Multidimensional Personas are Unlocking Growth for Brands

As we move, engage and click our way through the world, we often change the “hat” we wear multiple times in the span of a single day. Part strategist, part musician, part fan, I might flex between drafting a work email, posting about a new song release and compulsively refreshing multiple sites to try and snag concert tickets, all while simultaneously ordering takeout. This hat-switching is a natural response to shifting priorities based on the roles and responsibilities we assume throughout the day. If we wear so many hats and embody so many dimensions, why do so many brands still design experiences that presume we wear just one?

A deeper, more dimensionalized understanding of consumers has eluded most brands. Meanwhile, the convergence of physical environments, emerging technology and our lived experience is enabling new realms of brand immersion, influencing culture, forging community and driving loyalty, leading to a deeper understanding of who we are. The next frontier of brand growth will be unlocked through multidimensional experiences, or MDX, that touch all facets of our everyday lives. But to take advantage of MDX, brands must first evolve their approach to the industry-standard buyer persona.

Consumers Are Multidimensional

For years, the marketing, product and design worlds have defined and pursued static targets like “The Busy Single Mom of Three” or “The Boomer Business Exec.” These personas act as snapshots: useful for understanding a single consumer demographic or behavior, but not for capturing the full complexity of the people they intend to represent. It’s not like people don’t want to be understood.

According to Accenture, 64 percent of consumers wish companies would respond faster to meet their changing needs. This evolution of consumer expectations demands an ability to flex among different dimensions of a person’s lifestyle. Not surprisingly, it also requires the creation of a new persona that’s capable of adapting to the complex, shifting realities of people’s lives.

MDPs Are the New MVPs

A multidimensional persona, or MDP, is the optimal lens for understanding how a customer’s many hats influence their brand experience. Take Maria, a 42-year-old professional in Denver, CO. Maria is also a mother, a wife, a manager and a nature enthusiast. Traditionally, a brand might create three separate personas: “Married Mom with Young Kids,” “Corporate CMO,” and “Mid-40s Nature Lover.” But in reality, Maria is all three at once. The MDP approach acknowledges Maria more holistically, surfacing otherwise unacknowledged facets of her lived experience rooted in the relational, environmental and chronological contexts she moves between.

One of the most powerful aspects of adopting MDPs is that they reveal opportunities beyond the boundaries of a brand’s existing service offering. MDPs highlight where a brand has license to create new experiences that organically resonate with different sides of the same consumer.

For instance, Goop may have started as a newsletter for its core persona, the “Health-Conscious Woman,” but through a more multidimensional approach, the brand discovered that this same audience also includes the “Adventure Travel Seeker,” “Conscious Beauty Fanatic,” “Affluent Homemaker,” and even “Social Butterfly.” 

This revelation gives the brand permission to develop entirely new experiences beyond an e-commerce platform: custom beauty products, a pricey fashion line, a Netflix show, a wellness retreat in the Bahamas, a Goop-cruise — all which they might not have initially considered within their brand’s scope of authority.

Rather than catering to existing customer segments in a single dimension and hoping they’ll stick around, MDPs give brands the freedom to evolve and adapt to new experiences, knowing that they can engage authentically with more sides of their existing audience. This is even more important in today’s economic environment, as McKinsey’s State of the Consumer 2024 report found that consumer loyalty is fading across demographics and more people are quick to try new brands to meet their needs.

Red Bull is another prime example of a multidimensional mentality in action. Launched in the 80s, the pioneer energy drink was aimed first at busy students and professionals. But the “Red Bull Gives You Wings” soon resonated with everyone from “The Adrenaline Sports Seeker” to “The Music Makers” — beginning a lasting legacy of Red Bull TV, sports teams, race tracks, music studios, dance competitions and bold marketing moments.

Multidimensional experiences are fueled by human understanding, debunking the idea that profound empathy and profound business growth are mutually exclusive. Quite the opposite, in fact. Gaining a deeper relationship with your audience, steeped in curiosity about their behaviors and understanding their diverse needs, attracts customers, increases engagement, drives loyalty and is ultimately good for business.

Complexity, Meet Empathy

Designing experiences with empathy means seeing your audience across all dimensions of their lived experience. Some of the most interesting and powerful examples of MDPs come into play in the healthcare space. 

At my company, Journey, the design team transformed a hospital with thoughtful MDX. Children in treatment still need space to have fun, play, interact and just be kids. This meant designing spaces that invited them to play, then switch into student mode and have space to do homework and learn — and during treatment, switch into patient mode to feel comfortable, cared for and safe. Conventional persona design would reduce these children to their medical diagnoses. Approaching them through an MDP lens, we empowered them to wear all their hats — and be the best versions of themselves.

Embracing MDPs creates opportunities for brand experiences to become more dynamic, immersive and multidimensional in ways that reflect the true complexity of people’s lives. In doing so, new doors of business opportunity materialize and unlock potential for growth. Because you’re not one-dimensional, and neither are your customers.