Consumer psychology is always evolving. It is adapting to marketer’s actions in real-time, and it gives us great insights into how to adjust our marketing strategy to fit what consumers are looking for in our brands today.
The public’s perception of a brand is based on the brand’s personality it portrays online. A clearly defined brand personality can make or break any brand. Brand Personality matters because it’s the brand’s primary way of interacting with its target audience.
To stay one step ahead of our clients, we need to discuss why a brand’s personality is crucial in today’s climate. Social media has given the consumer the power to connect with brands on a more personal level. Nailing your brand’s personality is more important than ever before.
Defining Brand Personality
A brand personality is your business’ way of interacting and communicating with your target audience. It gives your audience a bird’s eye view of what your brand is about and how the consumers receive it. Five key elements make up your brand’s personality.
- Tone. How your brand speaks online and with what kind of language it addresses its audience within interactions tells the consumers that they are to be taken seriously or just like you and opens up the door for a more personal connection instead of an authoritarian position.
- Spelling. Deciding early on whether to use US English instead of UK English gives your audience a predefined impression. If you pick one, stick to it. Switching back and forth might damage your brand’s credibility.
- Visual Design. When a consumer first encounters your brand. What do they see? Using the right design elements and fundamentals gives consumers confidence in your brand.
- Writing. To stand out from the sea of brands, you need to develop your unique writing style, a style that compliments your brand’s outlook on the world around it. Don’t try and write like another brand. They have their own identity, and you don’t want your brand to be perceived as a copy-cat.
- Character. Use the content you produce to define your brand’s essence. Whether you want your brand to come across as serious, humourous, or sharp as a whip, having a strong brand character is essential.
The Benefits Of Having A Brand Personality
There are many benefits of defining your brand’s personality. It helps define your brand’s interactions with your audience, and it influences your audiences’ behavior. It describes your creative campaigns and controls future product development. Overall it defines the brand’s experience in the overly competitive space that online marketing has become.
If done appropriately, the benefits of having a good brand personality outweigh the negatives that arise from the constant attention to detail required to maintain that personality. Over time you will find that the brand personality naturally evolves and matures into an almost human-like character of its own.
It is essential to remind yourself not to get lost in developing your brand personality and neglect the other core pillars that make your brand unique. It would be best if you found the right balance between public relations and product development.
Having a defined brand personality will, at the very least, help you in making decisions regarding your promotional work and, to some extent, the people you hire to represent your company, product, or service.
9 Reasons Why Brand Personality Matters
By utilizing a brand’s personality, marketers can connect with their target audience, investors, and workers on a whole new level, but why would you want a brand with a personality? Why does it matter?
1. Getting People To Watch Your Ad
The age-old question is, how do you get people to what an ad? Traditionally speaking, the answer has been, you force them to through commercials. In 2021 that method seems outdated and aggressive. Instead, we should ask ourselves, how do you make people want to watch an ad? The answer usually is to use a celebrity.
The problem, however, is that it doesn’t typically work. Suppose you put famous people in a sterilized scripted environment. In that case, something feels off. Even in multi-million dollar photo shoots with the best copy editors on the planet, the celebrity doesn’t care about the brand, and the audience knows it. You can replace the superstar with another famous person, and the result will always be the same.
Success isn’t just one singular thing. It’s three things: a successful ad is funny, self-aware, and always makes the brand look good. You need all of these elements working together for the ad to be successful. You can’t have your ad only be funny and self-aware. For example, Bill Burr often ‘insults’ his sponsors as he reads them for comedic effect. No matter how funny his ad read is, it doesn’t make you want to go out and buy the product.
Ryan Reynolds finds this sweet spot somewhere right in the middle that manages to be funny, self-aware and makes the brand look good all at once. Reynold’s created an ad within an ad within an ad where he buys mid-roll ad placement for his gin company. Reynold’s quirky personality and perfect comedic timing made 3 million people voluntarily sit through the entire ad.
2. Creates Brand Trust
Research done by Nielsen shows that transparency wins customers. Having a brand personality that openly communicates with its customers directly through something like a social media platform shows the world that it has nothing to hide.
It is increasingly important for customers to trust the brands they buy. When a brand breaks this trust, customers or consumers will turn around and take their business elsewhere.
A brand’s personality creates this trust, builds rapport with its customers, and gives the customers an open channel to interact with the brand should they have any concerns.
3. Effective Communication
Allowing your brand to be visible and accessible through social media ensures that you directly access your customers. Pew Research Center began compiling data on social media adoption in 2005 and has found that 72% of the public users now use some social media.
Many adults spend hours on their devices, endlessly scrolling through their feed. You can use your brand’s personality to make the most out of this opportunity by actively communicating without relying on third parties to get your message in front of your target audience.
4. Staying Competitive
The social media landscape is overrun, with brands fighting to be the most relevant, most attractive, and most followed social media account in their industry.
Creating a brand personality that can rise above the noise and stand out to consumers will give your business the authority it needs over its competitors. Defining your brand with a strong personality will provide you with a voice that you can use to your business’s advantage, whether through advertising or commenting on your competitor’s campaigns.
Wendy’s Twitter account is an outstanding example of a brand personality that thrives because of its social media interaction. There are hundreds of compilations of Wendy’s tweets where they comment on their competitors to the delight of their fans and followers and dismay of their competition.
5. Creates Brand Consistency
Efforts have been made to determine whether or not a brand’s consistency increases revenue. Lucidpress conducted a study that included over 200 brand management experts in deciding the analytical impact of brand consistency and found that if brands were consistent, revenue would increase by 33%.
Lucidpress’s study shows us that if you are consistent from your website to your social media posts, you will create a strong brand identity, making your followers feel safe and secure. A consistent brand doesn’t change its tone from fun and exciting to boring from post to post. If you are contradictory in your messaging, your consumers won’t know where they stand with your brand.
6. Allows For Greater Creative Expression
Establishing your brand’s personality early on allows for greater creative expression and freedom when it comes to your marketing campaigns.
Mark Ritson explains in a video that the most crucial factor in gaining new market effectiveness is the quality of your advertising’s creative execution. Having a brand personality that invites new and innovative forms of expression will increase your chances of completing your marketing campaigns with greater success.
7. Increased Reach
Having a closed-minded brand personality will hinder your brand’s ability to reach new people. Ensuring that your brand personality reflects your business’s core ideals and values will give you a clearly defined roadmap on effectively communicating that to your target audience. The more you refine your brand’s personality, the more people your brand will inevitably reach.
Expanding your brand’s reach is crucial for your company’s future growth and should not be overlooked.
8. Attracting New Investors
Having a brand personality that resonates with people on a personal level might attract new investors to your company. An influx of new investors brings with it a more significant opportunity for expansion and growth.
The financial market has seen a boom in new retail investors looking for companies that share their values and ideals. Crafting a brand personality that invites them into your company is not only recommended, but some might argue a requirement.
9. Socio-political Responsibility
Brands have experienced mounting pressure to voice their opinions on socio-political issues, whether to denounce hatred or endorse a particular movement. Brands have found themselves in the political spotlight from time to time, with consumers wanting to know which side they will pick.
Suppose you craft a brand personality that stands by its morals and ideals. In that case, you will have the opportunity to impact the socio-political climate. Tread carefully, as this might hurt your brand’s perception should you find yourself on the wrong side of history.
Conclusion
A brand’s personality not only shapes public perception but gives your company a voice with which it can impact society and the world at large.
It is essential to pay close attention to the personality you construct for your brand as it will lay the foundation on which your brand’s identity is built.
Defining your brand’s personality is a fun and exciting experiment, so don’t be afraid to try new things. Whatever you prefer to do, make sure your brand personality is authentic and honest because that is what people care about most.
