MarketingSeptember 28, 2026

Three Common Reasons Personas Fail to Work in Companies

Author: Daisuke Irikura (Representative Director, HUV DESIGN OFFICE Co., Ltd.) MBA / Former INPIT-registered brand specialist / Delivered more than 100 branding seminars and consulting engagements for B2B small and medium-sized enterprises

What You Will Learn

The three root causes of personas failing to work
The problems caused by a lack of evidence, validation, and competitive perspective
How personas affect the overall brand strategy

Conclusion (Summary)

Personas fail to work not because of how they are created, but because three essentials are missing: evidence, validation, and perspective. ① Personas based on wishful thinking rather than data ② A lack of mechanisms for validation and updates ③ A lack of competitive perspective—without all three essentials, personas become empty formalities, unused in sales, recruitment, or on the web.

“We created personas, but our sales team isn’t using them.” “We created them, but we don’t feel they’re producing results.”

A persona is a customer profile developed by analyzing and organizing the factors involved in purchasing. In practice, however, personas are not working in many companies.

Cause ①: Supporting Information Has Not Been Accumulated

The accuracy of a persona depends on the quality and quantity of the information behind it.

Research on B2B buyer personas (Tomba, 2026) states that reliable personas should be built from four layers of information: interviews, win/loss data (analysis of deals won and lost), purchase intent signals, and firmographic data. It explicitly states: “Personas must be based on this evidence, not internal opinions.”

There are several approaches to creating personas. You can start with STP, or create multiple provisional personas and develop finalized personas through A/B testing. Whatever approach you take, without supporting information, personas become wishful thinking.

Diagnostic data from 24 companies assessed using our proprietary brand diagnostic tool, BRAND CHECK—a tool that quantifies a company’s current brand status using 12 indicators and makes management challenges visible—showed that more than 70% had not established a KPI framework.

Without a KPI framework, data on customer purchasing behavior, close rates, reasons for lost deals, and other factors does not accumulate. Without data, you cannot see what is happening on the ground. Trying to define a customer profile without that visibility allows wishful thinking—“This is the kind of customer we want to attract”—to creep in.

Cause ②: There Is No Validation Mechanism

Even if you collect data and create personas, you cannot stop there.

Recent research (Arise GTM, 2026) recommends a continuous validation process as an emerging approach for 2024–2026: “Form hypotheses → validate them through behavioral tracking → systematically compare the gap between actual and reported behavior.”

A/B testing is an effective way to validate persona hypotheses (MixBright, 2025). Testing different messages, proposals, and content tailored to a persona provides real data on what actually resonates.

Yet many companies have no mechanism for measuring whether the personas they have created are working and improving them accordingly. Without KPIs, you cannot validate. Without validation, you cannot improve. Personas are not something you create once and consider finished; they need to be updated continuously.

Markets, customers, and competitors change. Research on B2B personas (Tomba, 2026) warns: “Unless you update personas quarterly using closed-deal data and firmographic data, you will drift back to the same assumptions you started with.”

Cause ③: Competitors Are Being Overlooked

Personas should not be created by looking only at your own company. They define “who chooses you, what they choose you for, and why” based on an understanding of where your company stands in the market as a whole.

Our BRAND CHECK diagnostic data showed that the vast majority of companies assessed had an insufficient understanding of their competitors.

Without an understanding of competitors, the following problem arises: although competitors are targeting the same customers, you fail to recognize that your customer profiles overlap with theirs. The result is a persona that does not reflect what sets you apart from competitors.

Porter’s theory of competitive strategy (1980) holds that a company’s positioning is determined by its relative relationship with competitors. You cannot accurately define your place in the market by looking only at your own company and ignoring competitors.

How These Three Causes Affect Brand Strategy

When these three causes—a lack of evidence, validation, and competitive perspective—combine, the entire brand strategy breaks down.

Personas represent the “who” in brand strategy. If this is off target, the higher-level strategic decisions about “what you are chosen for” and “why you are chosen” will also be off target.

The “who” is off target → Sales pitches miss the mark
The “who” is off target → Recruitment messages fail to resonate
The “who” is off target → The website fails to resonate with anyone

When personas work, sales, recruitment, and the web all change at once. Conversely, companies whose sales, recruitment, and web efforts are not working may need to start by questioning the accuracy of their personas.

Summary

The three reasons personas fail to work are as follows.

① Supporting information has not been accumulated: Personas created without data become wishful thinking.

② There is no validation mechanism: There is no KPI framework for measuring whether the personas created are working and improving them accordingly.

③ Competitors are being overlooked: Customer profiles are drawn solely from the company’s own perspective and do not reflect its position in the broader market.

Whatever approach you take, personas are not usable without these three essentials. Personas are not a one-time exercise; they require ongoing data collection, validation, and updates.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the minimum data needed to create personas? A: Three types of information form the minimum starting point: reasons for winning and losing deals, interviews with existing customers, and firmographic data.

Q: How often should personas be updated? A: Quarterly reviews are recommended. Unless you reflect changes in the market, customers, and competitors, you will drift back to your initial assumptions.

Q: Which should come first: personas or market definition? A: Market definition comes first. Unless you have decided which market to compete in, you cannot establish “which groups of companies to target,” the foundation for your personas.

Next Steps

If you would like a quantitative assessment of your company’s current persona design and brand strategy, try BRAND CHECK, our free brand diagnostic tool.

▶ BRAND CHECK (Free Assessment) https://brand-check-v3.vercel.app/survey

Translated from the original Japanese article. Read in Japanese

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