An Examination of Brand Personality Through Methodological Triangulation

An Examination of Brand Personality through Methodological Triangulation

Abstract:

Purpose

The article talks heavily about brand personality and how it develops and operates, why it occurs, and the difference it makes in terms of consumer perceptions and preferences.

Design/Methodology/Approach

The article first looks at how brand personality is interpreted in literature to understand its phenomenon. Then it goes into theoretical foundations in which alternative explanations can be made. The article ends with theoretical and managerial implications of brand personalities.

Findings

Brand personalities can be characterized by distinct, human-like qualities given by consumers. This helps to differentiate brands in the consumer’s mind and shape their preferences. Brand personality evokes an emotional response rather than an intellectual response because it resonates with the consumer and can ignite passions.  

Consumers tend to favor brands with strong, favorable brand personalities. Consumers look for qualities and characteristics in brand personalities that they aspire to see in themselves.

Cognitive Approach: addresses the “how” questions. (ie: how brands are constructed in the consumer’s mind, how it operates, how it connects with other brand associations).

Anthropomorphic Theory: the “why” questions. (ie: why brand personality happens, why it might be positive/negative, why do consumers humanize brands).

Associative Memory Formulation

Node is a representation in semantic memory that consists of a piece of stored information. Links are associations that very in strength.

Anthropomorphism: the attribution of human characteristics to non-human things and events.

It is natural for humans to regard brands as entities and attribute them to human characteristics.

Brand Personality is the set of human characteristics that is connected in consumer memory and accessed through a cognitive process called spreading activation.

Brand Personality is a phenomenon that helps consumers humanize brands and process them better. Personalities evoke emotions and resonate with consumers on a personal, human level.

Research Limitations/Implications

An implication of this research could be that this is might be a general “blanket” statement of consumers. It can’t be proven that ALL humans go through this process of assigning personalities to brands. There are people out there who take brands at face value and don’t feel the need to assign emotional value into them.