By Brilliant Episodes
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October 30, 2018
The majority of brands adopt personality traits as a way of attracting like-minded consumers. Read how brands set out to influence both employees and consumers with the clever use of personality traits. Research shows competitive brands with a clear independent brand identity and personality- provide encouraging internal engagement needed for growth, and consistently delivery of customer expectations. Essentially, branding is the creation of a clear, distinct and ‘own-able’ personality that encourages people inside the business to believe and people outside the business to buy. A personality is an accessible shortcut to understanding a brand - what it stands for and helping employees understand how to preform their role. Brands can use adjectives to describe their brand, they can be fun, kind, reliable, cool or even cheerful – for example Timberlands are rugged, Cartier is elegant and Mini Coopers are quirky. The creation of a brand personality requires a range of skills, from developing a compelling brand narrative and set of values to creating the ideal brand experience. In fact brand personality can be based on real or fictional characters. Today many brands are adopting to use real people to personify their brand, clearly wanting to benefit from the favorable brand associations. For example, Emirates and Etihad hiring Jennifer Aniston and Nicole Kidman respectively as brand ambassadors. The use fictional characters, including mascots have also been extremely popular over the years. Mascots can be used to carry the emotional elements of the brand personality as a meaningful point of differences. Most us would recall the popular mascots, the Michelin Man and the Duracell Bunny, both representing the brand value of durability – these two fictional characters provided enduring connections and valuable brand assets. A brand experience can be emotionally relevant at the retail level. The Spanish footwear brand Camper provides a great brand experience, creating a uniquely engaging space for the customers to trial their product. The store experience inspires a stronger sense of engagement than a regular shoe store. Creating a brand personality requires infusing it with human characteristic’s related to lifestyle, interest, values, story and more. Brand personality helps customers connect with a brand on an emotional level, this is particularly relevant as emotion is considered as the primary driver of choice. Note even brands the likes of Twitter and Facebook capitalise on the individuals’ emotions - mainly, social needs. Irrespective of the approach used, time forces brands to evolve. Brands with clear values that are flexible and compelling will find it easier to adapt and change.