What is a Brand Personality?

Brand personality is an interesting yet vital premise surrounding a brand’s identity, or how it is viewed in general by the greater masses. How does this personality work? Let’s take a look at what this important business concept actually entails.

Human Personality

Human personality tells us so many things about others while also conveying many messages to others about ourselves. It is personality that gives a baseline reading to follow on others in areas such as temperament, social inclination, reclusiveness, responsiveness, and propensity to react to situations in some way or another. Now, apply this concept to brand identity.

A Brand’s Personality

As us humans are so hard-wired to deal in personality matters at nearly every moment of every day, it was only natural that in this same way, at some point, we began to personify brands and the businesses behind them as such. At some point in time, most likely quite a long time ago, personality was applied to brands. Per President of Wagner and LinkedIn contributor Wagner Dos Santos, “The personification of a brand provides insight into the most effective ways to communicate with a target audience.”

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Our brand is strong and resilient. Ours is nurturing and always by your side when needed. If this sounds familiar, you are already aware of and probably quite used to personality in brand identity.

The Five Personalities

Human personalities can be quite complex while those of brands aren’t necessarily the same. In fact, there are just five, main personality types that you will consistently see displayed by brands. These easily recognized types are as follows.

Sincerity

When a company’s image is mainly one of true care and compassion, sincerity is likely that brand’s personality. In products, services, staff demeanor, marketing, and more, this brand will attempt to say, “We Care” more than anyone else around. This is a more fitting approach in businesses where more sensitive matters are dealt with.

Excitement

Some brands give off some excitement for special events and occasions in order to garner that extra boost of attention. Others give off the excitement vibe at all times as a matter of the brand’s chosen approach in personality. You’ll often see this in places such as car dealerships, wholesale and overstock companies, staffing companies, department stores, and many others.

Competence

Competence is a sentiment we’d rather feel when buying something like a fire extinguisher or a personal computer. In products and services involving safety, trust, ongoing performance, and similar attributes, competence is the best personality to be conveyed as opposed to excitement or sophistication.

Sophistication

In other wares and services, a feeling of sophistication is a must for the success of the business. These personalities seek to, at all times, convey feelings of refinement, advancement, class, sophistication, and other enviable sentiments of luxury. This is the personality you will often see in areas such as luxury cars, jewelry, real estate, and certain home goods.

Ruggedness

“We’re built tough and will outlast any elements”. This is a sign of the ruggedness personality. This brand wants you to feel confident that the overall toughness of their offerings is unsurpassed. In this category, think of tires, ATV’s, outdoor sports and hunting gear, and even home improvement and construction materials.

Personality is a vital component to humanity, and at some point, became a likewise vital component to virtually all businesses and brands as well. While there are some operations that do not necessarily employ a personality, all of the biggest and most successful corporation, you will find, do. These are the basics of brand personality and the five types most commonly used today.