The importance of Brand Personality
Personality traits are common amongst brands as they are humans. Distinct brand personalities provoke consumers to find a brand relatable, which stimulates enjoyment and satisfaction within consumers. So, what is brand personality, and why is it important?
Brand Personality
According to Investopedia, “Brand personality is a set of human characteristics that are attributed to a brand name.” In other words, it’s the personification of a brand; like humans, brands adopt personality characteristics, and eventually, consumers associate these characteristics with their brand. Just like human’s associate personality traits with other humans and use this information to make a judgment on whether or not they like a person, humans use this method to determine their like or dislike for a brand.
There are five aspects to brand personality, sincerity, excitement, competence, class, and masculinity. These five aspects serve as categories with sub-categories serving as characteristics. For example, sincerity has many characteristics that make up the personality type, which includes being genuine, honest, wholesome, cheerful, friendly, and/or original. But why is this important?
Why Brand personality is Important
Brand personality is important because consumers ultimately will decide if they like or dislike a brand based on the brand’s personality characteristics, the way the brand communicates, and the messages the brand promotes to its consumers. Consumers are more likely to like and engage with a brand if they feel that their brand is relatable to them in some way or another. When a brand has similar characteristics to its target audience, they are on track to being successful, increasing its customer base, and finalizing sales. A company needs to define a brand personality that resonates with its perfect customer while eliciting an emotional reaction from its consumers.
How Does Your Brand Benefit from Brand it's Personality?
Brand personality is a mechanism of the associative network. An associative network is a principal of associating critical features with human memory. These key features are used to associate or connect a brand name with the knowledge and information a human has in its memory about same. Therefore, distinctive brand personality traits are remembered and utilized to increase brand equity based on the perception a consumer has on the brand personality. Brands aim to be linked to favorable, unique, salient associations. This is a dimension of brand schema; Brand schema is a subset of an associative network and contains all associations that come to mind in connection with a particular brand. Brand schema often includes precise associations that demonstrate a brand’s personality or rather the way consumers would perceive and define a brand if it were an actual human.
In order for a brand to increase and retain customers, they must stand out not only in the marketplace but by connecting with their customers. The best way to communicate and connect with a specific target market is by creating a brand personality that resonates with the desired audience.
Examples of Brand Personality:
- Sincere: friendly, genuine, honest, original
- Excitement: exciting, unique, independent, imaginative
- Competent: reliable, successful, confident, intelligent
- Class: glamourous, charming, feminine
- Masculinity: tough, athletic, rugged
In conclusion, people like people with who they share similar characteristics. To be successful, a brand must stand out from the crowd, yet speak to their customers in a way that resonates with their target audience and be memorable enough to register in an associative network. Distinct brand personalities provoke consumers to find a brand relatable, which stimulates enjoyment and satisfaction within consumers. So if you don’t already have a clearly defined brand personality, what are you waiting for?
