The Power of Personality in Branding | Key Benefits Explained
How do you determine when a person is likeable or not? Setting aside racial discrimination, religious beliefs, and other nitty-gritty antics, the defining aspect a person has that shapes the way people perceive them is their personality.
As human beings, we are attracted to those we can relate to. A cheerful person gives us a sense of positivity in life while an active one lets out our inner desire for adventure. All of which brings out a sensation that triggers our emotions and the feeling of closeness to that individual.
This is the power of personality. And it has been used to establish friendships, communities, employees, and leaders all over the world. But humans are not the only ones who can have personalities. Dogs, cats, bears, and yes, even a brand has one.
What is Brand Personality?
Brand personality is the accumulation of human characteristics such as emotions, intellect & behaviours and relating it to a brand’s name. In essence, It’s a business that’s portrayed as a desirable human being.
Just like people, there are numerous kinds of personalities a brand can represent. Louis Vuitton has that sophisticated tone with hints of elegance and fame, Redbull is thrilling, energetic and fun, while Google is reliable, smart, and trustworthy.
By clearly defining your brand’s personality, you can cater to specific types of people who are in line with the values your brand believes in. But this does not mean that you are excluding those who do not have similar personalities.
The beauty of sticking with one strong personality is in your strength and passion in that given field. A person who enjoys hiking will probably buy from North Face, but will purchase from Burberry when attending a wedding.
How can a Brand Personality boost your business?
There are multiple creative ways a brand can benefit from a personality. Starting off with the most basic one:
1. Stand out from the crowd
For heavily saturated niches, it’s especially hard to make yourself distinct from the competition. This is where personality comes in. More often than not, when you have found your brand’s personality and take action in capitalising it, the advantage you receive is through the uniqueness in personality. Just like people, it’s hard to truly copy another person’s personality.
2. Establish Emotional Attachments with the Consumers
Matter of fact is, the more emotionally invested a person is to a brand, the more they’ll become loyal customers and recurring purchasers. A brand’s charisma heavily affects the way people react to it. Those with well-defined personalities such as Apple, Google, Gucci and BMW often take advantage of the fact that 95% of all purchasing decisions are subconscious.
3. They’ll remember you
People are attracted to personality-filled individuals, and the same goes for brands. When brands have strong and consistent personalities, they end up being sought for by consumers. Statistically, it takes 5-7 impressions to create brand awareness. By developing a personality, this task of reaching impressions would become much easier.
4. Build a brand larger than your business
Branding is all about image. And personality can help make it larger. A likable brand personality will make your business seem much more credible and established than it may actually be right now. SMBs, in particular, can take advantage of this since they do not have resources at par with SMEs and large entities.
The Categories of Brand Personality
There are 5 branches of personalities you can choose from. From this, you can combine 2-3 to make your brand more appealing. Ignyte frames this perfectly with a simple family branch.
1. Sincerity
Traits: Wholesome | Down-to-earth | Cheerful | Honest
Dbrand:
This is the brand that you can be wacky with. A brand that accentuates being down to earth and getting real with you. They have a pronounced way of illustrating this by cracking jokes on occasion to make you feel light-hearted and happy. The example above is a section of Dbrand’s special skin collection. Instead of telling you its texture, dimensions and whatnot, the brand mocks you in a joking way… like a childhood friend you grew up with at your old hometown.
2. Excitement
Traits: Bold | Energetic | High spirited | Creative
Nike:
A prime example of this type of personality is Nike. Every ad you see of them is filled with the motivation to get up, work out and start enjoying your life to the fullest. This brand personifies an energetic person in your life that’s always striving for excellence. He motivates you to get off your bum and become the active person you always wanted to be.
3. Sophistication
Trait: High Class | Luxurious | Charming
Louis Vuitton:
The living embodiment of glamour. This brand tells you that you’re beautiful and mature. This personification of a dignified person embraces luxury at its finest and want to share that passion with you. She wants you to know that living above the status quo is only right for someone as fabulous as you.
4. Competence
Traits: Reliable | Innovative | Intelligent
Substance over Form. This brand believes that innovation is the key to success. It portrays a person who enjoys logic and scientific progression. Valuing function above beauty. And someone you can rely on.
5. Ruggedness
Traits: Tough | Wilderness Ready | Enduring
Your partner when it’s time to get dirty. A brand as tough as nails and would prove it by throwing their products off a cliff… and still survive. The person this brand depicts is a strong friend you can rely on when the going gets tough. This friend will gladly go with you to climb a mountain because he’s just as brave as you are.
These 5 are the main categories your brand can fall into. Most businesses branch out even further to other categories so that their uniqueness is strongly established. Branding services are a great way to ease the workload when brainstorming ideas. Not only do they offer suggestions/consultancy, but also actionable results, whether in logo designing, graphic illustrations, copywriting and much more.
Final Thoughts
Whatever your niche, business size, or business type is, a strong brand personality can drastically improve your company standing and credibility. Just like with other humans, we can also have connections with brands that speak to us.
By embracing a specific set of human emotions, way of thinking and behaviours, a brand will most likely attract those who prefer that kind of personality. This gives businesses a competitive advantage, whether in sales, leads, organic traffic or brand awareness.
For those unsure of where to start, it’s best to consult with a professional branding agency for a more concrete plan on creating a solid brand personality.
