persona maps make it clear to your organization precisely who your brand needs to talk to. And just as important, what to say to them.

To learn more about how persona mapping brings your customers into focus so your brand can have emotional impact on the people who matter, give us a ring.

Emotive Brand is a San Francisco branding agency.