Blog 2

When I begin to consider the different classifications of personas, I am in the category of the fit and stylish student (persona from the Cohorts Vignette); however, only in a general sense. There are many things that are different about me than the average female in this category. In other words, I would label myself in a distinct category: female students’ approaching the real world.

The demographics of this persona include an age range of 20-25 years old female college students. They are about to graduate and will be soon facing important decisions that could shape the rest of their life. The majority of the women are not married but could potentially be in a serious relationship that could affect the geographic decisions. There are no children involved as well. Income level is very minimal considering they maintain part-time jobs to get them through college.

For a woman in this category, this is the most pivotal time in which life decisions are being made. The females in this category are about to graduate from college and will soon decide what their next step is. They have many interests and are savvy in the latest technology. While they are considering which jobs may suite them best, they also have loved learning and being a student.

Their multitude of interests has allowed them many choices for the next phase of their life. Essentially, the questions being asked are: should she look into further schooling after graduation? Should she pursue a career, and if so, what career path would she like to go into? Should she take advantage of the opportunity of her youth and travel the world? Finally, should she consider settling down, building a foundation and potentially marrying?

A primary characteristic of her personality is planning. She likes to know her plans well in advance as well as make as many schedules and lists for them as possible. The inability to determine her life makes planning difficult. Likewise, the unrecognizable future makes her fearful of the day that any major distinct plans will end, in other words, graduation day.

There are many interests and concerns that she has in common with the fit and stylish student. This would include “Career-Oriented Activities, Self-Improvement,” and the new technology such as iPod, laptops, etc (Cohorts). She also enjoys the camping and hiking and snow skiing. The two sets of women are both going through stress of ending school and planning for the future.

However, an important difference between the two is fashion and working out. The new persona is not uptight about the latest fashions, nor does she enjoy shopping. Occasionally she will go shopping when she is in the mood, but that is rare. Likewise, she does not desire to have the latest and greatest article of clothing immediately. Also, the new persona does not enjoy working out. A huge trend in today’s college females is to run marathons and get in ‘perfect’ shape. As with fashion, the girl in the new persona does not worry herself with the latest trends. She does what she wants and what she enjoys-and she does not enjoy running. To obtain a decent amount of exercise, she dances at a studio and hikes through trails around town.

Within the new persona, female students approaching the real world, other interests include traveling, mission trips and religion, trying to live a good conservative life. She also enjoys all movies, music, concerts and musicals.

Depending on the data necessary for market research, there would probably be more personas along with mine to fit into the target market of a product (Persona Lifecycle pg 49). I will admit also that I am very different from a lot of girls my age and in my stage of life. I am one of the few women that do not worry obsessively about weight, fitness, fashion, etc. It is possible that my persona is an outlier in important data and could potentially skew a general perception of a target market. Nevertheless, it is still essential to gather and recognize all types of personas for market research in order to better understand the consumers as a whole.