Every brand has a unique personality; However, most brands are unaware of it. Thus, they do not put in the work to define the overall personality, resulting in missed opportunities and no brand recognition.
Therefore, defining your unique brand personality is vital when formulating brand growth strategies. Building it will bridge the gap between the brand and targeted customers and generate higher revenue.
According to a study, 88% of customers consider authenticity when buying products online. If your brand’s tone and character do not blend well with your customers, you may not make a sale.
If you are a brand owner considering building a strong personality, we have you covered. Read this article to understand what is brand personality and relate it with some examples of brand personality. Let’s begin.
What is Brand Personality?
Brand Personality refers to a set of human-like characteristics attributed to the brand name. These include voice tone, values, beliefs, and visual identity. These traits typically represent how a brand communicates, behaves, and establishes relationships with the audience.
Developing the personality of a brand defines the way people perceive and interact with your company’s products and services in the market. A brand’s personality is generally reflected in its brand messaging, images, and marketing campaigns.
The main objective of the brand’s personality is to connect with the right audience base deeply. It results in creating a company’s image and increasing its overall revenue.
How Brand Personality Works?
Brand personality refers to a framework established by the company or organization to shape people’s perceptions of the brand and its related product, service, or mission. A brand represents its personality through its voice tone, core beliefs, and visual identities.
A brand’s personality is not only about how it looks or sounds but also about how customers feel when interacting with it. Brand personality simply allows a company to develop a consistent and recognizable identity. It helps in promoting trust, loyalty, and long-lasting relationships with customers.
Brand personalities are typically divided into five main dimensions using Aaker’s model. The different dimensions represent different traits of a company. Below, we’ve mentioned all the five traits.
1. Sincerity
Sincerity is one of the popular brand dimensions. It is perceived as down-to-earth, honest, authentic, trustful, and caring in the customer’s mind. These qualities within any brand can attract new customers and sustain existing ones. To establish your brand under this dimension, you must adopt several practices. It includes adopting ethical practices, sharing meaningful stories, genuine testimonials, and more.
2. Excitement
Excitement is another popular brand dimension. It reflects the inspiring, edgy, spirited, sporty, and adventurous traits. This brand’s personality is generally developed to attract young minds using thrill feelings. Use the vibrant visuals, lively language, and innovative market offerings. It will allow you to drive a sense of excitement amongst your customers. Using this model can help you stand your brand out from the competition.
3. Competence
Competence is often regarded as a famous brand dimension where the brand is seen as reliable, efficient and scalable. Their primary aim is to convey trust and expertise. Additionally, they are often linked to top-quality products and services. Some examples of competence are IBM and Microsoft. These brands build reputations by delivering quality products. It showcases their ability to meet and exceed customer expectations.
4. Sophistication
Sophistication in a brand is a sign of elegance, luxury and prestige. Brands with sophisticated personalities are often associated with exclusivity and high social status. High-end automotive brands like Mercedes-Benz and luxury fashion brands like Chanel depict sophistication. The targeted customers of these brands are customers who appreciate luxury and style. Thus, audiences are attracted through polished visuals, exclusive content and crisp language. These brands invest heavily in craftsmanship, quality and images. It ensures that every aspect of their identity communicates class and elegance.
5. Ruggedness
Ruggedness in the personality of a brand suggests toughness, durability, and outdoor adventure. Brands like Jeep and The North Face are an example of ruggedness. They focus on products designed for challenging environments and adventurous lifestyles. Rugged brands often emphasize their association with nature and adventure. They have to create a strong identity in the outdoor and sports markets.
Brand Personality Attributes
1. Know your targeted audiences.
When choosing different personality attributes, you must know your targeted audience’s characteristics. Common characteristics include gender, lifestyle, values, age, and aspirations. These factors play a significant role in determining different attributes to resonate with them. For example, your targeted audience is young and loves adventure and innovation. You should go for attributes like innovation, adventure, and boldness.
2. Standout from the competition
Today, we live in a highly competitive market where one is better than another. In such a marketplace, differentiating yourself from competitors is hard but fulfilling. When it comes to branding, one thing that sets your brand apart is its attributes. Before stepping into the market:
- Spend some time conducting in-depth market research.
- Determine market gaps and find out opportunities so that you can stand out in the market.
- If you notice your competitors choose a serious tone or a simple font, go for a fun and creative theme. This will grab the customers’ attention.
Furthermore, it will set you apart from your competitors. Businesses must deeply understand the needs of their target audience to use the personality of the brand power successfully. Once all these traits are determined, standing out in the horde becomes easier.
3. Remain consistent
When it comes to the personality of your brand, consistency is the key! Choose the attributes that align well with other branding strategy elements. Everything should be placed well, from the tone of voice to your logo design and more. This will help build trust amongst your targeted audience. You must always use the same tone and language while communicating with customers.
Examples of Brand Personality
1. Nike
What’s better than a memorable tagline defining your brand’s personality and boosting brand recognition? Nike has an exciting brand personality that motivates athletes to perform well. Brand personality examples include Nike’s “Just Do It.” It is an iconic tagline that easily associates with the brand and overall image.
Nike’s marketing trends and featured bold colours like neon pink and green present an energetic look. The overall personality reflects a sense of athleticism and empowerment.
2. Starbucks
Starbucks, as a brand, is a true representation of sophistication, sincerity, and excitement. The brand has been genuinely serving its customers for a very long time now. Their staff members are well-versed in the coffee production process and other regular processes.
Over the years, the company has also come up with numerous branded drinks, grabbing all eyeballs. Starbucks offers rewards during the new product launch, allowing customers to win prizes. This keeps an excitement factor amongst the customers. Overall, Starbucks is one of the best examples of brand personality that has made it stand out in the market.
3. Luxury Brands
Many luxury brands, such as Michael Kors and Chanel, have values that perfectly align with their customers’ needs. These high-end brands build a glamorous personality. It grabs the attention of high-spending customers. Simply put, they associate the customer’s societal status with their brand.
Conclusion
As a business owner, building the personality of your brand is the key element of the overall branding process. It includes multiple human characteristics that connect your brand with its targeted customers through beliefs, tone, voice, and visual identity. If the personality of your brand is defined properly, building brand loyalty becomes easier. It directly contributes to reaching targeted customers.