In other words, personifying your brand appropriately is a strategy that can trigger an emotional response from your target market to see your brand, to bond with it as they would another human, to seek out a relationship and so on. Ultimately your customers will not simply buy an object. Rather, they will buy into a relationship, knowing that you are a friend that understands his or her needs and to whom he or she can always go whenever a problem arises. So if your product solves their problem, they always come to you. Your product is somewhat secondary. Specifically, it is the tool your give to resolve the immediately identified problem ... which often meets a strong underlying subconscious motivation.
Essentially, your demonstrations of atunement to their needs and then your personality's delivery on the promise to 'wipe away your customer's proverbial tears' to meet your customer's deepest needs makes your customer feel closer to you.
Products that you market 'come and go' without ending the brand - customer relationship. I often speak not of a 'brand that has a personality' but a persona, ie a virtual person, a humanized emotion-evoking entity with which kindred spirits have a relationship.
What's the Point of Brand Personality?
Any strong personality, whether loved or reviled, is memorable and will have its following of likeminded persons that the brand wants to have around. When the connection is sufficiently strong, others will be able to remember, recognize and even seek out the brand.
Why do some people repeatedly buy Starbucks coffee or Coco Cola when they can buy the same or similar drinks for much less elsewhere? The answer extends beyond coffee or a nutrition-devoid sugary drink and into the realm of psychological triggers like experience, an associated feeling (albeit manufactured), social image and lifestyle choices that resonate with consumers. Successful brands have shown that these non-product triggers are powerful.
Furthermore, today's consumers are tired of promotional marketing that masks a sole economic purpose. They are shifting their preference towards brands that have a purpose greater than its financial gain.
How can your brand have a strong personaility?
Emotional marketing suggests decisively aligning your brand with especially one or just a few of the 12 personality archetypes.
The key to doing this successfully is consitency and clarity. Specifically, a well defined brand personality consistently features a specific set of traits at every touchpoint (point of sale displays, email marketing and so on). Consistency makes it easy for the personality to be strong and recognizable. The personality can therefore attract the target and hopefully repel unsuitable segments, gain the market's trust and present itself as the best or among the best buying options much more easily than otherwise. For instance, as with human pesonality, brand personality determines how your brand will communicate (like level of formality), 'dress' (like colors and visual atmospherics), behaves (like causes into which it invests), reacts to events and so on.
To form a deeper understanding of the concept, consider a country's culture as its personality. On that basis, how would you describe the personality of different countries like the US, UK, France and so on as if they were people? For instance, you might say that the US personality has traits that include open & direct communication about otherwise taboo issues, idealistic, loud and so on. As you can see, the brand personality should NOT be confused with your product because your product is purely the result of a personality type's imagination, as is the case with human personalities and what can be expected of them.
Remember that the ultimate goal of building a brand personality is to encourage consumers to perceive your brand as a friend with whom they want to have a friendship. Your brand's personality should essentially be like that of the friends they know, love, trust and invest in in some way (perhaps regarding spending time, going into business partnership for success, etc).
12 Brand Personality Archetypes
Each archetype has a set of personality traits. Identify which among the 12 following archetypes your brand relates most. It may help to consider the following 4 key motivation factors into which the archetypes are sometimes grouped.
As with humans, brands usually have one dominant personality archeype, often accompanied by other secondary ones. Furthermore, archetypes may change in prominence in response to the climate within your industry. For instance, as in the case of Apple in the computer industry, a brand may do well by counteracting the noisy market place by (also) adopting the simple and minimalist style of the archetype named 'innocent'.
Deepest motivation: Wants to provide structure to the world.
- Ruler(aka boss, leader, aristocrat, king, politician, role model, manager, administrator). Key motivator(s): control and stability. Motto: "Power is not everything. It is the ONLY thing!". Goal: to create a prosperous successful family or community. Greatest fear: chaos and being overthrown. Weakness: Unable to delegate powers to others. Talents: responsibility and leadership. Other associated ideas: authority, exclusivity, higher status and even intimation by ruling with the use of fearmongering. Very persuasive, glamorous, prestigious. These brands usually feature Hollywood celebrities that can exude an air of refinement.
- The father Don Vito Corleone in the film 'Godfather'
- Mercedes Benz vehicle brand
- Rolex
- IBM
- Creator(aka artist, inventor, innovator, musician, writer, dreamer). Key motivator(s): to create things of enduring value. Motto: "If you can imagine it, it can be done!". Goal: to realize a vision. Greatest fear: mediocre vision or execution. Weakness: perfectionism, bad solutions. Talents: creativity and imagination. Other associated ideas: They see what others do not. They retain their childhood creative skills that others lose over time.
- 'Apple' computer brand
- Leggo.
- Caregiver(aka saint, altruist, parent, helper supporter). Key motivator(s): to protect and care for others. Motto: "Love your neighbour as yourself!", "Our actions show we are authentic and care", "I want to listen to and really understand you", "I want to be there for you", "I exist to care for you". Goal: to help others. Greatest fear: ingratitude and selfishness. Weakness: martyrdom and being exploited. Talents: compassion, generosity, empathy. Other associated ideas: service, selflessness. This personality promotes ultimate customer experience (above customer service). Superior customer experience is often a major competitive advantage. Real care may include 247 contact service, 2-way communication channels that are manned by competent representatives, responding to customers' concerns and so on. This personalisity also discourages the idea of of withholding help and welbeing from some people. People and their needs are the main focus of promotional material. Brands with this personality often tackle world problems like war, disease and environmental problems.
- The Robin Hood character who stole from the wealthy to give to the poor.
- Doctors Without Borders
- UNICEF
- Uber offers superior customer experience by having proactively tackled every conceivable pain point (from safety, tracking to payment issues).
- Jobs related to nursing and caregiving
Deepest motivation: Wants to connect with others
- Everyman(aka good old boy, regular guy, person next door, the realist, working stiff, solid citizen, silent majority). Key motivator(s): belonging, connection with others. Motto: "All men and women are created equal!". Goal: to belong. Greatest fear: to be left out or to stand out from the crowd. Weakness: losing one’s own self in an effort to blend in or for the sake of superficial relationships. Talents: realism, empathy, lack of pretense. Other associated ideas: friendly, unpretentious. These brands appeal to the ordinary person who is not in the luxury group. It is often associated with families. I have found that brand personalities that are very strongly aligned with other archetypes that involve consumers being somehow extraordinary like Dove regarding beauty or Nike regrding athletic greatness, tend to align themselves to some extent with this archetype to socially include the average consumer.
- Ikea whose tagline is 'the Wonderful Everyday'
- KFC
- Toyota is a brand for 'everyone' and contrasts with Ferrari.
- Home Depot
- McCain is a food brand whose ads feature ordinary families living non-luxurious lives. 'We Are Family' ad.
- Lover(aka partner, spiritualist, friend, intimate, enthusiast, sensualist, spouse, team-builder.). Key motivator(s): endulgence (sensoral, spiritual and otherwise), intimacy (spiritual, familial, romantic, companionable, self-love), and experience. Motto: "You deserve to be pampered", "I treasure you", "You’re the only one!" Goal: to have a closer relationship with who or what really matters like people, pets, work and surroundings they love. Greatest fear: being alone and unloved. Weakness: outward-directed desire to please others at risk of losing own identity. Lacking boundaries; Becoming carried away to the the extent that one is unable to analytically assess his or her circumstances. Talents: appreciation, gratitude, commitment. Other associated ideas: decadent pleasure that focuses on making consumers feel special; ultimate levels of personalization, exclusivity. Exclusivity marketing is likely to work well with this personality type. Products associated with this personality are often very high end in nature. Brands whose products do not relate to amorous intimacy (like perfume and chocolate) often use its allure in advertising anyway. This archetype does not allow for much room for others, ie without risking the losing the relationship. For instance, while Dove can make political issues like Black Lives Matter an integral part of their campaigning without confusing its following, other cosmetic brands (like perfumes) can not.
- Haagen-Dazs, a high end icecream brand
- high end chocolate brands
- 'Victoria Secret' brand
- fine dining
- pet grooming brands
- The Dodo YouTube channel features stores of loving rescue animals that find loving homes.
- high end experiences like spas
- some cause marketing brands
- High end personal care products like perfumery and cosmetics
- Jester(aka joker, trickster, comedian). Key motivator(s): pleasure, to live in and fully enjoy the moment. Motto: "YOLO / You only live once / You have only one life to live!", "Don't worry, be happy!". Goal: to lighten up the world, to enjoy oneself. Greatest fear: boredom, appearing boring to others. Weakness: frivolous, wastes time Talents: joie de vivre. Other associated ideas: play, making jokes. The jester suggests living life from the innocent and carefree perspective of a child. As it relates to other competing brands, this archetype does NOT relay messages of market disruption or strong positioning. Brands with this personality usually offer products that are used for simple enjoyment.
- Oreo
- 'Old Spice' brand. This brand featured comedic Terry Crews to make several advertisements that were funny in a slapstick way.
Deepest motivation: Yearns for paradise
- Sage(aka expert, scholar, philosopher, thnker, advisor, academic, researcher, mentor, teacher). Key motivator(s): knowledge, to find truth, to use intelligence and analysis to understand the world. Motto: "There is a lesson in every experience", "The truth will set you free!". Goal: to find truth. Greatest fear: being duped and being ignorant. Weakness: can suffer analysis paralysis. Talents: intelligence and wisdom. Other associated ideas: understanding, one who guides others. This personality always seeks out emerging major trends, studies and materials that can enhance undersanding. This personality is also interested in providing lessons so that those lessons can change lives.
- Ted Talks at the end of which usually provides a lesson.
- Journalist brands; '60 Minutes', 'David Pakman', 'StormCloudsGathering', 'African Diaspora News Channel' and many other YouTuber channels.
- Google website that answers questions
- Yoda from Star Wars that mentors Luke
- Innocent(aka Utopian, naive, traditionalist, mystic, saint, romantic, dreamer). Key motivator(s): to get to a state of safety / bliss / Utopia / perfection. To achieve happiness. Motto: "Life could and should be so simple", "Trust us; we use best practices and best ingredients (an innocent way)", "I could make you really enjoy the present moment", "I transport you into a fairytale life or other parallel universe of bliss", "Freedom to all to be themselves!", "I offer happy endings", "If you do the right things, everything will be OK", "I will share purity and joy in this cynical world". Greatest fear: This personality is so obsessed with doing the 'right' thing so as to prevent something 'bad' (like pollution of natural environment, illness from toxic ingredients, etc). Weakness: boring because of their naive innocence; Live in their own bubble in denial of real challenges and conflict in the world. Strategy: to do the 'right' thing. Talents: faith and optimism. Other associated ideas: transparency in decision making, perceptions through the lens of a child, motivation, safety, harmony, simplicity, authenticity, optimism, wanting things to be as simple as nature intended, trustworthiness, simple product solutions, non-jargon language. Like any other archetype, this one is not a cooie cutter. The same personality manifests in ways that vary slightly according to brand offering. For instance, for personal care products that clean, brands tend to use minimalism and symbols of purity with lots of white space. For food products, brands like McDonalds and Coco Cola tend to portray 'happiness' with bright colors like red and yellow.
- Dove's brand triggers women and girls to meet the deep subconscious need for high self esteem. Dove encourages them to feel 'beautiful'. The company placed 2 doors at its entrance from which the entering public can select . One is labeled 'average' while the other 'beautiful'. Footage suggests that most women selected the 'average' door. The jarring experience is certainly deeply thought provoking and emotionally triggering. The video transitions and editing feature strong elements of minimalism, white light and purity. (Arguably in an 'everyman' way,) the brand attempts to be all-inclusive by encouraging ordinary women who are not model-types and who come in all shapes, sizes and colors to enter through the 'beautiful' door. The video ends asking the viewing audience "and you, which would you have chosen?" Dove 'stays in character' at EVERY touch point. For instance and as pictured below, the home page of this cosmetic giant's website does not feature the erstwhile blonde haired, blue eyed standard of beauty. As changes towards more economic and social inclusivity come face ever stronger attempts at re-division along conventional norms, Dove's stance is also embracing qualities of other archetypes like the 'hero' (in ways that are reminiscent of how Nike featured Colin Kappernick) and arguably even the revolutionary 'outlaw'.
- Maria in the movie 'Sound of Music'
- Food and drink brands mostly have 'innocent' personalities, at least as the main personality. They require the consumer's trust. Their brands always exude happiness. Evian water stresses its purity with its snow-covered mountains.
- Personal care products for cleaning stress cleanliness, purity and tidiness. Their websites have a distinctly minimalist look.
- Sustainability- and nature- oriented brands
- Fairy tale innocence invites the inner child into fantasy, often using characters.
- Coco Cola's Santa Claus encourages consumers to enter and live in a happy fairytale bubble.
- Frosted Flakes' ads feature Tony the Tiger, the quintessential motivational friend, encourging young consumers, nicknamed his 'tigers', to bring out the tiger in themselves in their activities. His role is to encourage the bravery and confidence in children to tackle whatever activities they face. So after eating his cereal and sometimes drawing the tiger's stripes on their cheeks, the children's audacity rises so they can perform well. Rather than assume an austere lecturing style, he is one of the children, doing things they want to do. Ultimately, he is a friend they want to have. The brand covers all of its bases in that, it also ensures fussy children know in a reiterated mantra manner that, regarding the taste, the cereal is "not just good, they're GRRReat!". In short, this brand brings happy endings.
- ForestGump feels he can bring love and joy to the world
- Johnson's.
- Wanderer(aka pilgrim, explorer). Key motivator(s): freedom. Motto: "Do not hold me back!". Goal: freedom to self actualize through unrestricted exploration, to experience authenticity. Greatest fear: being trapped, conformity (to the rat race and unauthenticity), and inner emptiness. Weakness: aimlessness, becoming a misfit. Talents: autonomy, being true to oneself.
- Intentional tourism
- The classic 'Land Rover' safari trucks that are build for exploring rough terrain; Indiana Jones' film
- Rebel(aka wild person, market disruptor, misfit). Key motivator(s): revolution, revenge. Motto: "Rules are in place to be broken!". Goal: to change what is not working. Greatest fear: to be rendered powerless. Weakness: criminality, dark side. Talents: radical freedom. Other associated ideas: resistant to authority and the norms, rebelliousness, breaks through established cultural and other barriers, gets in trouble with authority figures.
- 'Diesel' clothing company is unapologetically nonconformist and rebellious. True to their unconventional nature, they even created a 'knock-off' of their brand by intentionally mis-spelling their name on the label. The product was authentic however but priced like a knock off. This competed directly with knowck off manufacturers.
- Apple. Apple revolutionized the way in which society perceived personal computer ownership and use by creating its own segment, a faithful tribe following. Apple's tagline "Think different" is consistent with this dimension of its personality. (It also has a 'creator' personality).
- Julian Assange, Wikileaks
- Harley Davidson. This brand is a good example of lifestyle branding strategy
- Hero(aka winner, soldier, warrior). This is the most recognizable archetype. Key motivator(s): mastery that can solve a public problem. Motto: "I have the bold solution to your problem", "I will overcome obstacles. Nothing will get me down!" "Where there’s a will, there’s a way!", "Reach your full potential" "Achieve!", "I will change the world!", "With due effort and dedication, anything is possible!". Goal: to prove his worth. Greatest fear: fearfulness to act. Weakness: arrogance. Continually seeks new battle to tackle. Talents: competence, courage. Other associated ideas: determination, audacity, drive, aggression, triumph in the face of adversity, blood sweat and tears. Products are made to be transformative devices that help people to achieve their full potential and or put them ahead of the pack.
- Ex Nike when they celebate top athletes.
- Ex Nike ads also tells its ordinary, non-celebrity member of their market to 'find your greatness'.
- President Barrack Obama's presidential 2008 campaign
- Red Cross
- Wizard(aka Magician, catalyst, inventor, shaman, healer). Key motivator(s): power, desire to realize dreams and to understand how things work. Motto: "I make things happen!". Greatest fear: unplanned negative outcomes. Weakness: manipulating others. Talents: Finding mutually beneficial solutions. Other associated ideas: They are very protective of their secrets. They are regarded with awe by others because of their mysterious work. mystic, desire for and have power. They hold some amount of social power because they do things in a way that others can not understood. Transformation, mystery, enigmatic. Bright colors (like orange) are often used for this brand. I believe that, when this archetype relates to a product or brand that is very new and exciting (like a superfood, cosmeceutical and so on), its magical power can wane over time when or if the novel wears off. In such cases, your plan should be to have another more long lasting archtype.
- New superfoods offer the new promise to transform the health of its consumers.
- New phytonutrients used in cosmeceuticals that promise to transform physical appearance.
- The 'Disney' brand,
- Psychics
- Brand Master Academy offers a few examples of how these brands are transformational: Coca Cola (to bring out the happiness of a moment), Disney (to bring imagination to light) and Dysan.
Brand Personality Building Tips
- Know your customer's worldviews and attitidues. Afterall, brand personality development is about matching compatible personalities. To this end, use your Customer relationship marketing (CRM) system.
- Ask your target market
- to identify your brand personality in a touchpont (like product, packaging, correspondence, logo or store front). How consistently did customers identify a personality across touchpoints? (Close-ended questions)
- identify the traits which they (will) like and trust the most. Do or can you fulfil these traits?
- to identify trait(s) that best describe your brand. (Open-ended questions)
- Develop a 'Brand Style Guidelines' manual (aka 'Brand Style Guide' for all parties acting on your brand's behalf. This document specifies the look and feel of the brand like how images are photographed, font styles & sizes, color palettes, tone of voice (funny, serious, etc) and so on.
- Audit your touchpoints for compliance wth your 'brand style guidelines'. Identify non compliance issues that need to be addressed.
- An extension of personality is 'voice'. Learn more about brand voices that align with brand personality. Examples include Harley Davidson, an outlaw personality uses a rough voice and even uses expletives.
Consistency is everything for brand recognizability!
CONTENT RELATED TO BRAND PERSONALITY
- Be clear about your target market's profile or avatar. After all, you are attempting to create a 'friendship' between the personalities of your customer and brand.
- Consider well does your brand personality match your customer / buyer personality type?
- Customer personality types include 'assertives', 'analyticals', 'amiables' and 'expressives'.
- Emotional marketing to emotionally engage your target market.
- LIfestyle branding strategy
- Customer relationship marketing (CRM).
- Branding 101. See where this step fit into the process of brand strategy management.
- Establish the right brand voice that complements your brand personality. Read how to design a winning tagline.
- Brand mascot
- Brand style guidelines
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