What are personas?

Published on May 31, 2023   7 min
Please wait while the transcript is being prepared...
0:00
Hello, welcome to this session on personas. My name is Annmarie Hanlon and I teach Marketing at Cranfield University's School of Management in the UK. Some of these themes are taken from my book, Digital Marketing. Let's get started. In this session,
0:18
we explore definitions of personas to better understand the concept. Then we examine the factors in developing personas. We consider guidelines on developing personas and review the key points in creating personas.
0:37
Personas are not actual customers but representations of archetypical users. They bring people to life in the minds of the people who use them. They are used by businesses to create content, build websites, develop advertising messages, and all major businesses use personas. It is essential to use data to support the development of the personas so they match the marketing mix strategies.
1:10
Once personas have been created they can be used in many ways, for example, to enable younger staff to create content for older customers, and vice versa, to enable staff in one country to create relevant content for customers in another country. To focus the content of online media and the messages shared and the platforms used. Personas enable marketing teams to match the marketing mix elements to the relevant customer groups.