Brand Management: Research, theory and practice

attribute to brands, by applying different scaling techniques. To gain insights into
the self concept and its relation to brand personality, quantitative methods are,
however, not suitable. This is why the quantitative methods that have dominated
the personality approach in the recent years have been accompanied by more qual-
itative and loosely structured research methods to uncover the unconscious
aspects of consumer self.

Managerial implications

We have learned how the personality approach assumes that consumers consume
brands because they contribute to their construction and expression of identity.
The managerial focus of the personality approach can be derived from that
assumption. The primary and most important task for the brand manager in the
personality approach is namely, to understand the mechanisms of identity
construction that consumers use the brand for and be able to translate them into a
brand personality that delivers value and relevance for the consumer. This is why
theory in the personality approach focuses on how imbuing a personality into a
brand can enhance consumer bonding and the interaction between consumers’ self
and brand personality. The effectiveness and success of a brand personality hence
depends on the extent to which management is able to imbue the brands with a
personality that is attractive, relevant and enhances consumers’ creation and/or
expression of self. To master this process is not easy because it requires deep
insight into consumers’ identity construction and how this process lays the
grounds for consumers’ motivation for the consumption of brand personalities that
will assist them in their construction and expression of self. This insight must be

Theory

Methods and data

Assumptions

Managerial implications

Figure 7.10Methods and data of the personality approach

138 Seven brand approaches