Q1. Based on the three customer personas, which customer segment should Ontela target?

Levy and his team conducted a qualitative research of end user behaviour in mobile devices
and came out with three different segments. Apparently, all of the segments are potential
target markets, but careful analysis reveals that these segments are different in term of
targeting and revenue generation. For PicDeck, the middle class, teenager segment will be
more preferable. Reason being, this market has many of behaviour and attitudes in
conformity to the services provided by PicDeck. This segment is more active and techno
savvy. This segment is prone to social pressure and so has to be technologically up to date.
This is one of the reasons that this segment is mainstream user of the internet and is
connected through social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook and twitter. Social
networks form a bigger social circle for individuals. So, they want to share their moments and
experiences of life. So, they want a speed and convenience with full control of displaying
whatever they want. This segment, because of being techno savvy, will easily adapt.
This segment can easily be targeted, because of its superior technological capabilities and
adaptation. Ontela won’t have to incur extra marketing cost on communication of ways to use
this service. In addition to that, this segment will value these services as they won’t have to
incur extra costs of cell phones.

Also, Ontela with its product PicDeck might think of targeting Steve. The reason to target
the young professional is solely based on the considerations on the basis of the company and
the wireless carrier simultaneously. Since the primary goal for the company is to create
opportunity of targeting that customer which can be the most beneficial for the company.
Steve in this regard is an appropriate target for the company because Ontela can focus on
those individuals and personalities who are not technology driven, but for various purposes,
need to use it. Steve being a real estate agent needs to send pictures to the customers to show
them the apartments and different houses. Along with this, Steve will also need to upgrade
his mobile handset where he will need to subscribe with the data services that will have better
or the higher margins. This will again be a positive thing for PicDeck to actually focus on
targeting on Steve in the initial phase.

Q2. Create a positioning statement for your chosen target persona and identify the key themes
that should be emphasized in the messaging for the PicDeck service to this segment.

Positioning statement for teens: Trendy Millennial

For connected trendsetters sharing photos across multiple social media profiles, Ontela’s
PicDeck is a service that does this instantly. Finally, skip the tedious step of uploading your
pics to your PC and be the first of your friends to share images of your day on MySpace and
Facebook.

PicDeck: Share your memories as they happen.

Key themes that should be emphasized:

 New technology
 Permanent connection any time
 Easy to use
Ontela with its brand PicDeck should inform the target audience about the attribute of
PicDeck as a convenient and easy to use software which can allow them to send the pictures
to potential customers rapidly. Along with this, another message which should be delivered
or portrayed by Ontela should be the value proposition of the brand. It should inform the
target audience about the reliability and the ability of PicDeck to send photos rather quickly
and easily with no transferring time at all. Along with this, the company Ontela should also
deliver the message in which they introduce the photo editing option also. This will again add
value to the product PicDeck. The proposed plan is not a difficult task to achieve for the
company because Ontela has already ventured with Picasa.

Q3. What are the risks of using qualitative personas to select target customer segments?

If company  uses qualitative personas, this increases the risk of being wrong. By qualitative
personas, company cannot get an overall picture of the results of the research. Qualitative
personas have a limitation of a sample size. The data extracted from qualitative personas can
be misread and misinterpreted by the respective personas. For example, more often than not
the qualitative data is the biased solution or the biased interpretation of any particular data.

If we observe the personas used, it will raise concerns for that young professional. He is
defined as 27 years old professional but technologically backward. This might not be true. In
addition to this, he is considered as a late adopter in technology although internet era came
during his age. Most of the professionals or adults of this age are really technologically
updated and form a major portion of users of such technologies. So, it can be said that these
personas are created without quantitative evidences and surety.

Along with this, another risk of using qualitative personas is that they do not provide the
details of all the targeted markets. Sales objective to be achieved based on qualitative data is
a risky move itself because eventually Ontela will not be able to find appropriate solution to
the problem.