Do You Know Your Brand Personality?

We all know that we connect better with another person than a nameless, faceless business. So one of the exercises I have always done when helping our clients put a face to their brand is to have them articulate how a stranger would describe “meeting” their brand at a cocktail party. How are they dressed? Do you feel comfortable around them? Are they a good listener? Do you feel like there is more you would like to know about them?

The answers to these questions provide "outside-in" insights into how engaging a brand, product or service is in the market. However, my clients are often so close to their brand that they find it hard to articulate these qualities from an outsider’s point of view. And from those who can describe their brand in this way, I often get subjective or aspirational feedback – not the real, authentic way audiences perceive the brand.

Modeling the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

So I decided to develop a more objective, "inside-out" tool I call the Brand Personality Profiler to help my clients with this exercise. I started with a well-known model for profiling personality that I've always been a fan of – the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). I took the assessments that feed the MBTI and rewrote them from a business perspective instead of a personal one. For example, a statement from the MBTI like “You avoid leadership roles in group settings” was rewritten as “You don’t stand out as an industry leader.”

The whole picture of a brand is seen from the start of awareness in demand generation channels, through to becoming a loyal customer from lead generation channels. So I started there, identifying all of the most impactful "lenses" that an audience sees a brand through - websites, advertisements, social media, news, influencer opinions, and the like. I then grouped seven relevant questions into each of four brand personality categories that influence audience perception: Authority, Momentum, Relevance and Resonance.

Each data point is assessed on a seven-point Agree to Disagree scale, benchmarked against publicly available information like number of studies a brand publishes per month versus competitors, how much engagement they get on their social channels, how well the user experience on their site works to satisfy user intent, etc. Scores across five channels for seven different questions per category are then averaged to create an overall rating for each of the four brand personality categories. The result is an objective evaluation, turned into a "Brand Personality Profile," distilled from 140 different data points the consumer sees.

There Are No "Good" or "Bad" Personalities

This data-driven approach removes bias – from both brand owners and third-party analysts like me – in order to truthfully assess the brand. My assessment doesn’t make you a “bad” or “good” personality, just like the MBTI doesn’t. However, if a brand feels, for example, that a classification as an internally-focused brand that is invisible to their audiences is not what they want to be, I can share the data points that fed that classification to identify opportunities and processes that will move the brand to a more customer-focused, outwardly-focused one.

Just like people, not all brands are the same. They don’t focus equally on things like publicity, image, messaging, visibility, customer service, analyst relations, thought leadership or user experience. So the elements they choose to focus on (and not) will tell a story, and leave a potential customer with an impression. Is the impression your prospects and customers come away with the right one for your business and marketing goals?

Contact me to see if you're a fit for a free Brand Personality Profile assessment, and let's find the untapped strength of your brand together.