Brand Management: Research, theory and practice

The personality statement (the communication goals the company has for the
brand) must be reflected in the brand personality and serve as the guiding platform
for the creation and enhancement of the brand in the long run. The personality
statement delivers important input to the creative strategy.
The other side of the brand personality construct is what consumers actually
feel about the brand. How much does the brand personality appeal to consumer
self and motivate consumers to choose the specific brand because of the symbolic
benefits they can derive from the brand personality? The three supporting themes
of the personality approach cover, respectively:

• Personality.Theory from psychology provides a framework for endowing
  brands with a relevant personality.


• Consumer self.How consumers use brands to construct self and the different
  layers of self that the brand manager must be aware of.


• Brand self congruence.Describes how the congruity between the consumer’s
  self and the brand determines how strong the brand personality can grow.

In 1997 Jennifer Aaker published the first research-based conceptualization of the
personality construct in a brand management context. The outcome of her research
was published in the article ‘Dimensions of brand personality’ (in Journal of
Marketing Research). Her conceptualization of the personality construct builds on
the theoretical and methodological frameworks from psychology, mentioned
above, about the categorization of people according to the salience of different
personality dimensions. It focuses on investigating if and how the categorization
of human personalities from psychology also applies to brands. Aaker made an
extensive investigation with the aim of identifying which personality traits people
associate with a wide range of brands. Aaker came to the conclusion that it is

Brand personality

Symbolic brand value

Adds personality and symbolic value

Personality of

stereotypical

consumer

Figure 7.6The brand–self exchange of symbolic brand value in the market place

128 Seven brand approaches