Buyer personas are semi-fictional, research-informed profiles representing distinct segments of a target audience — typically including their goals, concerns, and what influences their purchasing decisions.
Where a target audience definition is often a single, broad description, personas break that audience into more specific, distinct groups when a business genuinely serves more than one kind of customer with different needs or motivations.
Personas are most useful when built from real research or direct customer conversations, not assumptions — a persona built on guesswork can steer brand and design decisions in the wrong direction just as easily as having no persona at all.