The Value of Personas

ConsumerShift identifies seven emerging meta-needs based on the changes in consumer values,  that are brought to life in the form of future personas. Personas are representative characters that fit a profile of someone who has that need. They are emerging today and forecast to become increasingly prominent as the consumer landscape reshapes over the next decade. The seven personas each embody one of the seven meta-needs. They describe the characteristics of consumers who embody the particular combination of need states. The intent of creating a single representation is to provide a more concrete target against which to aim product, service, and experience development than a more abstract treatment is capable of, recognizing that there will be variations around this projected “average” representation.

They are each covered in a consistent format that includes the following:

• Summary description: the first few paragraphs characterize the persona in general
• Demographics: a profile of a “typical” persona who embodies the meta-need, including gender, age, household income, education, and life stage
• Illustration: a visual to help facilitate the “real-ness” of the persona
• Table: a summary table that includes the supporting need states of the meta-need, the values this persona would likely embrace, and the related catalysts supporting the persona’s emergence
• Committed time activities: how the persona would likely approach several aspects of committed time—work, household and family care, shopping, and personal/biological necessities
• Free time activities: description of how the persona would likely approach free time—learning, leisure (entertainment/recreation), affiliation, and communication
• Vignette: a brief day-in-the-life snapshot that provides insight into how the persona might operate in daily life

It should be kept in mind that these personas are generalizations. As such, they will miss the diversity that will actually show up in how the meta-needs manifest in the future. For example, the demographics suggesting that Annie is a 35-year-old female does not imply that only 35-year-old females will have this meta-need. It is an attempt to find the center of the need, and some choices are made in providing details to help create a mental picture of the persona.

 

There is a separate chapter on “Customizing the Personas: A Persona Construction Kit,” which provide help for translating the generic personas to the more specific needs of individual organizations. Andy Hines