28 Brand Personality

Brands have a personality. Branding, according to Lois Geller, is an ongoing process of looking at a company or product’s past and present to create a cohesive personality going forward. Branding is your organization’s representation as a personality, in Dave Kerpen’s words. A well-designed brand personality resonates in everything the product or business does from customer service to the actual products a company may offer.

The meaning of a brand in the consumer’s life is derived from the positioning of the brand and the image formed by the brand in the consumers’ minds. This image depends on brand personality. Perhaps the most important consideration when creating a brand personality is whether or not there is a close relationship between the personality traits of the target consumers and the brand personality thought to be formed. The brand purchasing behaviour and brand loyalty highly depend on the extent to which brand personality is similar to the personality of the consumer’s or someone of whom the consumer is a fan. Brand personality is a strategic tool that shapes the brand’s communication with consumers.

Brands can reflect and communicate themselves through their personalities in the minds of consumers. The brand personality becomes a key concept at this point to establish closer and more loyal relationships with the consumers or to be differentiated in the consumer’s mind. Brand personality refers to the common style and attitude that the brand would use for transmitting its message. In this sense, brand personality is a very important factor in establishing an emotional bond. While creating the brand personality, it is necessary to consider the consumer’s preference for the brand depending on the situation and conditions and to determine the appropriate image and emotional forms.

Brand Adjectives

Once You Have Your Adjectives

1. Brainstorm what the chosen adjectives have in common
2. What visual signifiers may help in the logo and tagline process
3. Draw/create 2-3 mood boards of visual signifiers
4. Compare the mood boards to create a theme/ style for your brand

Brand Experience

It is important to consider how your brand is consistently conveyed in your brand experiences and how your audience perceives these experiences. Brand experience is conceptualized as a multi-dimensional construct and defined as “sensations, feelings, cognitions, and behavioural responses evoked by brand-related stimuli that are part of a brand’s design and identity, packaging, communications, and environments” (Brakus et al., 2009; Khan & Rahman, 2015).

We often find ourselves getting so caught up in our business strategies, schedules and plans that we sometimes forget to appreciate what people actually want or expect from these experiences. To avoid this from happening, one of the best methods is to think of the brand experience as an ecosystem that surrounds a brand and that every element within that ecosystem has a part to play in encouraging customer loyalty.

The ecosystem that surrounds a brand can be described using the following 7 P’s of the extended marketing mix:

1. Product – The product or service offering needs to be relevant to the consumer and most importantly, match what they expect.
2. Place – Whether the store is on the high street or online, the location should be ideal and conveniently located for the consumer.
3. Price – The price should take the target audience into account and should be perceived as value for money, regardless of the expense of the product or service.
4. Promotion – Advertising and promotion need to be consistent and communicated via the most relevant channels for the consumer, such as social media or email.
5. People – Every person that represents the brand, from the admin assistant through to the Managing Director needs to be the right fit.
6. Process – The process, from the consumer finding the store to receiving the product or service, needs to be as streamlined as possible.
7. Physical Evidence – The consumer needs to see tangible evidence of their purchase, whether it’s the physical product or the end result of a service.

Research has proven that a brand’s experience can strongly impact brand reputation. In a study focusing on smartphone brands, “when the consumer is exposed to too much or less technology turbulence, free expression of the behavioural brand experience strongly impacts a brand reputation.” If each element of the marketing mix is carefully considered and executed effectively, then customers are more likely to have a positive brand experience, which strengthens customer loyalty.

Companies can do a lot to create and build brands, but the net impact and value is what happens inside the mind of the consumer. The supreme challenge of a brand is to make your vision of your brand the same thing other people experience and believe about your brand.

Brand Messaging

Organizations must also determine what type of appeal to use and how to structure their messages. Some of the common campaign appeals within non-profits are emotional, rational (informative), and environmentally conscious. These appeals make each campaign memorable. A guideline is to establish a company image that clearly reflects the values and the aspirations of the company to employees, customers, intermediaries, and the general public.

Firms also decide whether to use strategies such as an open-ended or closed-ended message; whether to use a one-sided or two-sided message; and whether to use slogans, characters, or jingles. An open-ended message allows the consumer to draw his or her own conclusion, such as a commercial for perfume or cologne. A closed-ended message draws a logical conclusion. Most messages are one-sided, stressing only the positive aspects, similar to what you include on your résumé. However, two-sided messages are often utilized as well.

Another large factor in determining your message is determining its tone of voice. A brand’s tone of voice is the communication it takes with its targeted audience. It is how you want to express your brand in all areas of key messaging and customer touchpoints. Use the worksheet “Determining Tone” for your own non-profit and No HungerBC to generate your own messaging ideas.

Channels and Accessibility

Choosing the channels you promote your brand through is important because it contributes to your brand image in your audience’s minds. Social marketing is a term used to describe marketing that aims to reach a social objective. A good example is the American Heart Association (AHA) where they used doctors’ offices to promote their brand to their audience. The AHA created a book containing their healthy diet plan and sent copies to doctors to distribute to their patients. By distributing through the doctor’s offices audiences connect the brand to their trusted doctors.

Accessibility for a campaign is important in order to reach all key audiences. For example, digital campaigns on social media are very popular however, they may not reach all audiences such as the older demographics including seniors.