Why Brand Personality is Essential to Your Business

One of the most important, yet overlooked steps when creating a business is establishing a brand personality. This process is essential to creating a consistent and accurate visual identity for your business. 

So what is a brand personality? Why is it so important? And how do you start to shape your brand identity?

Before we start to answer these questions, the most important thing is to understand your business. Know who you are!

Understanding Your Business

By understanding your business, you can begin to create a tone and character from which to shape your brand. In order to build a cohesive brand, you need to know who you are!

To do this you need to first consider your company’s mission. Think about the values, goals, and purpose of the company.

Ask yourself and other employees the following questions:

• What is our company purpose?
• What do we provide?
• What sets us apart from other competitors?
• What values are important to us as a company?
• What sort of impression, feeling, emotion do you we want our customers to experience?
• What words best describe an experience with our company?

Once you have a better understanding of who your company is, you can start to consider developing the characteristics of your brand personality. This personality will help to create an emotional bond between your company and the right consumer.

What is a Brand Personality?

A brand personality is a set of keywords that help define a brand’s identity. Imagine your business as a person with unique characteristics. These characteristics help your client audience to understand and relate to your brand.

Establishing a brand personality helps form a connection to your target market. Building a strong brand identity also helps to build customer loyalty, commitment, and consistency throughout your brand.

A brand personality establishes your company as unique from your competition and helps to present the right image to the consumer.

Brainstorming Your Personality

Imagine you are describing a person. Use this as a chance to build a character of your brand without getting too caught up in thinking about design. 

Begin by brainstorming a list of characteristics and personality traits for your company. These are words like, “exciting, loyal, comical, rugged, nurturing, cool, worldly…”

Think about the history of your brand, does it tell a story? What kind of relationship does your brand have with the customer? e.g. Sister? Father? Leader? Buddy? Mentor? Lover?

Jot down as many words that come to mind.

It can help to include other employees or a branding agency in with your brainstorming session. Keep this loose and have fun!

Making Connections

Psychologist Carl Jung believed there were several universal archetypes, or identities which come to represent basic human needs and desires. These archetypes can serve as a tool for defining a brand and connecting the consumer to the product.

There are 12 common identities which are often adapted to brands. Think about the list of personality traits you just created and how they fit into the archetypes below.

1. The Magician Makes dreams come true, visionary, charismatic, inspirational, innovator
2. The Hero Bold, courageous, confident, athletic, liberating, rescuer, warrior
3. The Outlaw/Rebel Rebellious, wild, rule breaker, revolutionary, activist, maverick
4. The Lover Intimate, passionate, sensual, loving
5. The Jester Fun, humorous, light-hearted, spontaneous, shapeshifter
6. The Everyman Down to earth, authentic, creates a sense of belonging
7. The Caregiver Caring, nurturing, maternal, healing
8. The Ruler In control, creates order, leader, boss, role model
9. The Creator Imaginative, creative, artistic, valuable
10. The innocent Optimistic, positive, child, dreamer, muse
11. The Sage Wise, insightful, trusted, secure, knowledgeable
12. The Explorer Adventurous, restless, discoverer, pioneer

Branding to Match Your Personality

By now you will have developed a better understanding of your company, brainstormed a list of characteristics, and discovered where your company fits within the archetypes. 

Congratulations! You are off to a great start in developing your brand personality.

The next steps involve implementing your personality through branding. Branding to match your personality involves everything from the visual identity of the company to the way you greet your customers.

• How does your company sound?
• What voice does it have?
• How are customers greeted?
• How does your personality reflect your pricing?
• Is the brand personality consistent in your advertising and communications?
• What tone is used when writing about the company?
• How does the company look? Logo design, colours, typeface, website?

Getting help from a branding agency is beneficial at this step, as it will provide you with an outside perspective from professionals. Agency help can be a great asset as it will allow you to compile what you have already brainstormed into a concise vision. Industry professionals will know how to shape your brand personality so that it attracts the right customers and remains consistent throughout the design process.