Brand Management: Research, theory and practice

psychology the personality approach borrows theory about different categoriza-
tions of human character in theories about human personality dimensions and
traits. From consumer behaviour research, it is knowledge about how consumers
use brands in their construction and expression of self that is in play. The primary
function of the brand is hence in this approach to express a personality that
consumers can relate to and use for their own construction and expression of self.
The subjects of analysis are respectively brand personality and consumer self,
hence the brand relates to the individual consumers and is used by the individual –
though also used to express social identity for others.
In human psychology, personality is perceived as the pattern in which indi-
viduals can be divided according to how they fairly consistently react to different
environmental situations. In a brand management context, the construct of brand
personality refers to ‘the set of human characteristics associated with a brand’
(Aaker 1997, p. 347). The personality traits associated with a brand are assumed to
be enduring, distinct and stable. The self-expressive value and the distinctiveness
of the brand personality influence the attractiveness and the potential strength of
the brand in general. In consumer behaviour research, it has long been acknowl-
edged that consumers use brands for symbolic consumption and as means to
express themselves by selecting brands with a particular brand personality. The
extent to which consumers are able to use the specific brand as a point of reference
for their own construction and signalling of identity lays the basis for differenti-
ation of the brand from other brands in the same category. The level of consumers’
identification with the personality of the brand determines the degree to which the
consumers evaluate the brand as suitable or not for their own self-expression and
construction of identity. Hence, a really powerful and differentiated brand (in the
line of thinking behind this approach) is perceived by the consumer as a brand that
contributes to the consumer’s construction and expression of self. For the

Human

Personality

Consumer

self-expression

Brand

personality

Figure 7.1Brand personality construct

The personality approach 119