Brand Personality – Who Are You?

Brand Personality is just a fancy way of taking your business and humanizing it. When you view your business like a person, it really helps you understand how and why people interact?with it (or choose not to) the way they do.

What if your brand was human? Would it be someone you were friends with? Or would it be someone you dread speaking to?

It’s fairly easy to turn a brand into a human, you just need to picture it. For example, what type of person comes to mind when you think about the cable company? How about your favourite coffee shop? The brand of car you drive?

Now what about your brand? That may be a little harder because you’re so close to it.

Here are few questions to ask to nail down your brand personification.

Brand Personality

The first thing you want to do is turn your business into a human. You can do this fairly easily by just picturing them, and writing down what you see.

• Is your brand male or female?
• Does it love to talk, or is it the strong silent type? Maybe a little shy?
• Is it a helpful neighbour, or someone who’s hardly around?
• Do they deeply care about you, or are they more of a professor type?
• Most importantly – are they trustworthy?

By nailing down what your brand is, or isn’t, you can help shape their behaviour in a way that more represents what you’d like your brand to be. You don’t want a difficult brand that’s hard to relate to or get along with.

You may want to poll some customers or friends on your brand. Sometimes we can get too clouded by what we think our brand is, rather than the reality of it.?You may think your brand is really helpful, while in reality most customers think you’re just getting in the way believing that they’re trying to help.

What’s your brand look like?

Dig Deeper

Once you know more about who your brand is, you’ll want to ask why they are way they are. For example, if they’re the strong silent type – ask why? Is it because you let the product do the talking? Is it that you like an air of mystery around them? Are they are hard to have a conversation with?

Once you know why you are the way you are, you’re better able to ask if it’s who you want to be. Only when you find out the meaning of this personality can you really understand how to change it or embrace it.

How Do They Look?

At this point you should have a really good idea of this “person” you’ve created. Think hard about how they actually appear. Are they sloppy? Trendy? Neat and well dressed?

This would be a good time to pick a name as well. I know this may seem silly, but you want to complete the whole picture in order to make this the most effective exercise. You’re creating a person, and a person has a name.

At the end of these steps, you should know if your brand is “Emily, the well-dressed, well-spoken?teacher just looking to help. She’s not overly aggressive in her help, she likes to wait until people approach her with a question. When they do, she is calm, understanding and ensures the person leaves with what they’re looking for.”

Or if your brand is “Mike, the rough and tumble get-the-job-done-guy. He’s not always chatty, but you can always count on him to finish the project on-time and on-budget. He’s often in overalls, always ready to work.”

How does your brand look?

Make Changes

Now that you know who you are, you can get to work on who you want to be. If you want to change your personality, you just follow the same process, but go backwards. Identify the qualities you want your brand to have, then ask how you can create them.

If your brand isn’t helpful, how do you make them a more helpful person? Maybe it’s extra customer service, a more personal touch, or just asking an extra question or two at checkout to see if there is any?lingering questions the customer may have.

Maybe you want to be more assertive. Perhaps this is about getting more direct in the sale pitch. Or?putting your brand out there more for networking.

If you want to be trendy, perhaps a makeover is in order. Some new clothes (paint and atmosphere). Bring in cutting edge products and services.

Here are?12 Examples of Brand Personality to Inspire You.

As mentioned earlier, this process can be difficult if you’re very close to your brand. Especially when it comes to any negative traits, or looking for real suggestions on how to improve the brand personality. Don’t be afraid to enlist some outside help.

Most importantly, have fun! Your Brand Personality shouldn’t be a drag to look at. If it is, it’s probably time for an overhaul.