Brand+Personality



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Introduction
Since the introduction of brand personality in the mid 1950’s literature has tried to explain the concept of brand personality through a number of different definitions, however Parameswaran (2006; 122) explain that ‘brand personality is seeing the brand as a person and defining the traits the brand has.’ A brand could have a number of different traits, ranging from being male, active, young, and mature and many more. In addition Anandan (2009; 139) explains that brand personality is ‘based on the premise that consumers prefer something that exhibits their characteristics or their values.’ Anandan’s definition of brand personality demonstrates the importance of building a personality, as it will lead to improving the understanding the target audience.

Batra (2009; 338) highlights the significance of brand personality; he states ‘a brand personality is often unique.’ Batra continues by explaining that ‘while competitors can match your brands features and price, they usually cannot duplicate your brand personality.’ Batra’s emphasis on brand personality has indicated the importance brand personality within businesses. Furthermore According to Franzen and Moriarty (2008; 230) the concept of brand personality is ‘borrowed from the psychological theory of human personality’, meaning that like human personalities, brand personalities take time to develop, nevertheless, once built, a brand personality can be used as a highly successful marketing tool.

Businesses are searching for new ways to create a strong emotional brand connection with their consumers. This is based on the finding from Park et al. (2010) who states that such connections will lead to a greater level of consumer loyalty, which will in turn increase a business’s financial performance. An example of this would be cosmetic companies. These businesses have tried to find new ways to communicate their message to consumers, that using their products will make people more attractive and bring them closer to realising an ideal vision of themselves. However, the well-known beauty brand ‘Dove’ has started to use models, who are not wearing any make-up, and look a lot more to how the majority of consumers see themselves. The approach that Dove has used, as created a strong emotional connection with their consumers to the brand, meaning that the way people actual see themselves is growing in importance for consumers, who want to seek reality through authentic marketing. Gilmore (2007) is in favour of businesses using an authentic approach to their company branding. However, there are still many businesses that are using the ‘ideal self’ to create emotional connections through their beauty campaigns. It is clear that the ‘ideal self’ is still remaining important to consumers who lean towards brands that do not fit with their actual self. This shows that both of these strategies used by companies could be effective depending on the situation and how to use it to help strengthen emotional brand attachment. Thomson and park (2005) say that the feelings that a brand creates have the potential to strongly differentiate one brand from another, especially as consumers emotionally attach themselves to limited amount of brands.

Measuring Brand Personality
According to Jueterbock (2012) the most widely used measurement of brand personality is Jennifer Aaker’s five dimensions of brand personality. Jennifer Aaker identified the measurement of brand personality in 1997. The five dimensions of brand personality consist of sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication and ruggedness. In Aaker’s study she allocated these traits representing brands if they were humans. Each of the five dimensions is comprised of four facets, which in term are constructed by a total of 42 traits. For instance the sincerity dimension is constituted of four facets, down to earth, honest, wholesome and cheerful. Each facet is related to two or three special traits, such as ‘original, friendly, sentimental and friendly oriented’. ‘These dimensions represent a stable constant structure that can explain 93% of the variance in Aaker’s data’. Aaker developed a brand personality scale to measure the personalities of a brand (Kahle and Kim, 2006; 352).

- Sincerity
The dimensions of “sincerity” has the features of ‘down to earth’, ‘honest’, ‘wholesome’ and ‘cheerful.’ According to Sumarjan (2013) the components of sincerity resemble the attitude of the employees; this can be exemplified through McDonalds as they were highly rated in this personality trait due to their attitude towards to customers.



- Excitement
Excitement is divided into facets of ‘darling, sprinted, imaginative and up to date.’ Companies who have obtained high values of excitement are Red Bull or sports car manufacturers such as Lotus. In addition Sumarjan (2013) state that excitement will benefit the environment of hotels as it creates the theme within the hotel, which in tern will create a more appealing hotel.

- Competence
The personality of “competence” represents a reliable, intelligent and successful business. Brands that can be described as competent are telecommunication companies such as BT due to the vast intelligence and reliability within the company, another example would be IT companies such as IBM for the same reason.

- Sophistication
The aspect of “sophistication” has the characteristic of upper class and charming. The industry were this is most notable is within the fashion industry, companies such as Gucci and Louis Vuitton show the upper class and charming characteristics. In addition a number of luxury car companies such as Ferrari is an example of a sophisticated trait.

- Ruggedness
Finally “ruggedness” can be described through characteristics of tough and outdoorsy, there are a number of examples of ruggedness, however, Land Rover and North Face highlight the characteristics of ruggedness successfully. Throughout each of the traits, it is significant to appreciate that a brand can have high values in different personalities, just like people have different characteristics. For example Mercedes have high values in excitement as well as in sophistication.

The five dimensions of brand personality framework have shown how a brand can be portrayed, if it were human. By maintaining and building on these traits companies could maintain or increase brand equity.

Research carried out into brand personality is based on ‘Asker’s scale. It can however be argued that a stricter definition of brand personality is needed to avoid the present confusion in branding research, and to allow brand personality to be a stronger concept when it comes to understanding brands. In relation to the module, it can be said that if brands, like individuals can be described using an adjective, then the approach used in psychology can be useful and relevant to account for a brand personality perceived by consumers. The personality of an individual is shown through their behaviour, in the same way that consumers can attribute a personality towards a brand depending on its perceived ‘behaviour.’

Aaker (1997) stated that brand personality is a set of characteristics that describe a brand. Marketers are looking to promote a brand personality that will attract consumers, in order to encourage them to form a preference for a certain brand. Consumer’s preferences are a key concept in marketing, as they underpin consumer choice. Factors such as price can effect a purchase decision by consumer for a particular brand, this reinforces the argument by Aaker (1997) who states that // ‘the greater the congruity between the //// human characteristics that consistently //// and distinctively describe an individual ’ s //// actual or ideal self and those that describe //// a brand, the greater the preference for the brand. //// ’ //

Example of a Brand Personality Test
Figure 2 demonstrates an example of the types of dimensions that could be used in order to measure a human personality or in this case the personality of a brand. Participants are asked to place an 'X' at a point on each scale that indicates their perceptions of the most appropriate trait to fit the brand or the human personality. According to Kimmel (2012) Aaker found that consumers tend to perceive Pepsi as “young”, Coca-Cola as “real” and “honest’ whereas Dr Pepper was “non-conformist” and “fun.” These personalities relate back to Batra’s comments about how a personality is unique and they usually cannot be copied. The companies above have worked hard to establish a long lasting personality which will reflect their characteristics through the brand and which consumers can relate to. Businesses today, whether small or large, need to adopt or develop a personality in order for consumers to relate on a personal and emotional level.



Brand Personality for Businesses
Enz (2009) states that a strong brand is likely to lead to financial success. So how do businesses create a strong brand? Temporal (2011) explains that ‘one of the most successful ways to build a brand is to create a personality for it, that summarises what the brand really stands for.’ Furthermore Moser (2013; 69) states that a ‘brand personality should be an accurate representation of the company; otherwise it will create a brand relationship that’s based on someone else’s personality. Below will identify the importance, risk and opportunities of businesses utilising brand personality.

 - Importance
This section of the wiki is going to explore the importance of utilising brand personality within businesses. Kumar (2007; 57) has identified the first importance of brand personality, who states that when ‘brands compete on an even plane, personality can provide a very powerful emotion differentiator’. This statement has been further enhanced by Floor (2006; 223) who agrees by stating ‘a differentiating brand personality can be used to add emotion to the functional attributes and the relationship with the customer.’ McDonalds have achieved this through the introduction of their character Ronald McDonald in 1966, the introduction of this character led to a change in personality, the phrase “feeling of having fun” described McDonalds new personality Batra (2009). Furthermore according to Smith (2011; 598) the reason for the ‘tremendous success as clear.’ Ronald McDonald appealed to children, ‘who were not previously considered an important audience for fast food chain’. Therefore the introduction of Ronald McDonald let to McDonalds adapting a new personality and led to an increase in target audience, this shows the importance of brand personalities within businesses.

Additionally, Batra (2009; 338) state that ‘the development and reinforcement of a personality for a brand serves to differentiate the brand from competition’. Batra (2009) continues to explain that ‘by creating a favourable and liked brand personality, a marketer can set his brand apart, which enables the marketer to gain market share.’ The importance of brand personality is clear; it enables brands to differentiate from competitors and enables brands to enhance their personality, which attract new consumers, and develops their relationship with existing customers.

For marketing professionals, the development and reinforcement of a brand personality enables them to differentiate themselves from competitors. By creating a favorable brand personality, a business is able to set their brand apart, which can in turn help them to gain the market share. A competitor is able to match a business’s brand in terms of the product or the price, but it is hard for them to duplicate the businesses brand personality. In terms of the longer term advantages for a business in creating a distinctive brand personality, advertising that can enhance brands ‘goodwill’ and reinforce a brands personality can in turn increase the asset value of that particular brand.

The ‘self-defining’ process focuses on the idea that consumers select brands that have a personality that is in congruent with the way they view themselves. The Journey of Marketing (2011) states that actual self-congruence has the greatest impact on emotional brand attachment, product involvement and self-esteem increase the positive impact of self-congruence but on the other hand, decreases the impact of ideal self-congruence on emotional brand attachment. Further findings from The Journey of Marketing (2011) suggest that there is evidence that the type of congruency that is important when it comes to brand choice, is not between a brand’s personality and a consumer’s personality but rather between a brand’s personality and the consumer’s ‘aspirational’ personality, that they deem to be ideal.

- Risks
The most notable risk of brand personality comes from a technique within brand personality, which is an endorsement. The implementation of using a celebrity endorsement means that they are a living representation of the brand and could encounter risks. In addition Balmer et.al (2007; 796) states that ‘some associations might spill over to the corporate brand personality through transfer of negative image associations.’ Nike has shown a couple of examples of the risks of utilising celebrity endorsements, firstly the scandal of Tiger Woods in 2009 and secondly and more recently the Oscar Pistorius murder charge. Oscar Pistorius sponsorship was worth ‘hundreds of thousands of pounds’ according to Davies (2013). The emphasis of this failure was the creation of the "bullet in the chamber" advert created in 2011 (Davies 2013). This ironic campaign highlights the issues surrounding celebrity endorsements. In both occasions Nike have had to cancel their endorsements with the celebrities. The two examples have shown how external influences can have an influence on the brand and the personality attached to the brand.

Although endorsements are a downfall of brand personality, according to Healey (2008; 82) ‘the quickest way to attach a personality to a brand is through a celebrity endorsement’. Furthermore ‘when celebrity personalities match the brand, the result is often an enhancement of the brand image.’ (Okonkwo 2007; 161) This indicates that although endorsements are a risk, if accomplished correctly it can have a great effect on the business and enhance the brand personality.

- New Opportunities
As stated above the risks and importance of brand personality has been highlighted, but what are the opportunities for businesses to develop their brand personality. Babin and Harris (2010) state that brand personalities represent opportunities for companies to differentiate their products. An excellent example of a company, which has differentiated their products, is Dyson. Dyson’s recent creations of the bladeless fan/heater, the Dyson air blade, which is the fastest and quietest, way of drying your hands and the new handheld vacuum which has the same power as a standard vacuum, has shown that a personality doesn’t have to be shown through a single product. Through differentiating, Dyson has displayed their ‘competence’ personality through a number of different products, which highlights their reliability, intelligence and successfulness through a number of different products.

Social Media
The use of social media is forever growing, so why cant businesses use social media to enhance and develop their personality. Gratton and Gratton (2011) states that social media can help businesses or brands grow by connecting to people or groups through social media that might never have been connected before, Figure 3 illustrates the point that Gratton and Gratton are trying to develop as through the use of social media, one voice can lead to many listeners.

Geller (2013) further enhances this point but stating ‘small businesses should be even better at projecting their personalities online than big companies’. An example of a business that has enhanced its brand personality though the use of online services and used its brand personality as a key characteristic of the business is Mission Burrito. The business was set up around 10 years ago and today has six different stores across the southeast and southwest. Mission Burrito’s personality has been demonstrated through personal meetings/lectures with universities located near the stores. A visit to Bath Spa University showed how passionate the founder of Mission Burrito is about his company and the brand personality. In addition the Mission Burrito website (click on logo) illustrates the brand personality shows a fun, exciting, friendly business, the characteristic of fun has been developed through the introduction of the man vs. burrito challenge were consumers try to eat three times the normal burrito, if completed the consumer get a t-shirt and a picture on the wall of the store.



The personality of Mission Burrito is an example to other small businesses that the use of brand personality can enhance the success of their business. The example of Mission Burrito shows why brand personality is an important procedure within the business world.

Implementing a Brand Personality
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In order for businesses to appreciate the benefits of utilising brand personality they need to complete these three procedures to implement a brand personality strategy.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Researching the brand personality association
 * One procedure of researching a brand personality is to create a survey or questionnaire ranking a brand on numerous personality adjectives. An example of this can be seen in Figure 2, which shows an example of the procedures businesses would create in order to identify their personality. The list of adjectives will be chosen to fit the company’s personality, it is pointless for McDonalds to think they are ruggedness due to their characteristics, therefore it is vitally important for the company to select the adjectives carefully.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Targeting a brand personality
 * This stage of the process is where the research has been completed and a company finally decides which personality to adopt within the brand, it requires good judgment, as a personality is difficult to chance once adapted. The personality should represent the characteristic, which is the most valuable to the target audience.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Executing brand personality
 * To execute the brand personality businesses need to develop advertisements that create, reinforce or change the target personality. The major advertisement elements consist of symbols, endorsements and imagery. McDonalds have shown how to reinforce their personality with the introduction of the winter selection at their store throughout the Christmas period. This makes the consumers feel in the spirit and is more likely to take notice of McDonalds.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Celebrity Endorsement's
The marketing tool, celebrity endorsements are being utilised more and more everyday for a vast range of products, this is because, ‘celebrity endorsements have been gaining higher levels of acceptance as an important tool to build brand by creating positive association and building unique personalities’ (Roll 2005; 82). This section of the Wiki will explain in detail the relationship between celebrity endorsements and brand personality, plus the contemporary relevance to the business world with some examples of successful and unsuccessful celebrity endorsements.

The concept of using celebrity endorsements to promote brands date backs to a more than a hundred years ago and still continues to be utilised till date. According to Subhadip (2009; 3) ‘some studies have found that more than 25% of the total advertisements aired use celebrity endorsements.’ From this statement it is clear to see that brand personality is an effective method of marketing. Furthermore Riesenbeck and Perrey (2009; 203) emphasise the statement made by Subhadip (2009) by stating that ‘celebrity endorsements are one of the most popular and widespread marketing instruments to promote a brands emotional appeal.’

The ability to use celebrity endorsements to aid the creation of a brands personality has been shown by Rangarajan et.al (2010) who state, ‘perhaps the most visible way of creating personality for a brand is through a celebrity as the brand personality signifies the brand personification.’ Rangarajan et.al (2010) continues to say that celebrity endorsements have been widely recognised as a powerful way to communicate. In addition MacInnis et.al (2009) recognises that consumers show greater self-brand connections to brands, which are associated with a celebrity, this is highlighted further if the celebrity and the brand have similar characteristics. Riesenbeck and Perrey (2009) highlight the importance of utilising celebrity endorsements as a marketing tool to improve brand personalities, they stating if celebrities are selecting well, they are ideally suited to bring out a brands current or future target personality trait. This section has highlighted the importance of brand personality through the implementation of celebrity endorsements; it shows that celebrity endorsements are a way of creating a personality and voicing that personality.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Advantages of using Celebrity Endorsements
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Due to the recent financial troubles, businesses have looked to celebrity endorsements as a way to revitalise the company. This has been shown through H&M through the introduction of David Beckham, the effect has been immediate, according to the daily mail, ‘sales of long johns are up 140% (Daily Mail 2012). This shows that the personality of David Beckham has allowed H&M to benefit.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Adds a personality or character [[image:ntinm3/David Beckham and H&M.jpg width="293" height="171" align="right"]]

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This advantag <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;">e has been clearly seen through the endorsement between Nike and Michael Jordan, the 30 year relationship has enabled both parties to benefit. According to Badenhausen (2014) Michael Jordan made $90 million in 2013, furthermore, Badenhausen (2014) continues by stating, ‘one of every two basketball shoes sold in the U.S last year carried the Jordan brand. Which represents a sale increase of 11% in 2013 to $2.7 billion. This shows how important implementing a personality through a celebrity can be.
 * Celebrity endorsements can lead to increased profits and sales

Mukherjee (2009) has identified the effects celebrity endorsement can have, he states that Aviva have seen an increase in there brand awareness from 35% to 80% due to celebrity endorsements.
 * Celebrity endorsements can increase the awareness of the brand

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Disadvantages of using Celebrity Endorsements
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The likelihood of celebrities making a mistake in the public eye is high, as stated above, in 2009 Tiger Woods public image crumbled after this affair. This has a huge effect on Nike and the golf industry as a whole due to the popularity of Tiger Woods.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Image changes

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The issue with using a popular celebrity is that a number of companies could be after the same service from the celebrity. If the same celebrity is endorsed by a number of different brands it could affect the credibility of the celebrity and therefore have the same effect on the brand. Consumers may feel the brand is using celebrities to bring in customers, which could have a negative impact.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Celebrities become overexposed

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Consumers may forget about the brand and focus on the celebrity. This is seen when a celebrity is endorsed by a number of different brand and when one brand is more successful than the other.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Celebrities can overshadow brands

Summary
To summarise, throughout this wiki it is clear to see that brand personality has a great impact on companies. Brand personality offers opportunities for both large and small businesses by developing their personalities through a number of different techniques. The only concern with brand personality is adapting the wrong personality to portray the brand, as it is difficult to address once implemented. However, a brand personality enables businesses to build an emotional relationship with its target audience, which can lead to an increase in brand awareness and in tern creates a competitive advantage over others. This wiki has enables us to see how relevant brand personality has on the businesses world today and will have in the future.

Building brand equity has become something that is highly important for companies today. Brand equity comes from building a reputation for quality and high brand awareness, as well as the associations that are formed in the consumer through the brand name, and packaging. Together these give the brand a personality. Just like individuals having personalities, brands can develop personality if the advertising identifies and develops an image that is constantly reinforced over time. Through this brand personality, they can be seen in many different ways such as masculine or feminine. Just like an individual, brands can symbolize important values and emotional characteristics. Brand personalities are important because consumers are attracted to and seek certain brands that they share personalities with. For marketing personalities, a brand that holds a strong personality represents brand equity that can be used in the future. While a brand personality can add defining characteristics, it should be considered that high self-monitors are individuals that are swayed by a brands personality. In terms of implementing a brand personality, defining the target consumer segment comes first, in order to understand what kind of brand personality they are most likely to be responsive, and how they currently rate different brands in terms of their different personality characteristics. At this stage both quantitative and qualitative methods can be used. Once the target personality has been defined, the appropriate personality can be formed through the choice of an endorser. It is important that the personality must be maintained over time and through the different elements of the communication and marketing mix.