In a competitive global market, a great brand personality gives your brand a human face, bringing it to life and making it one-of-a-kind. The stronger your brand’s personality, the easier it will be to bridge the divide between your company and the consumers you want to engage with.
However, when you’re starting from zero or rebranding, clarifying and defining who you are can be more complicated than it appears. If you’re having trouble expressing your personality or need some guidance, keep reading. In this article, we’ll discuss everything you need to know about brand personality: what it is, how it affects your business, and why you need to define it.
What Is Brand Personality?
Brands, like people, have distinguishing characteristics that stem from their outlook on life. Your brand personality refers to the essential elements that you could use to characterize your brand if it were a person. A strong brand is distinguished from a poor one by the consistency and sincerity of these features.
Both the design and messaging of a brand are influenced by its personality. Defining your brand personality leads to a compelling verbal and visual identity that expresses who you are across all platforms, from social media to your website.
Examples of Brand Personality
Here are some examples of brand personality:
Apple
Apple’s personality is sophisticated, creative, and innovative, despite being in the tech industry. Apple’s products, packaging, software, and promotion are all elegantly presented.
Amazon
Amazon has a personality that is dependable, knowledgeable, sincere, and kind. Amazon is among the most trusted companies worldwide, with a genuine commitment to customer service, industry-leading shipping, return policies, and unparalleled product accessibility.
Nike
Nike would be characterized as adventurous, exciting, energetic, cool, inventive, aggressive, and health-conscious. Their brand tagline, “Just Do It,” is challenging and inspiring to anyone who strives for success. Whenever you put on Nike clothing, you’ll feel confident.
Elements of Brand Personality
The elements that constitute your brand’s authentic personality are as follows.
- Values & Beliefs: A company’s values and beliefs serve as a compass for how it interacts with others. It refers to the mindset that shapes who you are and how you behave. In other words, it’s the foundation that you build upon.
- Culture: Your company’s culture determines how your values are carried out. It’s also known as your company’s ethos.
- Attributes & Benefits: These elements refer to what your company offers your customers and why they are essential.
- Behavior: Your brand’s behavior is how it acts in relation to the rest of the world. It’s the distinct way your company interacts with customers to build a sense of belonging and special connection.
- Tone of voice: Your brand’s tone of voice is the way it communicates with its target market. A company’s personality is always constant, but the tone changes depending on the media.
- Look and feel: Your brand’s look and feel are its visual identity which consist of a logo, colors, typography, imagery, and other features. In a strong brand, it’s the overall aesthetic that stands out.
Ways To Discover Your Brand Personality
The steps to developing a personality that is true to your brand are outlined below.
Questions To Get Started
Here are some things to ask yourself once you begin defining your brand personality:
- How would you describe your brand as a person?
- How does your audience view you?
- How do you want to be viewed by your audience?
- How do you close the gap between how your audience sees you and how you want to be seen?
Using the Identity Board
You can make an identity board out of images. An identity board is simply a collection of the most fundamental elements to remember while creating visuals for your target market. You can find inspiration by using a tool like Pinterest. Choose photos, text, illustrations, memes, and colors that you think best portray or relate to your business. Your choice may be based on whom you want to be as a brand rather than who you are now.
Use the Brand Words Table
The idea is to come up with the right words to express your brand as vibrantly as possible. All stakeholders must unite on the brand’s direction, principles, appearance, and feel. Choose a set of terms that are both powerful and consistent, which will serve as your guiding force for branding and promoting your company. This will lay the groundwork for your communication and marketing strategies.
Using a Brand Personality Archetypes Quiz
Determining a brand archetype with the help of a quiz can help you turn your brand from a logo and a name to a living, breathing entity with its own voice and personality. The archetype you identify with doesn’t have to compromise your individuality; it’s merely a technique to express what you believe in and your company’s objectives. Once you’ve identified your brand personality archetype, your overall approach will be more cohesive, resulting in higher customer loyalty, a better image, and a more relatable brand.
Brand Personality in the Real World
Now is the moment to consolidate all this information into a distinct personality to personalize your brand and grow its identity beyond words. You may characterize your brand with personality and beliefs by using a persona template. This persona can then serve as a foundation for future marketing efforts to ensure consistency in tone and messaging.
Communicating Your Brand Personality
After you’ve defined your brand personality, you’ll need to convey it to your target market in the most effective way possible. Your brand’s personality should be the foundation of everything you do and say, and all activities and communications should naturally revolve around it. Maintaining a cohesive brand strategy while being more personable and engaging to your customer base can help your business attain a competitive edge.
Making the correct marketing channel choices puts your company in a better position to target the right customers and avoid wasting money on ineffective platforms.
Conclusion
Your company’s brand personality is what sets it apart and keeps customers coming back for more. With a unique company personality, you’re not just another faceless, boilerplate company providing the same services as the others. As a result, people get to know you better, which leads to their trust and decision to choose your brand.
