18A – Create a Customer Avatar

When thinking of what my prototypical customer would look like I'd have to place him as an international traveler. It's interesting thinking in depth about someone you've never met. It's very easy to think of a product that you would like to be made so it's very easy to just make yourself the customer of your own product but making someone else as your customer is a bit different. If he were an international traveler he would have backpacked in Norway, given up a year of his life to dive into other cultures and live spontaneously and always on the move. He would have lived with different people from all over having experiences that some people dream of. Not afraid to try something new. My customer likes soccer and has been to a world cup. They prefer to read in a cafe rather then read at home. They always take up their friends requests to do a road trip. My customer has a tattoo on his arm that he got through a dare from his friends. He likes to go hiking and takes up the opportunity every spring to go into the Appalachian mountains for a week traveling from one peak on foot to the next. He dabbles in photography and only takes shots of what he likes when he's out and about and collects them all into a collage that he hangs up in his room. He drives an all terrain Jeep that he takes out onto the beach then lights campfires with his friends. This person doesn't watch very much TV they don't like to be inside much. This person dreams to make a difference in the world but doesn't know where to start so they keep traveling to find inspiration. He has a good paying job but it doesn't allow him along with his traveling habits to lock down a relationship or start a family. His favorite color is green because it reminds him of being relaxed and the color of leaves. He's in his mid 20's and he continually keeps in contact with his friends from overseas consistently asking when he can come back to visit. He feels like a toddler sometimes due to not knowing what he wants to do and never being able to stay locked up in one place. His favorite book is a Sci Fi Novel called Consider Phelbas because of how in detail other planets could be in the future with space travel and the thought of how their could be even more out there that he doesn't know. He isn't very patient that's why he prefers to go to my store to get goods from overseas rather than ordering them off online websites and waiting for them to ship.

I don't have a lot in common with this person. I have lived in other countries but traveling is something I've always wanted to do. I really don't have many things in common with this customer besides reading. Who this customer is, is basically an outline of who I want to be in the future. Being spontaneous and carefree. I think this is a perfect outlook on being obsessed with your customer because this customer is someone I aspire to be and through taking care of his needs with international goods and a place for him to shop is a step to getting to know him.