Who Am I? Defining Your Brand’s Personality

Why bother defining your brand’s ‘personality’?

Does your brand lack a defined personality? Or does the personality it has feel all wrong and not truly representative of your business?

Are you seeing the words ‘brand personality’ and thinking what’s this batshit notion…?!

Let’s back the truck up for a couple of sentences…

What is brand personality?

Brand personality is a set of human characteristics that are attributed to a brand name. So, your brand’s personality becomes something to which your customers can relate to, be attracted by or….be filtered out by if they’re not your perfect customers.

Most importantly a strong, accurate and defined brand personality builds equity by embodying a consistent set of traits that your target people like or aspire to.

“But I’m not a big enterprise like Coca Cola so do I really need to be doing this?” – I hear you say….

Yes, you do.

Getting brand personality right is not just a nice to have, as said – it builds commercial equity, makes you stand out and mean something in a cluttered market and informs so much within your business from the language you use in proposals, to the sort of induction program you might create for newbies.

And don’t take my word for it…

• Presenting a brand consistently can increase revenue by up to 23%.
• 89% of shoppers stay loyal to brands that share their values.
• 7% of people prefer brands that personalise the buying experience
• 64% of women and 68% of men have felt an emotional connection with a brand.
• Businesses with poor branding generally need to pay 10% higher salaries due to lack of attraction.[1]

So, sort out who you are and what you stand for!

Are you a fun and funky ‘Jester’? Or do you nurture and advise, acting true to the wise ‘Sage’ within you….?

Whatever is the most true personality for your brand, you need to be sure you’ve nailed it – in the eyes of your customers, your staff, and your stakeholders.

Right across your organisation – this is not only a fun exercise but one that can give your whole team a sense of clarity, difference and identification whether they’re in sales or recruitment.

Here’s a couple of tools to help you define your brand personality… and, check that’s it’s accurate…

1. The 12 brand ‘archetypes’:

A tried and true marketer’s resource, take a look at the descriptions of personalities and see which resonates with you and your team and why….

Generally you’ll end up with a couple coming through strongly – and in most cases there should be a dominant and a secondary / complementary personality.

Read more here

2. Secondly, work through the below checklist to acid-test what you’ve chosen.

• Think about who else (aside from staff) you need this personality to resonate with – customer groups / other stakeholders / desired customers you don’t yet have…
• Think about where you’re headed as a company, your evolution and what traits you may need to ‘shed’ or adopt to get to where you want to go.
• Consider what perceptions and connotations people associate your brand currently – are they positive? Are they negative? How could you tell a better, more accurate story? (And if you have no idea…we need to get inside you market’s head…)
• Think aspirationally and then make sure you identify the actions and tasks that will deliver to the brand personality.
• Identify the evidence you have now or in the future to back up this desired personality? For example; how you treat customers, how you speak, look, promote…who do you hire, what traits and values do they have? What would your customers say…?
• What does the competitive landscape look like for brand personality? Would you stand out, or do many businesses in your market seem to have the same personality?

An example of brand personality in action.

I’m going to use my own company brand Strut & Swagger Marketing for this. (Because you’ve gotta drink your own Kool-Aid.)

Stut & Swagger strives to embody a Creator, with a secondary personality of an Outlaw.

Why?

• Because Strut & Swagger exists to challenge people and brands to be better and braver.
• Because even though we offer a professional service, we want to bring a fresh approach with fun and rebellion to get people to think more, be bolder, and invest into their brands.
• Because the Strut & Swagger brand experience should be remembered as honest, straight-up and enjoyable.
• Because we draw from art to inject a creative lens across the commercial.

How does Strut & Swagger Marketing embody this?  What’s the ‘evidence’?

• The way we talk is straight-up, punchy and injected with a little humour or sarcasm.
• We challenge and have opinions – we’re not afraid to confront.
• The brand name itself strikes a chord and generates curiosity and conversation.
• We are, and enjoy working with others who are authentic, open, honest and decent humans.
• Stut & Swagger imagery is edgy, a little industrial and generally black and white.

Feeling stuck?

If brand personality is something you’re stuck on as a business, or you’re feeling a little ‘schizophrenic’…. With too many personalities…. I work with businesses to create brand blueprints for growth and better decision making.

Reach out if you want to create a stronger more defined brand.  

[1] Source: https://www.smallbizgenius.net/by-the-numbers/branding-statistics/