Evolving a Brand Personality to Connect with Customers.

Like individual members of a boy band, brands should have their own unique personalities.

Is your brand the cool one? The funny one? Or maybe it’s the rugged one that’s surprisingly sensitive? When brands create a defined personality that sets them apart, we’re drawn to the ones we find most appealing or match our own personality. But instead of hanging their posters on our walls, we surround ourselves with their products.

This makes total sense when you think about it. Just as our own personalities make us likable, fun to be around, inspiring, or attractive, the same is true for a businesses’ brand personality. When given a set of human traits, the brand creates a perception based on how it presents itself to the world, what it says and how it acts. When done right, the brand becomes relatable and more like someone you might know, or someone you’d like to know. It might even make you a fan.

Just as our own personalities make us likable, fun to be around, inspiring or attractive, the same is true for a businesses’ brand personality. When given a set of human traits, the brand creates a perception based on how it presents itself to the world, what it says and how it acts. When done right, the brand becomes relatable and more like someone you might know, or someone you’d like to know.

And that’s not by accident. According to Harvard Business School, 95% of purchasing decisions are based on feelings instead of logic. Companies who build an emotional connection to a specific target audience through an appealing personality can position themselves with a competitive differentiation, not just because of a product attribute, but the perspective they’re offering. Jeep portrays itself as adventurous, and therefore attracts a driver who sees themselves, or would like to be seen, in a similar light. On the opposite end of the spectrum, a person who thinks of themself as forward-thinking might buy a Tesla. Both are cars but have completely different personalities that attract different targets. By choosing characteristics like rugged, modern, dependable, or classic, companies can create more meaningful interactions to become the brand customers love, and ultimately, choose more often. On the flip side, lack of a personality could make your brand seem nothing more than functional. With no substance or character for customers to relate with, your brand could quickly be undermined by a lower cost alternative or a sales promotion.

So how do you give your brand a personality? Well for starters, you have to study your competition in order to avoid creating one that is too close in character. If you put off the same vibe as everyone else, you’ll be invisible, or worse, give attention to a more established competitor. It’s also vital to have a good understanding of your audience, their motivations and their interests. How do they speak? What are they into? How do they act? Who would they hang out with on a Saturday night? Remember, you’re trying to make it to their “inner circle,” so your brand needs to reflect who your audience is and speak to their personality. Take all the information you know about your target to mold who your brand might talk or act if it were a person. 

This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to physically manifest your brand as a living thing, although this does sometimes happen when companies create mascots like the Maytag Man or the Geico gecko. That aside, the personality can still come through (and should!) based on how the brand communicates and presents itself. Every touchpoint is an opportunity for your brand to express who it is – in things like imagery, packaging, marketing messaging, your website – even customer service reps. This is especially true with social media where brands are expected to show their genuine persona and have more opportunities to do so in every post. But keep in mind, it’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it. Obviously, the message must be meaningful, but the way your brand communicates is what will set it apart and make it immediately recognizable and memorable. So, nail your personality, make it seen and heard, and you’ve got the foundation of your brand identity—the thing that comes to mind when people think of your brand.

None of this is to say you have to do a complete rebrand, especially if you’ve just recently gone through the work of establishing your brand. Its personality could be enhanced by simply putting more oomph in the tone of voice, or giving it a larger, more visible presence with typography for example. Using your colors, or illustration and imagery in more interesting ways can also help steer the personality towards the intended portrayal.

Using visuals and voice together in this way only amplifies a brand’s personality, as we show here for a screw brand. At first blush, screws don’t sound all that interesting, especially when you go to a straightforward (boring!) communication that focuses just on function. But look what happens when you infuse the brand with some personality.

Same brand. Same screws.
Two different personalities.

Which one would you remember next time you’re at the hardware store? 

Over time, there will be a lot of unknowns that will force your brand to evolve—things like new competition, improved offerings and stature, changes in the market or societal shifts. And while those challenges are completely out of your hands, one thing you can control is how you respond. By simply infusing a dose of personality to your brand or adjusting the one it already has, you can give your company a new, stronger connection to your audience and make your presence known in the market. You just have to decide which member of the band it will be—the bad boy or the one they could bring home to meet the family. 

Which leads us to the big, important questions:

When was the last time you thought about your brand and its personality? Is it doing a good job of reflecting your audience or are they not able to relate to it?

When you step back and look at your brand, what vibe does it put out? If it were a person, is it someone your customer would want to hang out with or like to know? 

Imagine your brand next to a competitor. Does it look, sound or act similar? If so, what are some personality plus-ups you could apply that would make other brands envious of yours, and get consumers to swoon? 

Building on that, is there a certain personality that instantly comes to mind when you think of your brand? If not, that’s ok. Exploration is a fundamental part of the process, and necessary for doing the strategic evaluation to determine who exactly your brand is—all things we can help with in making more meaningful connections with your audience.