How to Define Your Brand Personality
You may have heard how important it is to have a well-defined brand personality, but maybe you thought that it’s really not necessary for a small business. Of course, companies like Apple, Starbucks, and Chanel need to have a brand personality, but what about your small business?
I would say it’s just as important for a small business to have a well-defined brand personality. Your brand personality is what differentiates you from your competition.
Let’s say, for example, that your competitors all position themselves as efficient, reliable, and steady. This provides you with an opportunity to stand out by creating a different brand personality, such as friendly, honest, and down-to-earth. Your ideal audience is more apt to recognize your brand quickly and remember you because you have set yourself apart.
Your brand personality also helps to drive customer preference. Consider a day in the life of your ideal client. They’re likely pretty busy with a long to-do list. There’s food shopping to do, kids to pick up, and events to attend. They don’t have a lot of time to research brands, so if they are already familiar with your brand and need to make a quick decision, there’s a good chance they will select your business - just because they feel like they know you. That is the beauty of a well-defined brand personality.
What is a brand personality?
Your brand personality is a way of personifying your business. You are assigning human characteristics to your brand. The traits you select should accurately reflect your brand and resonate with your ideal clients. This is done by selecting 3-5 adjectives that define your brand (some examples include: rugged, sincere, elegant, fun, reliable, wholesome, etc.).
Remember to keep your ideal audience in mind as you decide on your brand’s personality traits. If your ideal client is feminine, for example, picking a rugged personality for your brand won’t likely connect with your audience. People want to connect with brands that are just like them.
How do you define your brand’s personality?
While there are various systems you can use to discover your brand personality, I find the Aaker’s Brand Personality Dimension the easiest to use.
The Aaker’s Brand Personality Dimension
Jennifer Aaker, a researcher at Stanford University, created a system in 1997 that she has tested, verified, and published in the Journal of Marketing Research. The core premise is that there are 5 main personality types: sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness.
SINCERE
Brand personalities in this category are seen as down-to-earth, cheerful, trustful, and honest. Brands in this category usually follow ethical policies and procedures and emphasize good relationships with their customers. They may also support the community or a larger cause, such as the environment.
EXCITEMENT
Brands in this category may be seen as edgy, inspiring, imaginative, and spirited. These brands may put themselves in exciting places such as sporting events or concerts. They may try a more unique marketing approach to reach their audience.
COMPETENCE
Think of these brands as reliable, dependable, intelligent, and efficient. They are seen as steady and trustworthy. Frequently, mature companies end up in this category.
SOPHISTICATION
This category includes brands that emphasize high-quality, glamor, romance, and maybe even pretentious. Most of your luxury brands and high-end products and services would have sophisticated traits.
RUGGEDNESS
Rugged brands could be described as masculine, outdoorsy, and tough. Having a personality in this category would imply to people that your product is tough and durable - it can take a beating and keep on going. Having rugged qualities will appeal to people who are risk-takers, adventurous, and consider themselves brave and tough.
To use these categories, pick 3-5 traits that best fit your brand. You don’t have to pick from just one category.
For example, Patagonia would be considered both sincere for their support of the environment and rugged with their passion for the outdoors.
Choose your traits carefully because they are going to play a very important role in the decisions you make for your company going forward. You can think of these traits as filters for your actions.
For example, let’s assume that ‘friendly’ is one of your selected traits. Your advertising department needs to create ads that would be considered friendly by your audience. When you respond to people on social media, it needs to be friendly. The people you hire need to be friendly. Your return policy...yes, you guessed it, friendly too. The more consistent you are with your chosen traits, the more trust you will establish between both your ideal clients, your staff, and even your vendors.
Tips for picking your brand personality traits
1 - Before developing your brand personality, you have to know your values, beliefs, and mission well. If you haven’t completed that step yet, I can help you with that. I created a free Brand Clarity workbook to help guide you through the process.
2 - You need to know who your ideal client is. Your ideal client will want to work with people just like them, people they can relate to.
3 - Don’t be afraid to let your uniqueness show. Don’t pick vague words and try to appeal to everyone. It’s those little idiosyncrasies that make you interesting (and uniquely you). Embrace that, and you will find yourself attracting people just like you.
4 - Make sure your brand speaks just like your audience. By using their language and stories, you’ll make it easier for your audience to relate to you.
5 - Always remember that you are talking to people. Sometimes businesses try so hard to sound professional that they use long, uninspiring, vague words. The result is usually bland and uninteresting, and most people don’t talk that way.
If, for example, you met someone at a cocktail party and they started using words such as obfuscate, perfunctory, and synergy, you might start looking for a way to politely leave the conversation!
Once you’ve selected your brand’s personality, it’s time to communicate it to the world.
You do that through your visual identity (your logo, typography, imagery, etc.), your brand voice (how you speak - your tone), and your actions (all of your decisions and policies must fit with your brand personality).
Conclusion
When you invest the time to establish your brand personality and align all of your decisions and actions with those traits, I think you’ll find that people will remember and trust you because they know what to expect from you. And the more consistent you are with your brand personality, the stronger the connection will be with your ideal clients. Instead of having one-time customers, you’ll have a long list of devoted clients who keep coming back.