Brand personality plays a big role in creating a strong brand that your audience can truly connect with. The purpose of this personality is to enhance your brand’s experience. So, let’s bring your brand to life!
Pillar four of your brand strategy foundation is all about how you want people to feel when they come in contact with your brand. The ‘how’ translates into specific thoughts and feelings, and those words are influenced by the specific words and visuals that you use across the various brand touch points.
Said another way, you as the business owner determine what adjectives you want people to associate with your brand when they experience it and then you use certain visuals, words and phrases to help influence and lead people towards the result you’re after.
Those adjectives that you’re after are the starting point, the foundation, for what is your brand’s personality.
What often comes up, though, are questions around how you determine the right personality for your brand and how do you craft a personality that is memorable?
Well, you’re in luck because today we’re diving into all you need to know about crafting an effective brand personality for your business.
Rather watch than read?
In This Article
>> What is brand personality?
>> Why does brand personality matter in the first place?
>> What makes a memorable brand personality?
>> Your brand personality foundation
>> How to effectively bring more personality into your own brand
>> Rather watch than read?
>> Additional brand resources.
What is brand personality?
The good ‘ole Oxford Dictionary says a personality is ‘the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual’s distinctive character.’
Your brand personality, then, is the characteristics or qualities that make it distinct and unique. The goal here is to think about your brand as its own entity, with its own identity.
Why does brand personality matter in the first place?
Have you ever come across a social media post or email and instantly recognized it, even before seeing the brand logo or who it was from?
A big part of that reason is because of the unique characteristics and traits that that brand has; its brand personality.
Now, what makes brand personality matter is also what can be the most scary – your brand essence will not be for everyone.
But who is for everyone, anyways?
Okay, except Tom Hanks. He’s an outlier and doesn’t count. Other than our favorite toy cowboy, is there anyone else that everyone likes? No. Because not everyone appreciates their quirks, personality traits and characteristics. But that’s kind of the point.
Yes, your brand could be like everyone else and blend in, but then what is there to connect with? If you’re like everyone else, there’s nothing to differentiate you from… everyone else.
And if you’re blending in with the crowd, you’re missing out on the huge benefit of having a brand that truly supports your next level in business.
What makes an effective brand personality?
The key to creating a brand personality that builds connection and trust is to be intentional, distinct and authentic. Together, these three elements help you to stay aligned with the core intent of your brand so that you can create with ease and enjoyment.
Intentional
An intentional brand personality means you’ve put thought into how you want your brand to be experienced.
You understand that every brand touch point either adds to or subtracts from your brand’s perception so you put in the effort to really enhance the personality at every opportunity.
Distinct
In order for your brand personality to be distinct, you need to know what else being done. What I mean by that is do your research and see how others that are doing similar work show up. By getting a bird’s eye view of the brand personality landscape in your space, you’ll have an easier time determining where the gaps are that can be filled.
Authentic
I know, I know, the a-word is used everywhere but it’s especially important in today’s market. What I mean is your brand personality should feel aligned and true. Yes, you’re doing your competitor analysis to see how others are showing up so you can be different but the goal is to still show up genuine and true to the heart and soul of your brand. For example, if your brand is all about fostering genuine connection in a safe community, it doesn’t make sense to bring in snarky comments, even though you’re seeing a big gap in your space for that type of personality. If the specific characteristic or trait doesn’t feel aligned to the purpose and intent of the brand, it’s not a good fit and not authentic to the brand’s goals.
Your brand personality foundation
These foundational elements are what help you craft a personality that’s consistent and cohesive. The goal being that whether you, a team member or contractor creates something on behalf of the brand, the audience member won’t be able to tell because the voice and style is consistent. The experience is cohesive, resulting in a stronger connection.
Top ten brand adjectives
I want you to come up with ten (no more, no less!) adjectives that best represent how you want someone to feel when they experience your brand. These are words that really embody the heart and soul of what your brand is all about.
Number one brand attribute
Now, from that list, select the number one word that best represents your overall brand. This is your number one brand attribute and is used as the filter for every brand touch point. Whether someone goes to your website, checks out your social media or gets an email from you, this is the word that comes to mind when they experience your brand.
Seasonal Brand Theory
If you’re struggling to come up with a more intentional and strategic way to determine your brand’s personality, I want you to consider utilizing Seasonal Brand Theory. The basic idea is this: Every brand identifies with a particular season and that season has unique characteristics. From the words on a website to the photography styling to the color palette, each season has a set of guidelines that embody and evoke emotions based on color psychology and seasonal theory. If you’d like to learn more about the theory, check out this post.
Define your brand’s voice and communication style
This is how your brand actually shows up. When someone reads a social caption or a blog post, what does the communication and voice sound like? When someone reads copy on your website, what is the tone and style?
Words, phrases and key terms
The last piece is to pull together a bank of common words and phrases that are often used within your brand, and define key terms that are commonplace in your language. The benefit here is that you’re defining how the voice and communication style is actually brought to life and used within your brand so that if you or a team member needs to write something on behalf of the brand, they can pull from the ‘bank’ so that it sounds consistent and cohesive.
How to effectively bring more personality into your brand
The first step in bringing the brand personality to life is to first know and define where the personality is showing up in the first place; what are the various brand touch points that someone may have with your brand?
Once you have your list, go through each touch point and see if the personality is apparent. Utilizing the foundational elements from above, see where the opportunities are to inject even more of your personality into the brand touch point. Is your brand attribute clear? Can you use more words or phrases from your ‘bank’? Is the tone of voice and communication style consistent?
Remember, the goal is to be distinct and memorable. This is all about creating connection with your audience, market and community so have some fun with it!
Happy branding!
All my best,
Need additional branding resources?
Seasonal Brand Theory is an easy way to help you identify your brand personality. This post walks you through the process.
Learn how to utilize the power of color to help evoke a specific brand experience in this post.
Want to dig into each season individually? No problem! Check out the Spring Brand Season, Summer Brand Season, Fall Brand Season and Winter Brand Season.
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