Week 7- My Market

When trying to define a companies target market, you first must define the problem that you are working to solve.  Using the Why of a company, you can view who has the problems you solve in order to define the customers for the buyer's persona.

These personas are a representation of the ideal buyer in mind based on data, interviews, and educated assumptions. To start, get an idea of the different type of customers the business already has and are currently marketing towards. Then, you should list out all of the questions that are needed to be answered for a customer to be ready for purchase and satisfied.  This could be looked at as solving the customer's problem with the education needed for the different problems of each persona.  

The questions should be broken into sections for the different departments of the business in order to satisfy everyone's needs with customized imaginary customers. 

After taking down the questions from the team, you must find the answers to these questions in the best ways to define your customer's personas.  These sample customers should act as a launchpad for the team and should always be updated to fine tune with the micro changes in the industry and the macro changes around the world.

For CryptoLookout, we initially divided our customer base into three primary categories, mainly based on prior knowledge; beginner, intermediate, and expert groups.  

Our Beginners market is focused on individuals with no crypto experience as we will be advertising our introduction guide to get them started.  The focus will be on the younger demographic with at least some technology background such as an active social media user or enjoys to play videogames.  Interest will arise from those who are money conscious and always hustling for more. Age and income can vary, but the primary reach objective is ages 18-32 with income ranging from $35,000 down to broke college students, as we offer options to earn with no initial investment.  Gender and location attributes are less relevant compared to user behaviors including; social activity patterns, educational interest, and price sensitivity.

The Intermediate group ended up getting split into two key individuals.  First, we want to reach those who have recently joined the industry and are still in the learning process.  Although our guide may not be as beneficial, we provide value through our other content sources. These people are considered Hodlers- or coin holders, that are in need of quick and easy news updates on what is happening in the space along with a quick fact check and a place to share their experiences from the space.  As they dive deeper into the markets, CryptoLookout will provide additional coin breakdowns and how-to videos to expand into the market. These individuals are looking to take part in a community to share their experiences as they are still getting familiar with the industry.

On the other hand, we want to consider those who actively trade equities in the stock market as the transition from security trading is much easier of an adjustment than someone just getting started with financial education. These individuals are well educated, most likely with a college degree and involved in technology innovation in some form. They are middle to the upper middle class with experience in investing or have the money to get started.  The expected age range would be between 35-50 years old and consist of risk takers that are optimistic on the future of our global economy.

Finally, the advanced market segment consists of many entrepreneurially minded individuals that are now considered enthusiast and experts in the space.  This includes those who have been involved since the early stages of the blockchain development in early 2009 and have a really deep understanding of the technology.  Currently, most of these people will be found working on their own company, a brand, or crypto related project providing the credibility needed for our community. This creates the perfect opportunity to reach our B2B market as we incentivize these individuals to join our community, in return for free or discounted advertising promotions on our channels.  This is a win-win for CryptoLookout as we help the community discover new projects while expanding our crypto network, gaining advertisement opportunities.

Customer Analysis

        For our customer analysis, we introduce sample characters that fit each target market to give a brief overview of our customers persona.

        Jim is a 24 year old male that has worked for T-Mobile as a sales representative for the past two years.  He earns around $35,000 with salary + commission and owns multiple apple products with the work connections and insights on the tech. Jim also enjoys to play videogames on the weekends with his friends and is working on his gaming blog.  Jim has always been good with saving his money and being money conscious when deciding on a purchase, but always likes to get the newest technology. Jim has never invested because he doesn’t understand the stock market and doesn’t want to lose money.  Twitter and Instagram are his favorite social media channels to stay updated on the latest videogames and technology.

Nye is a graduate from Benedictine University and now works full time as an accountant for a golf course in Naperville, IL.  His annual income is approximately $60,000 and owns an average sized home with his wife and two kids ages four and six. Nye is a family man.  The kids are Nye’s top priority as he takes education very seriously. The majority of his investments are heavily allocated for long term future growth for his children’s college education.  Nye has a personal fincial advisory, but he is interested in researching the companies he invests in and likes to do research. On the weekends and nights, Nye likes to check the latest news on his computer and interact with active threads on a positive mindset and expands his knowledge through sets of videos and podcasts.  He always ends the night with some low stakes online gambling from a social site with his friends from college.

Tim is a 36 year old male that has been involved with cryptocurrencies for just over five years now as he has a long history in the technology industry.  He started with video game development at an early age, until he discovered he could build much more. After attending Columbia for computer science and business analytics, Tim worked with IBM as a data research analysis for eight years and assisted in the development of Watson. Currently, he is working on his cryptocurrency exchange start-up project as the lead of the development team, with a focus on user interface and promotional opportunity.  Tim knew from a young age that not only did he want to have his own business, but wanted to help others achieve their goals. He invests in early startups with young and hungry entrepreneurs for future success in multiple business ventures. Tim is a risk taker but always does his own in depth research and works to provide assistance to crypto beginners.

Wrap up

For us, we have a lot going on for many different people. We were able to simply categorize our customers into groups that prioritize the reasons to visit our site! Make sure to stay on the #lookout for next wave of technology, @cryptolookout