like sponsorships, events or add-on consumer services matching the personality of
the brand are essential to complete the picture. Too often companies fail on this
because they emphasize short-term goals focused on reaching sales targets or they
end up responding ad hocor emulating competitors’ strategies.
The creation of brand personality
The goal of brand personality is to describe a mix of perceptual reality from the
consumer perception – they should reflect the way consumers feel about the brand
rather than just expressing how the company would like the consumer to feel. The
creation of brand personality consists of the following steps:
- Identification of personality.Identify personality dimensions and personality
traits to be communicated and built into the ‘behaviour’ of the brand. By
narrowing down the relevant traits as described in the methods and data of the
personality approach, it is possible to finally to end up with the brand person-
ality profile describing the traits and facets characterizing the brand personality. - Make sure it is appealing.Make sure that the personality appeals to the
consumer, by analysing the consumer self–brand exchange. Should adjust-
ments be made to the brand personality based on an analysis of how
consumers are to use the symbolic attributes of the brand? - Understand target groups.Make sure that the right consumer groups are
targeted and the right brand endorsers are chosen. The typical consumer of a
brand can have an enormous impact on how the brand personality is perceived
by the other future consumers. This is why getting the target group right (early
adopters) from the beginning can be crucial for the success of the brand person-
ality. See more in the section about early adopters and brand–self congruence. - Align the personality of the brand and the consumer.Analyse the extent to
which the brand is congruent with consumers’ self and align the personality
accordingly. - Develop the communication platform.Having identified the personality
dimensions that should characterize the brand, it is important to develop an
efficient communication platform that underpins that personality.
Early adopters and brand–self congruence
Early adopters of a brand are critical for the alignment of brand personality, because
they are the group of consumers that other consumers will identify with and use as a
measure for the authenticity of the brand personality. This process takes place
because, as explained in the sections on theoretical building blocks, consumers’ self
expression has not only an individual but also a social dimension, where consumers
seek inspiration from reference groups for brand consumption and use brands to
demonstrate belonging to certain reference groups. The brand can hence be rein-
forced in a cyclical process if the right target group picks it up because it will serve as
inspiration for other consumers who identify with or aspire to identify with the
The personality approach 143