Similar to when a person has split personalities, a brand having split personalities may be confusing and overall damaging towards its brand identity. Your brand is more than just a name or a logo. Especially for brands that are still on the rise or just starting up, determining a brand personality is generally important to gain a loyal consumer base. But why? Or how do I, as a brand, determine the brand personality? That’s why we’re going to be discussing almost everything you need to know about a brand personality, including how to determine it and how you can utilize it.
So, What Is a Brand Personality?
In short, it’s your brand personified. Giving your brand a human-like set of characteristics or traits that defines your brand, making it unique. This personality reflects your brand’s values and essentially affects how you want consumers to perceive your brand as well as the relationship you want your brand to have with your consumers. Alongside that, the personality that is determined for your brand will also influence how it is received in the market. Typically, a brand’s image reflects its personality. There are 5 main personality dimensions according to the Aaker model including, excitement, competence, sophistication and ruggedness. These dimensions will help you determine what specific personality traits you appoint to your brand. We’ll get into that in detail later on in this blog.
Why Is a Brand Personality Important?
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Differentiation
Just as every individual’s personality makes them unique, having a brand personality sets that brand apart from others. It’s what makes the brand unique and stand out in a crowded market. Determine a well-defined personality to give your brand a one-of-a-kind persona to best cater to your target audience.
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Emotional Connection
Since a personality sets the brand apart from others, it helps the brand form an emotional connection with its target audience. Connecting with your target audience is the key to gaining a loyal consumer base. Letting your consumer base relate to your brand’s personality and values encourages a deeper and longer-lasting connection.
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Consistency
Every brand needs a sort of framework or guideline that allows their brand image and content to maintain consistency. A brand’s consistency helps it to gain reliability as a brand and that can help gain trust of consumers. When consumers see this consistency, they are more likely to trust and engage with the brand.
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Influence
Once trust and reliability has been gained, this then allows the brand to have an influence on their consumers, especially in terms of purchase decisions. Your consumers may be more inclined to consider purchasing or repeating their purchase, especially with the emotional connection that has been made. For instance, a passionate gamer would be more inclined to purchase an energy drink brand that markets itself with an exciting personality.
5 Brand Personality Dimensions Based on the Aaker Model
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Sincerity
Brands categorized within the sincerity dimension typically have personality traits such as honesty, trustful, down-to-earth and other similar traits. Brands with these personalities often focus on building trust with their consumer base while nurturing long term brand-consumer relationships.
Brand example: One of the brands that perfectly display these types of personalities is Disney. It’s among the most well-known sincere brands. Some of Disney’s personality traits include caring, family-oriented, decency and more.
Source: Pinterest
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Excitement
Excitement brands display personality traits such as bold, creative or adventurous. Their brand would aim to evoke a sense of excitement and cater to like minded consumers.
Brand Example: A brand that perfectly displays excitement personalities is Mountain Dew. Countless times, Mountain Dew effectively encourages athletes and youths to drink their energy drink and dare to be adventurous.
Source: Pinterest
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Competence
Brands that are within the competence category often display reliability, expertise and efficiency. They’re more known for how good they are in their field and are often the top choice.
Brand Example: This is a brand that almost everybody in the world knows; Microsoft. Microsoft’s competence, expertise, reliability paired with cutting-edge technology earned them their respectable reputation.
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Sophistication
Imagine an elegant woman in a fancy dress or a gentleman in a tuxedo; that’s sophistication personified. Brands that are sophisticated display elegance, more refined and considered luxury brands most of the time.
Brand Example: Chanel is very aligned with this brand personality, catering to their middle/upper class audience. Their brand very much exudes elegance and is well enjoyed by their equally as luxurious audience who appreciates desirable fashion and beauty.
Source: Pinterest
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Ruggedness
So now, on the opposite side of sophistication, we have ruggedness. Brands that display ruggedness are often tough, outdoorsy and strong. These brands often appeal to consumers who love adventure, unconventional living and overall outdoorsy.
Brand example: Harley Davidson is a good example of a brand that displays ruggedness. Their brand exudes machismo and always markets themself as outdoorsy and adventurous.
Source: Pinterest
How to Define a Brand Personality
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Study Your Competitors
Knowing your competitors is helpful to see how you can stand out and improve your brand. Learn what works and what doesn’t work (a.k.a gaps and opportunities) and this helps you narrow down a few personality traits that resonate with your brand and audience.
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Consider Your Target Audience
Speaking of audience, a brand should always define and recognise their target audience. This is to better form a relationship with them. Knowing them helps you build a brand personality that aligns with their preferences.
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Establish Key Traits
To establish the key traits of your brand, you can first determine which of the five brand personality dimensions your brand belongs to. Does your brand display sophistication? Ruggedness? Maybe excitement! Building your brand personality will be much easier once you’ve determined that.
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Build A Brand Identity
Create a guideline that includes any visual identities and verbal elements that reflect your chosen personality traits. Aspects such as logos, colours, brand voice and so on should reinforce your personality.
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Keep Everything Consistent
Once you have a guideline up and ready, make sure you stick to it and maintain consistency across any and all platforms. Maintaining the consistency of your brand personality can show reliability and form trust.
Finally, Let’s Review
In order to properly connect with your audience for a longer-lasting and valuable relationship, a brand should determine their brand personality. It’s overall a powerful tool to build a lasting connection with a brand’s consumers and that, in turn, allows for more purchase influence from new or repeating consumers. On top of that, your brand gets its own uniqueness, standing out in the market. However, if you’re struggling to determine what your brand’s personality is, then feel free to give us a call! Our expertise cover brand identities and their personalities too. The key to your brand’s success is already in your hands, you just have to find the right door to unlock.
Get to know your brand better with us! Give us a call.