In recent years, it’s been de rigueur for marketers to develop buyer personas – often with cutesy alliterative names like Illustrator Izzy or Barber Ben. They also rely on them for everything from audience targeting to ad copy.
Though these typecast characters put a human face to otherwise monotonous demographic data, personas are rife with problems. As CMI’s Ann Gynn writes, it’s easy to default to lazy stereotypes rather than to put in the hard work of getting to know your consumers.
