It may be difficult to get a good grasp of your target audience. In which case, it can be useful to use a persona – an imaginary stand-in who represents the target audience. A persona is a useful tool to use when working out your communication plan. Once you have imagined this fictional person, you can then determine the most appropriate plan.
- Name
- Background: E.g., family background, place of birth, upbringing; education, etc.
- Living situation: E.g., spouse or partner, children, work, social environment, club memberships, etc.
- What matters right now: E.g., children leaving the house, a new neighbourhood being built, etc.
- Motives, aspirations and concerns: E.g. religion, ambitions. wishes. concerns and fears. Try to be specific — how are these reflected in the persona's actions?
- Likes (hobbies) and dislikes: Try to be specific — if your persona likes to read, what types of books do they prefer? If they are averse to politics, why?
- Media consumption: Describe a day in the life of the persona (consider relevant means and channels of communication).
- If they use a clock radio, what station is it set to?
- If they belong to a football club, are there ads there?
- If they work in an office, do they use Google?
Tips
- Use a picture to give the persona a face, and hang it up somewhere. This will regularly remind you of the target audience.
- In small groups, have other colleagues create their own personas at the same time and compare what everyone comes up with.
What’s the value of this?
Working with a persona is a way to make the target audience more real. This technique can be used when researching media consumption or when setting up a website, for example, in order to get an idea of user expectations and search behaviours. It can also be useful to use the persona to go back and explore involvement: What is this person’s relationship with the government? How does this issue concern them? What role do they want or can they have?