Hello again. In the next few sessions, we're going to move progressively away from the more rational side of brand-building and getting more and more into the emotional side. We have started the shift by looking at insights. Now, it is a time to focus just on the brand and start talking and behaving like the brand. From now on, we're going to be looking at all those elements that make a brand a person and we're going to start with brand personality. Brand personality is a set of human characteristics that are attributed to a brand name. A brand personality is something to which the consumer can relate. An effective brand increases its brand equity by having a consistent set of traits that are specific consumer segment and choice and relates to. This personality is a qualitative value added that a brand gains in addition to its functional benefits. It reflects how people feel about the brand rather than what they think the brand is, and this is basically the way the brand speaks and behaves. In doing so, brand personality provides a unique collection of emotional triggers that people can connect with. Brand personality is a framework that helps a company or an organization shape the way people feel about its product, service or mission. For some brands like Coca-Cola, define the brand personality is as crucial as defined in the brand benefits, and they in fact use personality traits as reason to believe. This is how important define their personality can be. It can be used to provide suitable reasons to buy the build on your point of difference. So, what are the dimensions of brand personality and how can you even get should you find it correctly? During this session, we are going to be looking at these two things separately. First, we will talk about dimensions, and then, we will introduce the concept of archetypes. So, on dimensions, there are five dimensions to brand personality. They were defined by ACA and you have them in your reading. These are: excitement sincerity, ruggedness, competence and sophistication. Brands will choose to use a brand character as a vehicle to express the brand personality and facilitate the brand storytelling process. Brand excitement is all about being daring, and trendy, and modern, spirited, imaginative, plateful; these are the daring brands like Red Bull, or GoPro, or Sprite. Brand sincerity speaks about honesty, and authenticity, and wholesomeness; think Innocent, think Michelin. Brand ruggedness is all about power, and force, potency, being outdoors, think Jeep or Reebok or go to the classic Marlboro Man. Brand competence looks at things like intelligence and success, reliability, expertise; think Microsoft or IBM. Brands sophistication is all about refinement, and poise and elegance; think Downton Abbey, Brought to Life, think Mercedes or Apple. Archetypes are a different thing. Archetypes are symbols of themes, settings or cart types, basically universal familiar characters or situations that transcend time, and place, and culture, and gender, and age. They so represent eternal truths, and are recurring in literature, and dreams, and folklore, and rituals, and are thought to embody some essential elements of what we would refer to as universal human experiences. Using archetypes helps create consistent and enduring expressions of meaning for brands, bringing the desired humanness to the brand essence and creating instant emotional impacts on consumers, that can then provoke an affinity with the brand. Perhaps, the biggest warning is that an archetype is not a stereotype. We're talking about something a bit different here. Applying archetypes to branding is always tricky, but they are well used by most big brands to really define the role the brand has to help the target consumer resolve or cope with their lives. There are 12 archetypes and when plotted, they follow the very basic human motivational tensions that we explore during the first module. Namely, the social dimension that helps to either reaffirm one's own individuality versus the need to belong to a community, and the personal dimension that tensions nicely between the need for self-control and the need for self-expression. Some examples for you to mull over, Lego as a creator and an artist, Volvo as a caregiver and a protector of your family, Mac as a magician that makes the impossible happen or my personal favorite of course, Harley Davidson as rebel, an outlaw, the outrageous and free that is put in this world to help people break the rules. We will now move on to brand image to complement this creative and emotional side of branding.
