Yelp Inc target audience analysis and buyer personas development

Yelp: Target Audience

Yelp emerged on the scene as early as 2005 and 2006 and soon became a voice for patrons of restaurants, bars, clubs and cafes along with consumers of various shops and stores to voice their opinions, thoughts and feelings about their overall consumer experience. Yelp was very novel in the sense that it ultimately gave a stage and microphone online to a huge collection of the population which formerly never had a voice: the shopper, the buyer, the restaurant patron. Yelp was able to create a living record of the consumer's experience and ultimately created a dramatic shift in the balance of power: no longer were shoppers beholden to the whims of the shop assistants, bartenders and waiters. If people were treated badly or if the service was shoddy or slow, this became public record and the business had to address it head on. This was a dramatic shift from past methods of business where rudeness or slowness or other such poor practices resulted in a gradual loss of income and revenue over time -- perhaps. Instead, yelp created very real consequences for businesses that weren't up to par. This paper looks at three different buyer personas and their needs interests and communication styles. With these three different people, there is still one unifying link which connects them: a feeling of voice-less-ness that Yelp.com is able to rectify.

The first target member of Yelp is the young person: age 15 to 29. These are people who don't have high incomes, nor do they have established places in society nor are they very influential. Their interests largely revolve around entertainment: spending available money on eating/drinking out, clubs, and shopping for clothes, gadgets and other items. This group needs to be heard and has a strong sensitivity to injustice. Rude treatment in stores or restaurants is often considered inexcusable. Yelp gives these individuals a chance to air out their grievances in a safe and regulated environment where users can harness their own particular communication style. This style is generally informal, funny and heavily reliant on slang.

The second target user of Yelp is the traveler/foodie. This person is highly experience-driven, loves adventure and loves to try new things. This person has a constant need for a consistent range of new experiences with some regularity. This user needs Yelp because Yelp allows them to pass along their experiences to other travelers and foodies and to share tips and insider information. Yelp also allows them to create a written record of what they've seen and experienced so that other users can learn from the chances that they've taken. Their communication style is educated but not stuffy, highly informative and desires to be benefit driven.