A Guide to Defining Your Brand: What is Brand Personality?
A certain personality is what makes an individual stand out. Your brand personality can be considered in the same way you would human personality. You could know someone who you immediately remember for having a keen sense of humor, or perhaps you remember a person you’ve met in your life due to their sincerity and loyalty.
Any personality trait has the potential for making a profound impact on your life. Similarly, brand personalities for businesses can work to make them memorable and positively impact your life with key personality traits.
Just like people, brands can be honest, exciting, and funny. They can have any other trait consumers can identify with and find success with it.
Jennifer Aaker: The Brand Personality Traits You Need to Know About
Jennifer Aaker is a marketing professional who understands brand personality, the top brand personality traits, and who provides frameworks for companies to work from in order to discover their own brand personality trait.
In her Brand Dimensions framework, she outlines five core dimensions of brand personality and the specific aspects relating to each one. Each of these explores human characteristics and personality traits applied to brand identity.
- Sincerity
Sincere brands have an honest, down-to-earth, and wholesome personality.
- Excitement
A spirited imaginative personality, which remains up to date, pushing boundaries, and likes to be daring. Exciting brands stay relevant with the everyday. An example of this is shown through Apple products, which are always developed to be innovative and push the boundaries of imagination.
- Competence
Reliable and intelligent brands gain success from being dependable.
- Sophistication
These brands are at the height of quality, upper class, and the epitome of elegance.
- Ruggedness
A durable, tough, and outdoorsy personality fits the bill of brands related to outdoor pursuits, such as Harley Davidson.
When defining a brand and exploring brand personality, these key words and traits can be applied to best understand which category a brand’s current status may fall into, but also how to determine future personality goals. How brands act and the choices they make are all part of their personality.
What is Brand Personality: Building a Brand
In order to successfully tailor a brand personality, you first need to decide what that is. In deciding who you are before you begin marketing to your target audience, you can ensure that everything your business does from day one is in keeping with your chosen brand personality.
This includes the tone-of-voice you use, the imagery you use, which target market you’re aiming for and the general ethos of your product, and how you choose to do business. Using services like a branding agency can also help you to implement your brand personality into the design of custom products.
Start by thinking about how you want your business to be perceived, which brand voice is going to help meet your goals, and how is your brand strategy going to work in line with your chosen personality?
Consistency is Key
In developing your brand and exploring your brand personality, consistency is going to be everything. Consistency helps to develop trust and loyalty, no matter what your chosen brand personality is. The more you can show that you are working as one set personality type, the more consumers will grow accustomed to your brand being that way.
In regard to the five personality frameworks, choosing one to focus on and being consistent with that is what is going to help you reach for success. It may be possible to combine personality traits, such as excitement with ruggedness.
An example of this could be a sportswear brand that promotes an outdoor lifestyle combined with exciting and innovative athletic gear. Just make sure you are consistent with what you choose.
How to Find Your Brand Personality
It may not be as easy as you’d first expect to pinpoint your brand personality. Perhaps all five main personality traits apply to your business on some level, or maybe you’re trying too hard to be everything to everyone.
The following steps may help you when trying to find your own brand personality.
- Define your consumers first. Your personality should be completely relatable to those consumers you’re trying to attract, which is why it’s so important to identify them first. If your consumers are the kind to react more positively to a certain personality type, you can tailor your business to that.
- Work with professionals. You may need help in defining your brand, such as from marketing services or branding agency services. Professional input can help you to settle on the right image and personality.
- Decide on your company’s mission. Knowing what you’re trying to achieve will help you to become the right personality type to fit with this.
What is Brand Personality: Final Thoughts
To get the best head start when it comes to brand personality, it’s a good idea to understand what you are before you begin marketing. Trying to promote a product without a clear brand voice can make it difficult for consumers to relate to you, so always put a human personality at the forefront of everything you do.
Our team at Anthem Branding can help you with any branded merchandise or services to support your brand personality.