18A - Create a Customer Avatar

In order to determine who your prototypical customer would be, you must determine the market segment that would most appeal to your product. In my case, a service for virtual reality online shopping would have the greatest demographic usage in Millennials. I determined this by researching which generation spends the most time shopping online and found, not surprisingly, that the Millennial generation made up the majority. Although both men and women will find Virtual Shopping useful, my prototypical customer will be a woman. I feel that this service would appeal initially to women over men and therefore I will have a clear picture of my customer.

My prototypical customer

She is a 27-year old woman who is a business professional with many time-consuming responsibilities. She works full-time and has to juggle all of her priorities. As she is so tight on time, she resorts to online shopping for her retail needs. However, like most of the current online shoppers, she is disappointed with her overall experiences. When she hears about Virtual Shopping, a service that allows you to virtually try on clothing to find the perfect fit, she is eager to try it. Not only would it aid her in her online shopping experiences, but it will also save her time determining if the clothing will fit before ordering, as well as returning those that did not fit. More details of my customer include:

She enjoys hobbies such as cooking, kick-boxing, blogging, and online shopping (of course)

Her hobbies are relaxing and efficient. She chooses kick-boxing over other forms of exercise because of the full-body quick workout. She prefers to shop online because it is convenient and saves a trip to the mall.

She drives a small white SUV, such as a BMW X3 or a Mercedes GLK

Her recent promotion has given her the financial capability to upgrade from a small sedan. As she is a newlywed and anticipating to start a family soon, she wanted a bigger car to accommodate a child.

Her favorite TV shows include Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, and Quantico

Being a strong woman she enjoys watching shows with strong female leads with drama and action.

She is a newlywed and is waiting to start a family

They were just wed a year ago and don't plan on starting a family for another year.

Her favorite books are autobiographies by Diane Von Furstenberg and Kelly Cutrone 

As with her TV shows, she prefers reading about strong female entrepreneurs.

She defines her political views as financially-conservative and socially-liberal

When it comes to her finances she feels that government should not play a role in how much she can make, however when it comes to social issues she feels that individuals should have the right to make their own choices.

I don't think that it is a coincidence that I share a lot of the same qualities of my prototypical customer, including my hobbies, TV shows, books, and political views. In ways my prototypical customer is a vision of who I would ideally become. I believe that when an entrepreneur comes up with a business idea, often times it's due to an opportunity that they find in their own life problems. When you recognize a problem in your own life, it's only natural that you would try to find a solution to it and that is what I believe is what I did when coming up with the idea of Virtual Shopping. 

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