What are personas

What are personas?

In simple terms, personas are data-based, prototypical representatives of a target group. The persona profile is made up of all possible data points: Name, age, place of residence and marital status, interests, values, character and consumption. In short: the sedcard of a persona makes detailed statements about a large group of people.

data-driven personas give consumers a face and make abstract data tangible. They are the tool with which products, services, application processes etc. can be tailored precisely to the needs of their target groups.

The persona principle can be easily explained using an example.

Clear the stage for: Personas.

For example: Sabine, 42, from Cottbus. Sabine doesn't exist. The woman in the picture is a model. Instead, there are thousands of women in Germany who live and tick in a similar way to Sabine. None of them have 100% the same hobbies and preferences, nor do they all live in Cottbus. But: they live in comparable cities with their families in their own homes, have a similar lifestyle, try to live healthily, like to travel, enjoy nature, like to drive, are latecomers when it comes to adapting to innovation and read Focus or Spiegel. And so on.

Sabine is a persona created from a dataset of more than one million interviews, representative of more than 12 countries and more than 1,000 markets and industries, representative studies and a database with more than 1 million statistics
on more than 70,000 topics. Sabine is not just an average. She gives the thousands of women who have flowed into her a face and a character and makes them approachable. This transforms them from an anonymous group into: Sabine, a prototypical representative of a target group. This group can be potential customers or potential employees, voters or decision-makers about the family budget.

A persona sedcard, like Sabine's, summarizes the profile of a persona. It is important to note that a persona goes far beyond socio-demographic data such as name, age, place of residence, marital status and level of education. Personas contain interests, values, character and consumer behavior, but also worries, wishes, fears and preferences.

Personas: From software development to marketing

Personas were initially an attempt to solve a widespread problem in software development: As early as the 1980s, software developer Alan Cooper noticed that many, if not most, programs were not user-friendly and often caused frustration among users, even though they actually worked.

The problem: the developers had focused on WHAT they wanted to program and not FOR WHOM. However, later users "ticked" differently, had less or no prior technical knowledge and were used to other tools, which they were now expected to abandon in favor of new software. Not good conditions for a pleasant user experience and, as a result, poor sales prospects for the software in the long term.

The solution: Cooper conducted interviews with users to find out exactly what bothered them about the software, i.e. where their "pain points" were, so that he could then change the software accordingly.
The result: "Kathy", the very first "persona", the essence of all the interviews. From then on, Cooper was able to tailor his software to her needs.

What began in software development now extends to all products and services with the aim of offering customers products and services that either solve or avoid one of their problems or make them happy. To achieve this, product developers, sales and marketers need to know their (potential) customers (buyers) inside out. They achieve this with personas.
Such personas are called "buyer personas": They stereotypically depict a company's ideal customer, giving him or her a face, a character and a "real life", thus making abstract data tangible and differentiable. After all, not all women in their early 40s from cities the size of Cottbus and with a similar budget "tick" in the same way. If I sell shoes: Which ones buy sneakers, which ones buy pumps and how do they want to be addressed? If I sell cars: What are their pain points and priorities? The personas give it away. They always bring success when a product, service, offer or medium is intended to reach people in a targeted manner, because they show the employees in the company WHO they are working FOR, WHO the product must appeal to or benefit, WHERE you reach these people and HOW you address them. Data-based.

When it comes to selling shoes or cars to end consumers, as described above, we speak of a B2C persona that represents the customer.

What are B2B personas?

A B2B persona, on the other hand, represents a business customer who buys for a company. This persona also wants to feel personally addressed and emotionally understood. However, there are a few key differences to bear in mind:

• A B2B buyer persona does not spend their own money
• With the purchase, they are solving a problem/need/pain point for their company, not for themselves. Both of these factors mean that the purchase involves fewer emotions than with a B2C persona.
• The B2B persona often does not decide alone, but may have to convince others.
• The B2B persona is usually not the user of the product that he or she is buying.

For a B2B persona, their role in the company, their professional pain points, challenges and wishes play a role for the selling side. Nevertheless, the socio-demographic data, private preferences, interests and behaviors are important background information when addressing and convincing a B2B persona.

What are Candidate Personas?

Candidate personas are another type of persona. They are used in recruiting to find out how a company can best reach, attract and retain the desired candidates for a vacant position. In short: to create an application process that is as efficient as possible and to retain employees in the long term once they have been hired.

Whether it's about customer service, product development or recruiting: personas create a customer or candidate perspective. And only those who know their target group really well can reach them efficiently.