Ratios can be calculated. Examples include: age, income, price, costs, sales
revenue, sales volume and market share.The brand personality scale and the self concept
The Likert scale was adapted by Aaker to measure brand personality. This type of
psychometric response scale is often used in questionnaires and in survey
research. When responding to a Likert questionnaire item, respondents specify
their level of agreement with a statement. In Aaker’s brand personality study, a
measurement scale for measuring brand personality was developed consisting of a
five-point Likert scale measuring to what extent consumers agree that a person-
ality dimension describes brand personality: from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly
disagree). This scale was used to measure forty-two dimensions of brand person-
ality based on more than 1,000 respondents. After generating data, analysis is
needed to sort out the results of the study. Factor analysis is often used to analyse
data in the personality approach, because it is particularly suitable when dealing
with a large quantity of data, as is often the case in brand personality studies.
Factor analysis is a statistical data reduction technique used to explain variability
among observed random variables (also called factors).
Other methods
The methods used for studying self consist of either descriptive methodology,
where consumers are asked to determine to what extent a word or a symbol is self-
descriptive. After that, the congruence between self and brand personality can be
measured. It consists of a two-step procedure, where the initial step uncovers the
personality traits consumers attribute to a certain brand and the second step deter-
mines to what extent these personality traits are congruent with the personality
traits identified in the descriptive exploration of self. Most studies of brand
personality and self mix descriptive methods and the brand personality scaling
method (as developed by Aaker 1997).
Apart from these rather quantitative methods, it can also be useful to include more
qualitative methodologies like free association methodology, photo sorting or auto-
biographical methods, where consumers describe their autobiographical memory
related to certain stimuli that have a relation to the brand in question. These methods
can uncover self and the brand personality. After that the congruence between self
and brand personality can be explored. This is often done by using a scale where
consumers rate their perceptions of own self according to the personality character-
istics of the brand. Quantitative regression analysis can then be used to measure the
congruity between brand personality and the consumer’s self-concept.
Critique of quantitative methods and scaling techniques
Quantitative scales tend to be developed under a laboratory setting and may not
be the best survey tool for capturing the more unconscious aspects of people’s
136 Seven brand approaches