Many of the world's most powerful brands spend a great deal of time putting personality into their brands. It is the personality of a brand that can appeal to the four functions of a person's mind. For example, people make judgments about products and companies in personality terms. They might say, "I don't think that company is very friendly," "I feel uneasy when I go into that branch," "I just know that salesmen is not telling the truth about that product," or "That offer doesn't smell right to me." Their minds work in a personality driven way. Given that this is true, then how can a company create a personality for its product or for itself? The answer lies in the choice and application of personality values and characteristics.

Imagine a person as a brand. She may be around 28 years of age, have fair features, a small build and be pleasant-looking. These would be similar to a product's features. When you get to know her a little better, your relationship may deepen, and you will be able to trust her, enjoy her company, and even miss her a lot when she is not around. She is fun to be with and you are strongly attracted to her values and concerns. These are emotions similar to the associations which people develop with brand personalities. People, generally, like people. So, if a personality can be created for a brand, it will be easier to attract consumers to the brand. As brands grow, as do human relationships, it is the emotional dimension that tends to become dominant in loyalty. Personality grows brands by providing the emotional difference and experience.

Values and characteristics of brand personality:

People's personalities are determined largely through the values and beliefs they have, and other personality characteristics they develop. An example of a value or belief is honesty. Many people believe in being honest in everything they do and say. An example of a characteristic is confidence. This is not a belief, but more of a behaviour. There are, of course, many values/beliefs and characteristics that a person may have, but there are some that are particularly likeable. It is to these likeable values and characteristics that people are inevitably attracted. Examples of these include dependability, trustworthiness, honesty, reliability, friendliness, caring, and fun-loving.

There are about two hundred words that describe personality characteristics, and these can be used for putting personality into brands. To illustrate how people think in personality terms when making judgments about brands, here are the results of consumer research into how people feel about two companies. When asked the question: "If these two companies were people, how would you describe them?" their replies were:

These two companies are actually competitors in a service industry. If you were asked which of these two companies you would like to be your friend, you would probably choose Company B, as did 95% of other respondents. It is not surprising that the service level of Company B can be a better experience for customers than that of Company A. It is also easy to conclude that if consumers consistently experience these differences between the two companies, then the brand image of Company B will be much better than that of Company A.

A further point of interest arising out of this research is that people tend to prefer brands that fit in with their self-concept. Everyone has views about themselves and how they would like to be seen by others. And they tend to like personalities that are similar to theirs, or to those whom they admire. Thus, creating brands with personalities similar to those of a certain group of consumers will be an effective strategy. The closer the brand personality is to the consumer personality (or one which they admire or aspire to), the greater will be the willingness to buy the brand and the deeper the brand loyalty.

Creating Brand Personality

Whether a brand is a product or a company, the company has to decide what personality traits the brand is to have. There are various ways of creating brand personality. One way is to match the brand personality as closely as possible to that of the consumers or to a personality that they like. The process will be

• define the target audience
• find out what they need, want and like
• build a consumer personality profile
• create the product personality to match that profile

This type of approach is favored by companies such as Levi Strauss, who research their target audience fastidiously. For Levis the result is a master-brand personality that is:

• original
• masculine
• sexy
• youthful
• rebellious
• individual
• free
• American

A related product brand personality (for a specific customer group) such as Levi's 501 jeans is:

• romantic
• sexually attractive
• rebellious
• physical prowess
• resourceful
• independent
• likes being admired

Both profiles appeal mostly to the emotional side of people's minds - to their feelings and sensory function. This profiling approach aims to reinforce the self-concept of the consumers and their aspirations. The approach is ideal for brands that adopt a market-niche strategy, and can be extremely successful if a market segment has a high degree of global homogeneity, as is the case with Levis.

Asian companies need to work harder at managing the personality aspect of branding. One example of how an Asian company is doing this well, and linking Asian values to personality is Asia Home Gourmet, shown as this month's case study.

Adding personality is even more important if the task is to create a corporate as opposed to a product brand, as every encounter with the customer gives the opportunity to put across the brand personality.

Excerpted from Branding in Asia by Paul Temporal. Click on the book title to order from Amazon.