used to create a coherent personality through the wide array of brand activities,
ensuring that the brand personality statement is expressed in all the behaviour and
communication of the brand. It also requires that close attention is paid to pioneer
brand users and target consumers, because, as pointed out in the sections on
assumptions and theoretical building blocks, a brand personality is created
through a cyclical interaction between the brand and the consumer. But the efforts
to create a strong personality are worth while. Several comparisons and studies
point to the fact that brands with strong personalities outperform brands without.
Furthermore, once created, a brand personality usually has a long ‘life’ and serves
as an effective tool to build consumer loyalty.
Self and brand personality management
The basis of a strong brand personality is insight into how the symbolic benefits of
the brand personality contribute to consumers’ construction and expression of self.
The focus is hence on individual consumers and the psychological processes that
lay the grounds for consumers’ inward individual and outward social use of
brands. The human self is a complex concept and must be researched properly,
using the right methods, as described in the methods and data section, to uncover
how consumers use the symbolic benefits of the brand before the brand person-
ality can be constructed to match these symbolic consumption demands. Effective
use of brand personality depends on the brand’s ability to enhance consumer self-
expression. Before that can be achieved research must uncover what parts of the
self construct are in play in the specific brand. Does the bonding between the
consumer and the brand personality happen because the brand appeals to the indi-
vidual self and is used mainly for the inward construction of identity or is the
primary task for the brand to contribute the expression of the consumer’s social
self, where it is the outward signal of the values of the brand that are in play? These
are important steps in understanding how the brand relates to the consumer self
that the brand managers must uncover. The steps relate to the consumer self
construct (table 7.1).
Exact knowledge about the mechanisms and focus of self for the particular
brand in question is a prerequisite for the ability to develop a brand personality
that is relevant and attractive to consumers. After having uncovered at what level
the brand personality relates to the consumer by contributing to consumers’ self
construct, the brand personality can be developed.
Sources of brand personality
Once the consumer self has been uncovered steps must be undertaken to
construct or maintain the brand personality. As explained in the theoretical
building blocks of the personality approach, consumers automatically attribute
human personality traits to brands. According to the brand personality framework
developed by Aaker (1997), the personalities that consumers attribute to brands
can be divided along five main personality dimensions. These five dimensions
The personality approach 139