Online banking persona 1 – Switcher
Chris Barber owns a top-quality restaurant, and in the long term would like to build up a
small chain of country hotels and restaurants. As the owner–manager, Chris currently uses
a competitor (Barclays) for his business banking. He is thinking of moving to business
Internet banking since he has used Barclays Internet banking for his personal banking. He
will use the Internet to select the best offering for his needs. His main interest is to min-
imise bank charges by switching. Chris has been using the Internet for five years.Online banking persona 2 – Start-up
John Smith has just registered Gifts-R-Us as a new business. The company will be a
wholesale gift supplier, selling a range of imported gift products, such as candles and
decorations to small shops and stores. He has worked as a marketing director in a similar
business previously, but is now seeking to start up his own business with the operations
manager of the other company as his partner. John is selecting a business bank, but is
not sure whether to use Internet banking or not. He wants to assess the benefits. He has
no preferences for a business bank – he wants to review all the options and find the easi-
est to use. He also wants one with favourable banking rates. He is not an experienced
Internet user since previously his secretary accessed the Internet for him.The customer persona/scenario approach has the following benefits:
Fostering customer-centricity;
Identifies detailed information needs and steps required by customers;
Can be used to both test existing web site designs or prototypes and to devise new
designs;
Can be used to compare and test the strength and clarity of communication of propo-
sition on different web sites;
Can be linked to specific marketing outcomes required by site owners.These are some guidelines and ideas on what can be included when developing a per-
sona. The start or end point is to give each persona a name. The detailed stages are:1 Build personal attributes into personas:
Demographic: Age, sex, education, occupation and, for B2B, company size, posi-
tion in buying unit;
Psychographic: Goals, tasks, motivation;
Webographics: Web experience (months), usage location (home or work), usage
platform (dial-up, broadband), usage frequency, favourite sites.2 Remember that personas are only models of characteristics and environment:
Design targets;
Stereotypes;
3 or 4 usually suffice to improve general usability, but more needed for specific
behaviours;
Choose one primary personawhom, if satisfied means others are likely to be satisfied.3 Different scenarios can be developed for each persona as explained further below.
Write 3 or 4, for example:
Information-seeking scenario (leads to site registration);
Purchase scenario – new customer (leads to sale);
Purchase scenario – existing customer (leads to sale).CHAPTER 2· THE INTERNET MICRO-ENVIRONMENT
Primary persona
A representation of the
typical site user.