Of Peanuts and Personas

Does our understanding of brand and user personas derive, at least partly, from the classic personality archetypes we read about as kids? Even the names you see in a typical customer segmentation, such as “Sally Social Media” and the like, suggest a possible source: Peanuts characters.

There’s Something Funny Going On Here

Maybe you don’t think of the Peanuts in terms of magic and enchantment. But take any story line, with its juxtapositions of the quotidian (homework essays and show-and-tells) with the incredible (a beagle flying a Sopwith Camel?, a scrawny twig that blooms into a magical Christmas tree?), and you are well into classic fairy tale territory: the combination of the amazing and the everyday.

A Simple Story, Told Well

So, the next time you’re called upon to create a brand persona or user scenario, or you’re asked to review one, imagine you’re making a four-panel strip: in a very short space, you have to identify, relate to, and provide an emotional connection to an imaginary person. In short, brands and personas, like comic strip characters and other literary archetypes, are a mental shorthand we use to reference a much bigger and vastly more complex world.

And that’s what brand experience is all about, Charlie Brown.

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