Brand Booster 21 Day 4: Brand Personality

The tone and attitude of the company. These are the characteristics that personify and create an emotional touch point.

Exercise:
Here you will need large Post-It-Notes®, and a newsprint flip chart.

This again follows the same set-up and execution as the character values. But first we are going to ask everyone to use their imaginations. We want them to imagine the company brand as a physical person. Place this person out the road out front (name the road) and picture this person walking down the road.

Ask the team these questions, ( and remember to stress that we must be as honest as possible – no hurt feelings ):

• Is the brand person male or female? ( for instance the male may be task-oriented, focused on business at hand where as the female may be more nurturing )
• How old is this brand person?
• Depending on your market – Are they Canadian, American or other?
• What income level?
• Is the brand person philanthropic?
• Is the brand person community minded?
• Are they union or non-union?
• What kind of vehicle would they drive?
• Do they have children?
• Are they a visible minority? Or non-visible?
• Is the brand person an aggressive or passive person?
• Is the brand person an introvert or an extrovert?

…anything else you care to add.

Essentially what we are doing here is building a demographic profile of the corporate brand’s personality. From this profile, your company will find it easier to portray itself in marketing materials. You will
understand who the brand is and their relationship in approaching the marketplace. Sometimes what emerges is a very unflattering personality. What this will give us is direction to correcting our brand personality to reflect a more positive image. Focusing the brand reveals the good and bad in your brand. It also, reinforces our character values or perhaps contradicts a few. If this is the case, these traits should noted and addressed in the future once the process is complete.

Now we are going to use the Post-It-Notes® and get from everyone personality traits. Ex: persistence, reliability, confidence etc. Fill the wall again and drill down in much the same fashion as before. In determining these personality traits have everyone keep in mind the profile we just built. Make sure they reflect one another.

When 4 or 5 are settled upon, once again we must define each.

Your Notebook To Do:

Answer the following Questions and put the ACTIONS in your To Do Notebook

• build your demographic profile
• understand who your brand is
• address any traits that reinforce or contradicts
• make sure the personality traits reflect one another
• define each trait