Every buyer wants to feel understood by whatever brand they purchase from. And for a brand to understand its customers, it must first know its own characteristics. When you know what your brand stands for, you can then study your audience and identify similar characteristics. Emphasizing these commonalities will draw them to you!
But a brand isn’t a person. So how can it have characteristics or, in better words, a persona that will attract like-customers to itself and, at the end of the day, lead to them making the ultimate decision – a purchase?
In this case, you don’t just want a one-time customer. You want your brand to gain new customers and also for your old ones to keep coming back to you. And with the thousands of different brands out there, you need to stand out to achieve this. And no, your product is not all you need.
This is where your brand’s personality comes into the picture. Think of your brand as a person and give this person characteristics and attributes that match your target audience.
Your brand’s personality is just as important as the brand itself. And it might sound like quite a task, but rest assured that it is doable. This article has all the simple steps you need to create your brand’s personality.
Let’s get into it!
What Is Brand Personality?
You have personality traits that define you, and so should your brand. With that said, what exactly is a brand’s personality?
A “brand personality” is your brand’s human characteristics. It is the way you would describe your brand with details as if it was a person, talking about its hobbies, lifestyle, and values.
In the same way that we learn of a person’s personality by their words, value systems, actions, and sometimes inactions, we can also assign and learn these things of a brand.
The trick is to pay the utmost attention to the identity you have created for the brand and match it with the characteristics of your target audience. Making this match will significantly dictate the personality of your brand.
And personalities are only recognized if they remain constant. At every point where your brand will be seen, whether it is on social media, billboards, or ads, the personality has to remain consistent, both in words, tone, and imagery. Doing so is critical to building audiences’ trust in the brand.
You need to pay attention to the places where your brand’s identity will appear—but also make sure that your brand’s personality doesn’t become diluted with time.
As time goes on, you must make sure the branding personality remains the same as from the start. A deviation could cause the brand to lose its customers, and without customers, you are not in business.
How a Brand Personality Works
Now that you know that your branding personality is a human attribute that makes your brand more approachable, it’s time to change your marketing game from start to finish.
In other words, your brand’s personality is the bridge to your customers’ emotional side. Many people will buy based on how they feel about the product. If they can picture themselves with the product your brand offers and it feels right for them, they are more likely to buy.
This is where your brand’s personality comes in. When your audience sees your brand, the first thing they see is the personality it gives off, and if that personality matches theirs, there will be an instant connection.
In your audience’s mind, they think, “this brand knows what I like, and they are giving me just that,” or “they know my lifestyle, and they are offering services to match.” Either way, you can be sure it is love at first sight when such a connection is made.
In summary, branding personality makes a brand easily recognized and attractive enough to purchase.
How to Define Your Brand Personality and Traits
Building your brand’s personality has everything to do with your audience and how important you want to be to them. And defining your brand’s personality takes you one step closer to achieving this.
To this effect, there are five types of brand personalities, each with its typical traits.
- Sincerity: cheerful, happy, honest, wholesome
- Competence: trustworthy, successful, brilliant, reliable, accountable
- Excitement: Daring, imaginative, high-spirited
- Sophistication: Bougee, upper class, charming, classy
- Ruggedness: adventurous, bold, tough, outdoorsy
These personalities also have sub-traits that make it easier to shape your brand’s identity
- Cheerful: friendly, relatable
- Honest: sincere, genuine, true
- Reliable: hardworking, secure, safe
- Daring: exciting, trendy
- Spirited: young, free, cool
- Charming: smooth, graceful
- Outdoorsy: adventurous
- Wholesome: acceptance, openness, transparency
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How to Create a Branding Personality
So far, we have established how important it is for a brand to have a personality. And the process is straightforward. Using the following steps, you will create a personality for your brand with little stress.
Know Your Target Audience
The target audience is the key to any business, as customers come from that category. And researching your target audience gives you an idea of what they will most likely connect with.
You have to know who your ideal customers are, their age, what they like, their gender, what they do for a living, and what problem they have that your product will serve as a solution to.
Define Your Brand Personality Dimensions
Your brand personality dimension is your brand personality trait, and they can only fall among the following five, according to social psychologist Jennifer Aaker.
- Ruggedness: Think REI and Jeep. They both have an outdoorsy and tough persona.
- Sincerity: Disney is a brand that has this personality dimension.
- Sophistication: Chanel and Gucci have sophistication as their primary traits.
- Excitement: Brands like Tesla and Red Bull have this trait accounting for their spirited and creative persona.
- Competence: Brands like Volvo come to mind in this dimension.
The best thing about the personality dimension is that you are not restricted to one. You can choose two or three dimensions, as long as they appeal to your target audience.
Choose the Best Adjectives That Describe Your Brand
Once your brand’s dimension is defined, identify the specific brand personality traits you want to express within them and work with that.
Using 3-5 of these specific brand personalities, your brand will stand apart from competitors and thus giving you an identity of your own.
Build Your Brand Strategy With Your Brand’s Personality
Your brand’s strategy is incomplete without your brand’s personality, as you need them to align to give your brand the structure it needs. From the colors to font to the topography of your brand’s identity, its personality has a say on how it should turn out.
Types of Brand Personalities
To create your brand personality, you need to understand the types available and how they are related to your target audience.
Looking at a few brand personality examples, we will establish the types of brand identities and how various brands manifest them
As Rugged as Jeep
Jeep’s brand’s identity is outdoorsy and rugged. Looking through the brand’s social media, their emphasis is firmly placed on the brand’s confidence, adventurous spirit, and durability as its personality trait.
As Excited as Nike
Nike is another excellent example of a brand personality. Nike is all about excitement for every sport. The brand is depicted as athletic and fierce but, at the same time, calm and collected.
From this, you can tell that Nike seeks to attract people with the same characteristics. They have been successfully doing that, seeing that they are the leading brand in athletic shoes all over the globe.
As Sincere as Coca-Cola
As seen from their packaging, promotions, flavors, and various campaigns, the most successful being the “Share a Coke,” it is evident that Coca-Cola is all about its audience’s feelings when they consume their product. They focus on their audience’s happiness, optimism, and innocence.
As Competent as Apple
Apple has gotten so many things right with its brand, and one major win is the brand’s personality.
Being the highest-valued brand for its technological innovations, Apple has sold itself to its audience as the go-to brand when searching for superior products.
This is because, over the years, they have shown themselves as a competent brand ready to change the world one product at a time.
As Sophisticated as Tiffany and Co
In the world of jewelry, Tiffany and Co rules. This brand is all for the classy and sophisticated lifestyle, which they show in all their pieces.
With clever strategy and positioning, Tiffany and Co have become one of the most successful jewelry brands manifesting upper class and elegance.
Brand Personality vs. Imagery
While we have established personality branding to be its human characteristic, the imagery, on the other hand, is quite different. A brand’s imagery is its visual representation. Everything from videos, pictures, logos, iconography, and even colors that allows you to communicate your brand‘s story most simply is its imagery.
Although personality branding and imagery are often mixed up, judging from their definitions, they could not be any more different. But for clarity, here are a few differences between brand personality and imagery.
Personality branding targets the emotional side of the audience and prompts them to decide to buy based on how they feel about the product.
But imagery focuses on perception and recognition. The concept behind this is quite simple; the imagery is made to be simplistic and, as such, will enhance recognition.
When a potential customer recognizes a brand’s logo, the chance that they’ll buy the brand’s product increases.
Serving the same purpose to communicate with the brand’s audience, brand personality, and brand imagery take different approaches to this task.
Personality branding by appealing to emotions and imagery by appealing to the eyes. Both work together, however, separately to influence how the brand is perceived.
Simplified, brand personality consists of tone, archetype, and essence, while brand imagery consists of the brand persona, business goals, and key messaging.
The relationship between a brand’s personality and its imagery is not a competitive one. Instead, they complement each other if they are done well and work to give the brand a lasting impression in the mind of your target audience.
What Are the Different Types of Brand Personalities?
There are five different kinds of brand personalities/dimensions developed by the expert Jennifer L. Aaker in 1997.
Sincerity
Such brands show a personality of openness, down-to-earth, and honesty. An example is Coca-Cola and Patagonia
Excitement
High-spirited, cheerful, creative, and optimistic about the future. Brands like Tesla and Disney use this personality dimension
Competence
For brands that portray their trustworthiness, intelligence, and skill. The brands Volvo and Microsoft make the list.
Ruggedness
Rugged comes with the outdoors. Take a Jeep, Land Rover or Harley-Davidson, for example. These brands are the image of an outdoorsy lifestyle.
Sophistication
Here we are talking of high class, charming and fancy. It doesn’t just include fashion but technology innovations as well. A few brand examples are Tiffany and Co, Chanel, and Apple.
Need Funding?
As far as building a sustainable business is concerned, you have to create a personality for your brand. This way, your business can stand out and thrive in the ever-growing market competition you will face. Your brand needs a unique personality branding to differentiate it from the rest and make it unique. However, researching, creating, and implementing such a strategy requires time and funding. If you need advice regarding business banking, loans, and lines of credit, reach out to us at EBoost.
Brand Personality FAQ
Brand imagery tells your brand’s story to your audience using aesthetically pleasing visual representation. This can include logos, illustrations, iconography, typography, color palettes, filters, UI components, and photography.
Your brand imagery is to create a visual of the brand in your audience’s mind and have that image stick with them. This is all for prompting recognition as people will buy from a brand they are familiar with.
Branding personality, on the other hand, is the human characteristics assigned to your brand to make its identity more personable. By doing this, your target audience will find your brand relatable, as it will affect the brand’s marketing strategy.
An excitement brand personality is a type of brand personality that evokes feelings of energy, fun, and adventure. These brands are associated with excitement and thrill, and they often target consumers who are seeking novelty, excitement, and new experiences. Examples of brands with an excitement brand personality include:
- Red Bull: The energy drink brand is associated with adventure, excitement, and an active lifestyle.
- Nike: The athletic brand is known for its “Just Do It” slogan, which encourages consumers to push their limits and pursue their passions with energy and excitement.
- Disney: The entertainment brand is associated with fun, excitement, and adventure, and its products and experiences are designed to bring joy and excitement to its customers.
- Coca-Cola: The soft drink brand is often associated with happiness, energy, and fun, and its marketing campaigns often evoke feelings of excitement and joy.
Brand personality can bring several benefits for a company, including:
- Differentiation: A strong brand personality can help a company stand out from its competitors and create a unique identity.
- Emotional connection: Brand personality can evoke emotions and build a stronger relationship with consumers, leading to increased brand loyalty.
- Consistency: Establishing a clear brand personality can help ensure consistency across all touchpoints, making the brand easier to recognize and remember.
- Flexibility: A well-defined brand personality can adapt to different markets and products, allowing a company to expand its offerings while still maintaining its unique identity.
- Competitive advantage: A strong brand personality can give a company a competitive edge, as consumers are more likely to choose brands they have an emotional connection with over those they do not.
Brand personality is shaped by several factors including company culture, target audience, brand messaging, and visual identity. These elements come together to create an emotional connection with consumers and influence how they perceive the brand.
