“You now have to decide what ‘image’ you want for your brand. Image means personality. Products, like people, have personalities, and they can make or break them in the market place.” David Oglivy

If you had to describe the Apple brand in terms of a celebrity who would choose? Could you use the same celebrity to represent Microsoft? Most likely, not possible. I find this thought extremely interesting as it sets out to externalize the internal emotions and perceptions we have for certain brands. We all know that Apple and Microsoft products are very different, however, each one of us has a unique way of perceiving these brands. As a business owner, we have to be in tune constantly with the way our business or brand is perceived by our customers. Is it being perceived the way we want it to? Are we consistent in our branding strategies across all customer touch points? Inability to do so will create a negative perception of your brand in the customer’s minds.

If brand personality is so critical to an organization’s success, why is it never talked about? I believe it is due to a couple of factors, firstly, many business owners see this as a non core issue because immediate tangible return on investment are not seen, secondly, there is a very little knowledge about how critical a brand personality is to the business as a whole. To demystify this subject I have attached an excellent schema to help understand this subject:

Courtesy Tom Dorresteijn

The development of a brand personality is the first step to embark on when developing a brand. Two components required to begin this process are:

1. Identity: One has to be absolutely clear about the aims of your organization. This includes goals, objectives, and strategic plans which have been developed for your business. Focus on core strengths and identify areas where you have a competitive advantages. If your business concept is unfocused, abstract or too diverse, these same factors will manifest themselves when communicating with target customers.

2. Customers: The second point which needs to be clearly defined is, identifying customers and their specific needs and requirements. One needs to understand their pain points, ambitions, worries and goals. This has to be done through qualitative analysis, by actually talking with your potential customer face to face. Once this is completed and assessed, we will know how to position our brand from their point of view.

It is only after we have successfully clarified these two components, can we actually start the process of developing a type of personality for our brand. We will be able to address key issues on what our brand voice should be, what characteristics our customers are looking for, and visual design to stimulate interest. I quote Tom Dorresteijin who sums up importance of a brand personality very well “We use brand personality to bring brand strategy to life.” By developing a strong personality with solid foundations we can now move to the next steps in developing our brand.

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– Creating a brand personality