Brand Personality

Definition: Brand Personality

It is the set of “human characteristics” that the consumer can relate to with a particular brand name. It is what the brand can live and die for. It is composed of a unique set of attributes that only that particular brand possesses. These can be gender, age, socio economic class, psychographic, emotional characteristics.

Example can be “Apple” which has a brand personality as being “cool, innovative, stylish and upper class” while “IBM” is traditional, old and routine.

It basically looks into what traits the target consumer segment possesses and what are their aspirations for future and accordingly develop a brand’s personality.

Examples can be- conservative or progressive, leader or followers, dynamic or stable, outgoing or reserved, young and fashionable or old and traditional, etc.

The brand personality development process is not always the result of a conscious effort. It may gradually develop automatically with the different usages and types of consumers who start using the brand.

Hence, this concludes the definition of Brand Personality along with its overview.

Role of Advertisement in Brand Personality

Advertising is one of the key elements in building a brand personality, which is equally important to the marketer & consumers.  Brand personality is distinct, non preemptible enduring and associates the brand with certain values.  Brand personality acts a potent brand differentiator and offers sustainable competitive advantage.

Advertising by creating or reinforcing brands personality enhances brand value or equity, which in turn can be leveraged through brand extension.  Brand personality also helps brands to gain market share, command price premium and insulates from discounting Brands.

Consumers as  part of self-defining process, use possessions to describe themselves  and also to which group they belong,  especially in socially conspicuous product categories such as clothing, automobiles etc.(what is me is related to what I have)   Brands make personality statements, users associate a brand with a strong personality.

Key advertising elements such as endorser, user imagery, symbols and execution elements contribute to Brand personality.

Role of advertising in creating Brand Personality

Human beings have a personality, which is essentially a summation of traits.  Brand personality can be defined in several ways, with emphasis on emotion, human and tangible aspects of the brand. It can also be defined as sum of the tangible and intangible aspects of the brand. Even for industrial product like steel, SAIL uses emotional connect with 'punch line' there is bit of SAIL in everybody's life.  Brand personality, is process of transforming the brand into a person or humanizing the brand.  Thus brands can also have characteristics (Ex: Sex, Gender, skills & abilities etc). Marketers deliver the personality using advertising, features, packaging etc.

Users and non users differ in perceptions with respect to Brand personality users attach a distinct personality to the brand.  Established brands have unique personality   which is generally consistent and may be implicit.  Brand personality enables to establish relationship between brand & consumer with emotional content.  The degree of proximity between brand and consumer personality, will influence the purchase intension and brand loyalty.  Brands need to update personality to stay contemporary and relevant, as target audience personality may change over a period of time, due to changes in cultural, economic, media exposure etc.  Brand personality should not be confused with target audience characteristics. Personality may be existing or aspirational.  Projective techniques can be used to describe brands.  Consumers can be asked to associate the brand, with adjectives (word association, sentence completion etc.) and also can be asked about user imagery.

For example:

Brands                                              :      Personality 
Moods                                               :      Sensitivity 
Thumbs up                                       :      bravery / daring 
Amul                                                  :      humour 
MTV                                                   :      wacky 
Indiakings                                         :      Sophistication (upper class) 
Woodlands                                      :      Ruggedness & outdoorsy 
Mahindra Scorpio                          :      Ruggedness
Marlboro                                          :      Ruggedness 
Ruff & Tuff                                       :      Bravery 
Sona chandi Chavanprash          :      Bravery
Britania little hearts                       :      Love & Affection

Brand                                                :      Adjective 
Liril                                        :      freshness  & Lime 
Lux                                          :      Beauty, softness 
Dove                                                  :      Softness 
Bisleri                                                 :      Safety 
Bajaj Pulsar                                      :      Power
Yamaha                                             :      Power 
Titan                                      :      Style, elegance 
Cinthol                                               :      Freshness 
Mysore Sandal                                :      Traditional
Medimix                                            :      Traditional 

In all of the above brands, advertisement elements such as selection of the endorsers and execution etc., delivered the Brand personality.

Using of Film stars for the Lux beauty soap is logical and the attractiveness of celebrity is high.  This is critical and leads to credibility.  Endorser personality gets transferred to the brand. Thumb up soft drink has distinct personality owing to chivalry based ads, which also communicates about user imagery. The name 'Marlboro' evokes Wild West imagery, thanks to ads and consistency of the marketers in maintaining the same brand personality.  Ads for multi utility vehicles like Mahendra scorpio , shows the ruggedness personality.