# Targeting the learner: the avatar method

Most training starts from the content to be delivered. Hoctav starts from the learner — their "avatar" — to create a video that genuinely concerns them.

## Start from the learner, not the content

The first cause of training that fails is not the subject: it is that it speaks to no one in particular. Learner targeting means precisely defining **who** you are speaking to before deciding **what** to say. It is the starting point of the whole Hoctav method.

![Two paths, one towards generic content, the other towards a highlighted avatar](/assets/img/illustrations/methode-ciblage-apprenant-avatar/section-partir-apprenant.webp)

## The origin: the marketing persona

In digital marketing, you never address "everyone": you build a _persona_, a composite portrait of the ideal customer (their goals, their barriers, their level, their context). Every message is then written for them. This targeting is what makes content "speak" to its reader.

![Stylised profile surrounded by elements symbolising goals and barriers](/assets/img/illustrations/methode-ciblage-apprenant-avatar/section-persona-marketing.webp)

## The transposition: the learner avatar

Hoctav transposes this persona to training in the form of a **learner avatar**: which role, what level of mastery, what fears, what concrete use of the knowledge? We even refocus at each module — who is _this_ specific unit for?

-   Their job and their real level
-   What they should be able to do after the video
-   Their barriers, their doubts, their habits
-   The context where they will apply the knowledge

![Modular avatar with elements of job, level, context and checklist](/assets/img/illustrations/methode-ciblage-apprenant-avatar/section-avatar-apprenant.webp)

## Why it works (the effect on attention)

The brain gives its attention to what concerns it. By speaking directly to the learner's situation, you increase **perceived relevance** from the very first seconds — and therefore attention, engagement and retention. Generic content, by contrast, is filtered out as noise.

![Stylised brain connected to an avatar, symbolising attention](/assets/img/illustrations/methode-ciblage-apprenant-avatar/section-effet-attention.webp)

## How Hoctav applies it

From your corpus and your audience, Hoctav frames the learner avatar before writing the script, then adapts the tone, the examples and the level of detail. It is the first step that then feeds the [M.E.R.E. structure](/en/methode/structure-mere/).

## Go further

[methode/structure-mere Learn more](/en/methode/structure-mere/) [methode/copywriting-formation Learn more](/en/methode/copywriting-formation/) [onboarding-rh-video Learn more](/en/onboarding-rh-video/)