Avatar vs Persona: Why these marketing terms are NOT the same

Marketing is full of mixed terminology where phrases are interchanged with one another to mean the same thing, even though they don’t.

Brand Story and Brand Storytelling is a great example of this (where brand story is a strategic approach, and brand storytelling is a marketing tactic, though this isn’t clear from how many people interchange the terms).

It’s the same when it comes to building a profile of your ideal customer.

Some call it a Customer Profile. Others a User Persona, an Ideal Client Profile or a Buyer Persona. Some call it an Avatar.

But are these terms all equal?

Personas and Avatars are the same thing aren’t they?

Unlike Brand Story and Brand Storytelling where the terms are interchanged but don’t mean the same thing, the words Persona and Avatar do.

The thing is, I believe that words are powerful.

And not all words hold equal weight in meaning.

In fact, sometimes the words we choose, whilst their meaning might be technically correct, create unintended associations that can change the way we think, feel and act.

So, when it comes to building a profile of your customer that will pave the way for all the marketing you’ll do for your brand, and that will frame whether or not you’re able to create the connection with your customer that leads to brand advocacy, I think it’s time to take a firmer stance.

Personas and Avatars are not the same.

I know, I know. You think I’m splitting hairs.

Of course, they mean the same thing, right?

As they are used in the current marketing landscape – yes. They are used interchangeably.

But when it comes to nuance – the subtle shade of difference in meaning, which in demonstrating your Brand Personality or tone of voice becomes very important for communicating your message in one way and not another – there’s a definite and important difference.

Let me explain why I think we need to let the term “Avatar” go and collectively adopt the term “Persona” instead.

The history of the word Avatar.

To explain the nuance and why it doesn’t sit with what a marketing profile is trying to accomplish, we need to take a look at the history of the words.

The word Avatar derives from a Sanskrit word that means descent. When it first appeared in the English language during the late 18th Century, it referred to the descent of a deity, or god to the earth.

Later it came to refer to any incarnation in human form and in the age of technology, Avatar has developed into the word we use to describe the image that a person chooses as his or her embodiment in any electronic medium.

In modern terms, an Avatar is your representative in the world of Second Life.

By controlling your Avatar within the dimension of Second Life, you can communicate with other Avatars that are also controlled by Second Life users.

The big blue alien analogy aside, this is my main issue with the word.

An Avatar can be completely faked.

It exists within a world that isn’t real. You can tweak things and hide things and change things and skew reality. In fact, when it comes to Second Life, this is kind of the point.

When it comes to building a profile of our customer, the fake world associated with the word Avatar is problematic.

This profile that we build shouldn’t be based on things that aren’t real. We should be trying to make this profile that represents our customer as close to the truth as we possibly can.

It shouldn’t be built on a set of assumptions.

It should be a representation of your customer that is based on real data. On real conversations, with real people who represent your target market.

And when it comes to building this representation, I believe the best word for it, is Persona.

Yes, a Persona is a representation. Because it looks for commonalities that are unique to our target market and not the uniqueness of every individual.

But our Persona should be, as much as possible, a true representation and not one based on a fake reality.

Now I’m not saying that the word Persona doesn’t present some nuanced problems of its own.

In ancient Latin, Persona means “mask”. And then of course, there is the psychological definition given by Carl Jung, whereby our Persona is the appearance we make of ourselves to the world, the one we want people to see.

But whereas Second Life has made the word Avatar become associated with make-believe, the word Persona has come to mean one or more ways a person views themselves in relation to their life, their identity and the world around them.

The argument for using the term Persona to describe your customer profile.

I started this article by saying that words are powerful. And the word Persona brings power to our customer profile in the most positive of ways.

The word Persona reminds us that the best marketing connects with people from a place of truth.

If you think of your customer profile as a pPrsona, you’ll be reminded that you need to dig deeply to find what’s true for the people you serve. It’s your job to get to that truth, so you can build the most accurate representation of your audience you possibly can.

It reminds us that as marketers, it’s our job to explore both how people see themselves in the world AND how they present themselves within it.

The word Persona works, even with its flaws, because it’s both what lies above AND beneath the “mask” that motivates our customer to change, take action and engage with our brand.

But the real power of the word Persona, lies in what it instantly reminds us of.

All the historical meanings aside, there’s a simple power in the word itself – Persona.

Each of our customers is a person. A real person.

With real problems and real dreams and a real life.

Using the word Persona instantly reminds us of their humanity.

And it’s in this humanity that you will find the connection that lets you build a brand deserving of being part of your customer’s story.

Words matter.

We want the words we use to describe the representation of our customer to be as TRUE as possible. And the word Avatar just doesn’t help to position your mind to thinking that way. It could be argued that it even creates an opportunity for you to not even think of your customers as people at all.

Words matter. They have power over how we think and feel. The ones we choose can even define us as a person.

And so, this is the last time you’ll hear me say the words Customer Avatar.

I encourage you to do the same.

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