The power of emotional marketing
March 27, 2020
Why marketing campaigns fail
May 4, 2020
What’s the driving force behind the decisions that we make when we make a purchase?
Have you noticed that two different brands offer the exact same product or service, but you relate better to one than the other?
Brands are very much like people. We like the ones that are easily approachable, we avoid the ones that don’t seem genuine. Some brands feel like they were created just for you, and in some cases leaves us feeling validated and understood.
To simplify, brands leave an emotional impact on its audience and successful brands convey a positive experience to their customers.
Have you noticed that two different brands offer the exact same product or service, but you relate better to one than the other
What is brand personality?
Brand personality refers to the personification of any brand. It consists of emotional traits and behaviors that are embedded within a brand over time.
Brand personality is created when there are human-like traits such as caring, creative, trustworthy, unique, rebel, dishonest, form a part of the brand characteristics. It is important to remember that the brand personality and brand identity are not the same.
Where brand identity forms the core message of your brand, brand personality is the emotional way through which that message is transmitted. We buy these brands because they have meaning to us.
Brand identities and personalities aren’t always identical, but they are synergetic. A brand’s identity should be a crucial part of its personality. After all, everything must work hand in hand to create a consistent, and relatable entity.
For most businesses, the development of brand personalities will begin naturally as the business grows and learns more about its customers. In fact, your customer base will help you determine which brand you need to be in, order to have a positive impact on your target audience.
Once you know whom you’re selling to, it’s up to you to ensure that your brand personality resonates with the right groups at the right times.
Types of brand personalities
Most brand personalities fit into the five main categories and each dimension has its own personality traits and strengths. The brand personality model might seem a little simplistic on the surface.
Surely people can be broken down into more than five categories, right? However, the nature of this model makes it perfect for understanding the drive behind different businesses.
1- Sincerity
Sincere brands are often perceived as “down to earth”, and they might be small-town orientated or family- orientated. Sincere brands are very honest and transparent with their customers and they can be sentimental, cheerful and wholesome.
2- Excitement
These include brands that are perceived as daring, modern and trendy. Exciting brands are often new, unique and contemporary. These brands are good at creating a lot of hype and building excitement in their audience
3- Competence
Brand personalities that focus on competence are reliable, hard-working, and secure. They often involve plenty of technical features and intelligence and may link with thought-leaders, confident people, success, and corporations.
4- Sophistication
Charming, refined, high-class. It usually takes time to exude sophistication as a brand, but once they get there, these brands are poised, polished, and make their customers feel classy and elegant.
5- Ruggedness
Rugged brands are bolder and more daring than their sincere counterparts. Though they may still be honest with their customers, their focus is on outdoorsy elements, masculinity, and a sense of overall toughness or strength.
Brand personality examples:
Brand personality of Apple
The apple logo resembles simplicity, as it’s all about simplifying the complexity of life. Apple is a people-driven, product design brand which has a deep connection with its audience.
Brand personality of CAT
The Brand personality of CAT is ruggedness. The core of the brand places emphasis on toughness and the outdoors which automatically builds their brand personality.
Brand personality of Nike
The brand personality of Nike is excitement. They brand themselves as a leader in the latest athletic apparel and shoes. The nature of their product is tough and outdoorsy and endorses successful products in nearly every sport. This brand creates a personality that is tough and successful.
Brand personality of Volvo
The personality of Volvo is sincerity. They have positioned themselves as competent car manufacturers that focus on performance, design, and safety. These characteristics are very important for a Volvo consumer who is well aware that all these elements are considered thoroughly in the designing process.
How to develop your brand’s personality?
Developing a brand personality requires thought, planning, and consistent effort. It means engaging with your target audience to understand their needs and values, showcasing your personality and sense of humor. When all of these factors have been taken into consideration and successfully implemented, you engage with your audience on a grand scale.
Your brand isn’t simply glued together by robots, you cultivate it, nurture it and grow it from an idea inside your mind using hard work, long nights and perseverance. You give it a life and a personality all its own, and that personality shines through and appeals to your customers for good reason.
Develop a brand personality with these 6 steps
FIRST, decide who you are
A lot of brands decide whom they are after launching the brand, tailoring their brand message as they go along. But that’s just playing catch up. You need to set yourself up for success from the start by streamlining things from the start.
Choose your brand values and target audience before going to the market. Make highlighting your priorities, specialties, and your emotional appeal the framework of your brand identity and the rest will start to fall into place.
Familiarize yourself with your audience
When you’re preparing marketing material, remember to always keep your audience in mind. Your audience likes you and they enjoy your information and unique perspective on the things they love. So tailor your message with them in mind.
Choose your brand voice
The magic starts here! Here’s where your personality can radiate from everything your audience sees. Start by choosing your tone. Funny or serious? Affordable or luxurious? For him, for her, or for everyone? Vintage or futuristic?
Many top marketing agencies believe that the best route is to blend your voice (Keep it professional but ad some humour) and incorporate human characteristics within your brand to ensure approachability.
Tailor your Message
A tailored brand message is the nuts and bolts of your brand identity. This is where effective Content Marketing really comes into play. Know where to exhibit various pieces of topical content (social media, web, email, landing pages, etc.) at what times (morning, night, before after or during major events), and how frequently.
Consistency is key
Now that you have meticulously forged your brand identity using your personality and authentic content, remember to commit to your strategy. Nothing’s going to change over-night, brands are built for the long haul.
Also, remember not to estrange yourself from your audience by posting content from the opposite end of the spectrum of your brand voice. It will derail your efforts rather quickly. If you find your messaging doesn’t work, remember, A/B testing is encouraged, and it is alright to rebrand if need be.
Utilize your Feedback
The reality is not everyone will buy into your brand personality, and that’s Ok. But by disregarding the feedback of those who don’t buy into the brand, you could lose valuable data. Make this a learning opportunity to see where the train got derailed.
Humans are typically inclined to use emotions instead of Logic to make decisions about the things they like and the things they don’t. Reach out to your audience, respond to their feedback by writing a real response. Ask them about the challenges they faced and how you could improve. By creating a seamless user experience of your brand, you build loyal long term audience members.
Your brand’s personality is the magic that brings your brand to life. It’s the voice that helps communicate who you are and what makes you different, in a way that customers can relate to.
At the same time, it’s also a great source of differentiation, as it’s very difficult for anyone to copy a personality. Your personality dictates whether you’ll capture the hearts and minds of your audience, or leave them with a completely forgettable experience.
Still not sure what to do next? Our team at Best Web Design would love to help you. Our team of professional experts can help your business stay relevant in a very competitive market place by helping you create a sound digital marketing strategy.
We’ll create and implement a digital strategy that’s focused on helping your business grow and reach qualified leads to boost your conversion rate over time.
Contact us now to find out how our team can help you take your company’s digital marketing to the next level.
If you liked this article, please feel free to share this article and please tag us. We look forward to hearing from you.
