Why personas are more than the familiar target groups with a face and a pet

Various consultants and agencies have been talking about personas for years now. However, in my experience, they have not really caught on in many companies, partly because this tactic is not taken seriously. I would therefore like to use this short article to explain (as succinctly as possible) why personas are something other than a nice gimmick with existing target group definitions.

This post originally appeared on Mael Roth's blog in March 2017.

Classic target group parameters are not good enough for "content"

The problem with classic target groups - as I have also learned - especially in marketing, is that they can only provide limited guidance. To illustrate this, I would like to do a little exercise. [Thanks for this Stephan Tiersch!]

A little exercise

Let's take the following profile of a target group:

Age: 60+, already retired
Gender: male
Income: > € 100,000 per year
Hobbies: Art, literature, music
Values: Family is very important to him and he now spends a lot of time with his wife (even if it wasn't always like this)

And now look up briefly in front of the screen and imagine this person. What would they look like?

Try to have a very specific face/person in mind ...

Now that you have a face in mind, maybe even someone you know and can place in this description... I would like to ask:

Does it look more like this?

Scompler_Beitragsbild_Prince-Charles_Personas

... Or maybe more like this?

Scompler_Beitragsbild_Ozzy-Osbourne_Personas

Because both fit into the target group described!

But the relevant question for us is: would we be able to address or pick them up with the same content? Does their journey in connection with the content look the same? Do they use the same sources of information? Do they have the same needs (emotional and functional)? Are the triggers the same?

Personas are more than just a "gimmick" - they are groups of needs

That is precisely the point: with regard to "content", we need to look beyond the traditional target group definitions and take a closer look at the needs of the target groups. This (possibly) creates completely different groups than the ones we form based on demographic data when defining target groups!

Personas are nothing more than groups of needs, clusters of needs that we find in our target groups. So it's not about taking the classic target group definition and simply slapping a photo on it and thinking for three days about what the persona's cat is called.

The aspects that should be considered when creating personas are those that are also relevant to us as a communicating company (with the corresponding goals)! That's why many persona templates that you will find on the web can lead you down the wrong path, because the point with personas is: they have to make a difference in the content or in the way it is staged or distributed! If content is planned for two different personas, for example, but ends up being exactly the same, then it can probably go in the garbage can...
A few weeks ago, I came across the following video, which illustrates very well in a figurative sense that "groups" can turn out very differently than we think, depending on the criteria... (wonderful advertisement from a Danish TV station).

By placing the needs in the foreground and linking them to "content", you create (possibly completely different) groups to which you can direct your content and analyze it later.

But beware: personas alone cannot steer a strategy. It is a control element that should enable us to include this dimension in the content (marketing) strategy. Personas are also by no means the central element.