Pen portraits are a way to represent your customer profile (consumer or b2b) target audience as a fictitious character (persona).  They are commonly used by Creative teams who need to picture who they are talking to.

They can built by using what you have learnt from your constructed customer profile (consumer or b2b).

By creating a fictitious character you will be able to speak more directly to him/her. The more fleshed out and based on reality this portrait is the more effective the tactic will be.

Keep adding and moulding to the picture until you are happy that you can almost hear them speak to you. 

When producing a scenario, try to be as detailed as possible – and make it as common place and as complete as possible.

Scenarios tell us the context of use, as well as a bit about our audiences’ needs and characteristics.

Ideally do a range of different scenarios for each audience segment.

A pen portrait - written example

Jenny is a university student from Edinburgh, looking for a gift for her parents for their twenty-fifth wedding aniversary.

She’s on a tight budget but is keen to get them something memorable.

Her friend has recommended Anniversary.com as a great site for gifts. The site homepage quickly directs her to themed gifts for wedding anniversaries, and even gives suggestions for people on limited budgets.

Jenny chooses a silver picture frame.

The site also offers a service by which a favourite picture can be inserted into the frame before it is sent.

Jenny emails the site a fun picture of her that’s been stored on her mobile.

She pays for the frame and for a gift wrapping/mailing service.

Total time spent on the site: 15 minutes.