How to Create a Powerful Amazon Target Market Customer Avatar

Once you’ve chosen a product to sell on Amazon, your next major challenge will be identifying the right Amazon target market by creating a customer avatar.

Knowing WHO is most likely to buy your product can help you to determine many aspects of your marketing strategy, including the following ten demographic indicators:

• Age
• Gender
• Geographic location
• Nationality/ethnic background
• Relationship status
• Family status
• Financial status
• Education status
• Professional status
• Personal morals, affiliations, and beliefs

Assigning a tangible value to each of the above indicators (plus any more you deem necessary to your market niche) is crucial to narrowing down the kind of information and language you are going to use for your product listing.

Why Is Creating a Customer Avatar Critical?

Going after a generalized audience can cause many problems after launch, such as wasted money on PPC campaigns, poor keyword choices for the product title and description, and more abandoned carts.

To combat adverse effects and go after more active Amazon target markets, sellers must visualize the type of person who they believe would logically be most likely to buy their products. By assigning values to the following ten indicators, sellers can draw a very distinct picture of who they need to attract.

These traits can help sellers choose keywords, title and description wording, listing images, and aspects of paid advertisements.

Here are the ten basic tenants of creating a customer avatar for your Amazon target market:

Age

The age range can be one of the most pivotal aspects of your target audience since so many forms of marketing revolve around it. Age can also demonstrate a customer’s life experience, priorities, and expectations.

To help you understand the age groups a little better, here is a helpful reference:

• The Silent Generation: born between 1925-1945, the lowest number of people per capita
• The Baby Boomers: born between 1945-1964, most are in retirement age and grandparents
• Generation X: born between 1965-1979, most are nearing retirement and are of age to have families
• Xennials*: born between 1975-1985, considered microgeneration that first began to grow up with limited technology
• Millennials (Generation Y): born between 1980-1994, tech-savvy generation in college and working with money, some may have already gotten married and started families
• Generation Z (iGen): born between 1995-2015, pre-teens and teenagers, most connected and familiar with technology
• Generation Alpha: born between 2016-2030, newborns and infants

Here are some questions to ask about age:

• Which generation is my product best suited for in its intended usage?
• If my product is meant for children (under 18), what is the age of parent/guardian buying the product for the child?

Gender

This identifier is a bit more straightforward, as there are only two choices: man VS woman, boy VS girl, or masculine VS feminine. Additionally, a third choice is unisex, meaning that a product’s desirability is unaffected by a customer’s gender. Some product types are entirely dependent on being attractive to one gender or the other.

Here are some questions to ask about gender:

• Is my product intended for a masculine or feminine customer?
• Is gender irrelevant for the desirability of my product?

Geographic Location

Where someone lives can suggest correlations with other aspects on this list such as wealth, professional status, and eligibility for Amazon Prime. Also, depending on what your product is, location can determine if buying your product would suit a customer’s environment.

For easy reference, here are the basic geographic types of locations to consider:

• Large urban city – major metropolitan area, selected green spaces, more compacted/ high-density residential areas, many large buildings such as skyscrapers, a high population count
• Medium urban city – average metropolitan area, more green spaces, less large buildings, more mixed residential areas of high-density and traditional housing, a medium population count
• Small urban city – small metropolitan area, more open spaces, very few large buildings, mostly traditional housing on lots, a low population count
• Suburbs – residential areas located outside the main city
• Exoburbs – residential areas located beyond the suburbs
• Rural – sparsely populated areas that cater to mostly ranching, farming, vineyards, and mining

Here are the basic terrain types that may also define geographic locations

• Mountains
• Desert
• Forest
• Coastal
• Plains
• Arid

Here are some questions to ask about geographic location:

• Is my product Amazon Prime eligible? If so, is my ideal customer avatar able to receive Prime-eligible items?
• What kind of environment is my product intended for?
• If my product is meant to be used outdoors, what type of terrain and urban setting is ideal for its use?

Nationality/Ethnic Background

This indicator typically only applies to products that have direct correlations to particular cultures, heritages, countries, or ethnicities. However, the biological origin of customers tends to play a minor role as most products offered on Amazon are not partial to any particular group of people.

Here are some questions to ask about nationality/ethnic background:

• Is my product targeted at a particular group of people belonging to a specific culture, heritage, country, or ethnicity?
• If my product is unique to a specific group of people, do I plan to sell my product in an Amazon marketplace where this group is dominant?

Relationship Status

Some products are meant to be given to a significant other, spouse, or boyfriend/girlfriend. Other products are designed for the single people out there. Whether or not your Amazon target audience is in a relationship with someone can sometimes have an impact.

Here are some questions to ask about relationship status:

• Is my product intended for people not currently dating or married to anyone?
• Is my product intended for people in committed relationships?
• Is my product intended for married couples?
• Is relationship status even a factor for my product?

Family Status

This indicator has multiple tiers, as it can relate to a person who is part of an existing family as a son, daughter, cousin, aunt, uncle, etc.; family status can also refer to whether or not the customer has a family of his or her own, such a spouse and children. Certain products are aimed at people with families, whether being born into one or having created one.

Here are some questions to ask about family status:

• Is my product intended to be given as a gift to a family member at all?
• Is my product intended to be used by a specific family role (father, mother, son, daughter, etc.)?
• Does the ideal customer avatar have a family of his or her own (possibly married or in a committed relationship with another adult and at least one child)?
• Is my ideal customer part of an existing family?

Financial Status

The state of a customer’s finances can come into play for a most if not all products. For example, if you are selling a luxury item, your ideal customer avatar will have disposable income rather than someone living paycheck to paycheck. This indicator could also point to someone is more or less likely to return an item due to the financial situation.

Here are some questions to ask about financial status:

• Is your product a luxury item or an everyday item?
• Is your product considered expensive or cheap as compared to similar items on Amazon?
• Is your product intended to reinforce a certain lifestyle?

Educational Status

Education can play a role in how your product is perceived and used, mainly if your product is an educational item itself. Certain levels of intelligence or just being educated can alter how a customer may use your product or determine if he or she will have an interest in it at all.

Here are some questions to ask about educational status:

• What level of education has your customer avatar achieved?
• Does the customer intend on furthering his or her education?
• What level of intelligence does your ideal customer have?
• Is your ideal customer interested in learning?

Professional Status

What your customer avatar does for a living can affect what he or she can afford, the likelihood to purchase again, and the person’s social status. Some products are meant for people occupying high-ranking positions in companies and governments. Other products are intended to attract middle-class workers.

Here are some questions to ask about professional status:

• What kind of job do you envision your ideal customer avatar having?
• How does your product help your customer maintain or improve his or her position?
• What about your product would entice your ideal working professional?

Personal Morals, Affiliations, and Beliefs

A customer’s personal beliefs about the world around him or her can have a profound effect on what he or she buys. Moral obligations may make certain products ideal while others may be obscene. For example, someone of a certain religious background may find certain products offensive while other things may be fine.

Here are some questions to ask about personal morals, affiliations, and beliefs status:

• What religious affiliation, if any, does your ideal customer avatar identify with?
• What political affiliation, if any, does your ideal customer avatar identify with?
• What kind of moral compass does your ideal customer avatar have?

By using these ten personal indicators as a basis for your customer avatar, you can construct with accuracy the type of Amazon target audience you wish to attract with your advertising efforts. Once built, use language and keywords that will resonate with your ideal customer.

Have questions about constructing your customer avatar to attract your ideal Amazon target market? Let us know what you’re thinking in the comments below!