Brand personality carries a lot of importance in the existing marketing strategies for any business. The more competition the market has, the more critical it becomes for you to develop a brand personality.
Your brand personality corresponds with your slogans, advertisements, and content throughout your marketing channels and social media websites. It should fit your audience's demands and lifestyle.
If you look at successful brands worldwide, they maintain consistency in their brand personality. Even when the business introduces new product line extensions, the theme of the products and services remains constant. Often, the theme is how customers try to identify with a particular brand.
What is Your Brand Personality?
We usually know what personality means in an everyday context. It refers to a combination of different characteristics and attributes that makes a person recognizable and attractive. This definition applies to a brand as well.
Just like how every individual has a personality, so does every brand. Your brand personality impacts how people recognize and interact with your business. It can make a difference in your business' success by:
- Retaining more loyal customers and converting them into brand advocates
- Generating a steady stream of customers
- Building an authority within your industry
The best way to understand the concept of brand personality is by comparing it with a human personality. For example, let's talk about Apple as a person. There could be many things that come to your mind when you think of this name. He could have fantastic programming skills and expertise in website development. It may also have a great sense of imagination and creativity. Apple also encourages you not to buy cheaper products without any use. All of these attributes contribute to the overall brand personality of Apple.
Types of Brand Personality
A business' brand personality generates an emotional response from a specific customer segment to bring positive actions that benefit the firm. There are five types of brand personalities with shared traits.
- Excitement
- Sincerity
- Ruggedness
- Competence
- Sophistication
Customers are likely to buy a brand if it holds similar characteristics to theirs.
Tips to Develop Your Brand Personalities
1) Decide Who You Are
Usually, brands decide who they are after launching and tailor their messages accordingly. In reality, you waste your energy, effort, and investment in the process. Instead of playing catch-up, you should streamline your activities from the start.
Select the vital brand values and drivers behind your work before coming to the market. It would be best to highlight your responsibilities, attributes, and emotional appeal. If all these factors contribute to your brand identity, you will have an edge over your competitors. In addition, you will stand out from others who sell non-distinct products and services when you sell your unique brand.
2) Take Help From Families and Friends
Outside perspectives can be highly beneficial when trying to gain clarity over brand personalities. Who better to consider than the people who know you best?
Image taken from Strikingly
You can ask your friends and families to describe yourself as an individual and an entrepreneur. There is a chance that you will end up with decent personality traits and attributes, especially after doing your brainstorming. Then, you can analyze how your characteristics correspond with your business or branding.
For example, let's say you are selling tennis rackets to teenagers worldwide. When you ask your friends and family, they describe your brand personality as energetic and a bright light of sunshine. As a result of this feedback, you must adopt an upbeat brand personality and voice. This process is how feedback from others can result in you developing cohesive branding.
3) Get to Know Your Audience
As much as brand personalities have much to do with you as an entrepreneur, they also relate to your target audience. Therefore, your brand personality could reflect what your business is all about.
However, it would help if you did your homework properly. You shouldn't develop your brand blindly on assumptions about your target audience. Instead, you can speak to current and potential customers, use their opinions, and research how they draw a comparison between your brand and the competitors. This analysis can be fundamental in the improvement of your brand personality.
4) Nail Down Your Brand Voice
Brand voice is important to your brand personality and can make or break your efforts. Your way of communication determines whether you can efficiently breathe life into the attributes you claim to be part of your brand personality. When you try to get your brand voice right, you should ask yourself the following questions:
- Should your brand voice be funny or serious?
- Sophisticated or causal?
- Old-school or being in the trend?
All of these factors of brand voice depend on your style, target audience, and industry. However, keeping your brand voice constant is essential regardless of your choices. After all, your voice exists where your brand does. Therefore, it would be best if you made your brand recognizable and successful no matter where people hear it.
5) Don’t Overthink
It is very easy to get overwhelmed by responding to all the questions from your potential customers. However, confusion and nervousness may confuse your target audience, ultimately pushing you away from your business objectives. Therefore, keeping your brand personality as simple as possible is important.
Ulta Beauty is a prime example in this case. It has two messages, i.e., "All Things Beauty. All In One Place" and Welcome To The Fun Side Of Beauty," but both revolve around one thing. Ulta Beauty doesn't attract those who try to experiment with beauty products or don't have a passion for them. They don't bring any other topic into their brand's personality; it is just about beauty. So, you must identify the message that gets to most of your audience smoothly. Once you have placed your message, leave it at that.
Difference Between Brand Personality and Imagery
An organization's brand personality should not be confused with imagery. The company image is defined as a series of creative assets that refers to the tangible benefits of its brand. On the other hand, a company's brand personality brings an emotional response from an ideal customer segment.
Image taken from Facebook
Companies need to define their brand personalities to resonate with relevant consumers. Brand personality results in increased brand equity and represents its attitude in the market. It is a huge factor behind any successful marketing campaign. If you want to choose your brand's personality, select one of the types that correspond with the company's ambitions.
For example, if a new outdoor company intends to establish a relationship with its customers, the instinct should be to create a rugged brand personality. It is possible that the competitors had anticipated and positioned themselves as a solid outdoor apparel brand. To set itself apart from the competitors, the new company should position itself in the customers' minds by adopting a brand personality of sophistication. This defines the brand as a high-end option for outdoor apparel, which attracts specific types of consumers.
Examples of Brand Personalities
Some of the corporate examples of how the brand personality works are as follows:
- Dove considers sincerity as its brand personality. The company aims to attract feminine customers.
- Luxury brands like Louis Vuitton and Givenchy target sophistication by focusing on the upper-class and trendy lifestyle. The modern lifestyle usually attracts a high-spending customer base.
- REI, the recreational retail store, has a rugged brand personality and tries to inspire its target audience (creative and adventurous people) to be resilient
Build a Brand Website on Strikingly
In today's day and age, the best way to showcase your brand personality traits is to build a brand website. Strikingly is an easy-to-use website-building platform that allows you to build your brand website in a few minutes. We offer thousands of creative website templates you can choose according to your brand or business idea. If you want to build a brand website on Strikingly, make sure that you go through the following steps:
- Head over to Strikingly and register for a free account
- Choose one of the templates as your ready-made website designs
- Add images, videos, and texts to your web pages. Don't forget to add content that reflects your brand personality.
- Integrate social media profiles or pages on your business website.
Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website
The drag-and-drop feature can add images, videos and texts to different parts of your web pages. However, once you are done with the content, you must ensure that your website is recognized across all search engines.
Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website
You can add your social media profiles on your footer and in the last section of your website. These social media icons will bridge your website and the specific social media page. Make sure you update your social media pages about whatever content you add to your website.
Conclusion
If you run a brick-and-mortar business, you require a fully-functional website that represents your brand personality traits and displays your products and services. In addition, your business website must have a significant online presence. People may not take your brand seriously if you don't have a website to match your business ideas. Moreover, your business products will have low value compared to your competitors.
Strikingly supports all entrepreneurs worldwide to showcase their brands on the Internet. We encourage entrepreneurs to build quality websites without learning coding or programming skills. We are happy to see them grow their business initiatives and make them successful.
