Longtime readers of this blog will know that I believe passive investing works better than active investing. Active investors spend too much effort researching their investments and picking stocks. But the vast majority of them fail to beat a simple passive investing strategy.
The meta-lesson here is that putting more effort into something doesn’t necessarily translate into better results. I believe something similar is happening in the field of Marketing. There are many aspects of Marketing that used to take a lot of effort, but are becoming less critical in the age of AI.
One such area is the idea of target personas.
The Old Way Of Consumer Research
Remember that time we all thought we needed to know our customers down to the last detail?
When design thinking was all the rage 15 years ago, we used to focus a lot on creating our ideal customer persona. The idea was to create personas with real characteristics, preferences, and hobbies. That way, you could better tailor your product, messaging and media buying to appeal to them.
In my first job at an airline company, we’d spend hours in workshops brainstorming our target personas. We even gave them names like Manager Margaret, a 45-year old business traveller who skips her inflight meals to work. And then there was Demanding Donny, the high-net worth retiree who only travels First Class and takes Krug with his caviar.
Once we had those personas, we’d try to figure out how to reach them on media. We’d buy banner ads on LinkedIn and CNN to reach Manager Margaret. And we’d buy the front page of the Straits Times to reach folks like Demanding Donny, because that’s what he reads while munching on his caviar.
The problem with this approach is that it leaves out a whole