Brands Personality and Its Types

A brand is not just a product or a service; it has its own character and this character defines how a brand is approached by the target market. In the era of marketing, brand personality is one of the most important factors, which shapes people’s emotions and determines the choices they make. In this article, I will be discussing about the topic – brand personality, its types and usefulness for company and marketing strategies.

Understanding Brand Personality

Brand personality can be defined as humanized attributes associated with the brands or products. Unlike tangible features that speak volume or characteristics of a particular brand, it includes the values, feel and traits associated with it. Similar to people, brands also contain a personality that consumers can easily identify with; Brand personality is the process by which the personality of the particular brand is communicated by consumers.

Brand personality has been discussed vividly in the marketing literature and there have been numerous classification of brand personality but in this paper, five main types will be reviewed as follows;

There are five primary brand personality types that brands often fall into:

Excitement Some of the brands associated with this category include energy, spontaneity as well as enthusiasm. The following brands aim at creating consumer appeal of excitement and the feeling of being dare devils. Two examples can be noted here; these are the Red Bull and GoPro that attract the viewers by offering adventures and an active way of living.

Simplicity Sincere brands are truthful, real, and humble. They are concerned with the creation of trust and mutual communication between them and their audiences. Currently future-oriented and sincere brand personalities can be seen in such companies as Dove and Patagonia.

Robustness Brands that are rugged give out a strong, durable and tough image. They frequently provide services to people who want to have fun and spend time actively, outdoors. Jeep and The North Face are other examples of what could be called ‘rugged’ brand personalities.

Competence Brands caught in the competence-profile are dependable, fast and wise. To that end, they magnify their strengths and capacity in providing superior goods or services. Such market players are Microsoft and IBM.

Lavish Luxury The global brands are elegant and refined with a clear target audience of people who appreciate the quality as well as rarity. The trademarks like Chanel or Mercedes are associated with refinement and stylishness.

Factors Influencing Brand Personality

Several factors contribute to the development of a brand’s personality:Several factors contribute to the development of a brand’s personality:

Target Audience: This is one aspect, which requires the organisation to have adequate knowledge on the target customers in order to define the right brand personality to adopt.

Industry and Market Positioning: Through the analysis of sector and brand rank, it was possible to define the specifics of the executive’s personality that should be reflected by a brand.

Values and Mission: Brand personality corresponds with the company’s main values and mission and can be derived from them in most cases.

Creating a consistent and impactful brand personality involves various elements: Creating a consistent and impactful brand personality involves various elements:

Developing a Consistent Brand Voice: The two major aspects to consider in the content of each written brand communication are the tone and the style used should mirror the personalities of the brand.

Visual Elements: This means that logos, color schemes, design elements and others should be in sync with the personality of the brand and serve the purpose of conditioning the responses required out of the viewers.

Incorporating Brand Personality in Marketing Campaigns: Information about the product, ads, and content should reflect the personality of the brand to the listeners.

Building Emotional Connections

Brand personality is a very effective technique in influencing consumer emotions. If consumers identify with the personality of the brand then they are likely to become loyal and trust the brand’s products. It’s like developing a friendship with the store or outlet which in turn make the consumer come back for more shopping.

Brand Personality with respect to Digital Marketing

Therefore, effectively applying brand personality in the context of the present and the future means adjusting it to the digital environment. Social media helps brands in establishing their personality through the type and kind of content they create, the way they interact with the audience and through stories. Across the different digital media, it is equally important that the brand asserts its image and the values it supports.

Challenges in Brand Personality

Ensuring consistency with the character or brand personality across the multiple different brand points can sometimes prove difficult. Sometimes, the personalities also require modification depending with the developments in consumers buying habits and trends but this should still be in-form with their overall brand image.

Case Studies

Apple’s prestige personality image Due to its ability to revolutionize people’s communication and personal computing experiences, Apple’s brand personality can be said to have a prestige or sophisticated personality. In such manner, the products and marketing strategies of the company encompass all these traits; they provide elegant and technologically sophisticated items for those consumers who can appreciate this approach.

Coca-Cola and Its Friendly/Sincere Personality The given brand of Coca-Cola possesses friendly, happy and unification personality. Nonetheless, this imagery and substrate message by Coca-Cola is genuine and realistic.

Nike’s brand personality can be termed as Rugged and Exciting. Most marketing campaigns conducted by this company portray athletes straining themselves to the limit, a factor that is likely to attract consumers who are in search of the unknown and something new.

Brand personality can be defined as the set of human characteristics attributed to a brand by its consumers, hopes, dreams, beliefs, values, traits characterizing a brand can be described as brand personality and the way of measuring its influence.

Thus, the effects of brand personality can be assessed in accordance with how the potential buying public perceives it, supports it and interacts with it. Such tools as surveys, feedbacks, and the indicators of brand’s activity in social networks allow evaluating how successful the brand personality reflects the target consumers.

Changes that occur within an organization may require some form of adjustment of the brand personality over time.

In the process of consumer preferences’ shift, or the process of industries’ maturation, it becomes necessary to either rebirth or alter the brand personality while preserving some key features of the brand personality. Maintaining this basicness while at the same time not compromising on the novelty is one way of guaranteeing the relevance and desirability of the brand.

Conclusion

As vividly seen in the ever evolving business environment that is marketing, brand personality is a conspicuous weapon for the formation and control of the consumer conduit. Therefore, any brand is capable of making those distinct impressions that would eventually lead to the formation of personalities and hence, loyal consumers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Brand personality and brand identity are two concepts that are closely related yet distinct?
therefore, the question of what constitutes the difference between the two is a valid one.
Brand image constitutes the symbolic aspects while brand character relates to the human qualities that are associated to brands.

Yes, a brand certainly can have at least two personality types: the identified and the projected?
Even though a brand may possess specific and powerful characteristics, it is possible to incorporate underneath characteristics to appeal to the other groups of consumers.

It is also quite crucial to note that if a brand has a personality?
which does not correspond to the products it sells, then a society will develop adverse attitudes towards such a brand.
Thus, there might be a problem of alignment because the brand personality likely would not match the offerings, therefore confusing consumers.

Can a small business even have a brand personality?
It agreeable to negotiate a brand personality because values can be aligned and messaging can be made consistent for the small businesses.

It pertinent to ask the question how cultural diversity affects the development of brand personality?
Sensitivity towards different cultural values and preferences is thus important because cultural differences impact the overall personality of the brand that needs to be adapted to the cultural difference with non-negotiable attributes.