Point 6’s Brand Race — what we can learn from RuPaul when developing a brand personality

Good branding is much like a good drag performer. Okay, we know that analogy sounds tenuous, but hear us out… Good branding is much like a good drag performer—not afraid to show off their personality, and lots of it!

If you watch RuPaul’s Drag Race, you will know the competing drag performers are judged not only on their costumes and lip-syncing skills, but also on their personality. More specifically, on their charisma, nerve, talent, and uniqueness.

Incidentally, these are desirable qualities in a brand too. The criteria may be different, and qualities manifest themselves differently in the context of branding, but with key examples from some of our favourite brands, you’ll see how they combine to create a strong brand personality.

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Why does your brand need a personality?

Colour palettes, fonts, and logos are all needed to create a brand, but a personality humanises it. Personality tells us who you are, what to expect from you, and if we’ll like you. A clear personality will make your brand seem more trustworthy, boost recognisability and attract the right audiences. Greater detail will make it vivid and memorable.

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Charisma: defining your brand archetype

Archetypes are a great starting point for defining your brand personality. They can help prospective customers immediately understand key aspects of your brand and offer the flexibility for you to add your own spin.

If your brand suits two archetypes, it’s still important to have a core archetype. Take the cosmetics company, Lush, as an example. Their brand archetype is 70% Hero (honest, candid, brave), which manifests itself through clear moral, ecological and humanitarian missions. The other 30% of their personality is Lover (sensual, empathetic, soothing), so Lush pampers their customers throughout their journey, from on-pack copy to the in-store experience.

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Nerve: pushing the boundaries and staying true to your choices

RuPaul relishes it when the Drag Race competitors are fiery and bold, with the guts to question judgements and fight for themselves. A willingness to push norms and expectations keeps the audience excited, and an uncompromising dedication to ones’ beliefs, choices and values persuades others to buy into them too.

Your model brand whose personality oozes with nerve? SURREAL cereal. This brand owns their surrealist, humorous and provocative personality, right down to the comments on LinkedIn. Sometimes described as anti-branding, SURREAL’s approach may be polarising, but with every piece of “we couldn’t care less” marketing they publish, SURREAL demonstrates that a brand personality doesn’t have to be pristine or inviting to be effective, it just has to be well-defined and clearly applied across the whole brand.

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Uniqueness: how to really stand out from the competition

Another glance at Lush’s branding personality reveals a handy trick they use to stand out in the beauty sector, called “cross category copying”. It works by copying the characteristics of brands in a different sector who have the same value offering. In the new context, these characteristics are effective in communicating your value offering, and don’t feel tired or clichéd.?

You may have noticed that Lush often describes products as “fresh” and “organic”. Or that their stores are set up like a greengrocer’s, chalkboard product labels included. This is cross category copying from the food sales industry. In the fruit and veg aisle, “fresh” is overused, but in the world of cosmetics it’s, well, fresh.?

However you decide to build your brand personality, ensure you define it clearly and with specificity, avoiding generic descriptors. For example, a “professional” personality doesn’t really mean anything—if you didn’t want it to be professional, you wouldn’t be reading this article! A brand personality that is unique shows customers that your offerings are too.

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Talent: making it all work together

Your brand personality should support your brand mission, but that doesn’t mean they have to match. The Dutch chocolate brand, Tony’s Chocolonely, strives to eradicate slavery in chocolate farming and production. Their brand personality, colourful and cheeky, may seem at odds with the heavy topics addressed in their brand mission, but they never lose sight of their humanitarian core. Instead, they leverage their personality to compel more people to buy their products and buy into their mission. Just because you deal with subjectively heavy or serious topics, your brand personality doesn’t have to be heavy or serious.

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When it comes to personality, look to RuPaul for guidance

Be bold, be brave, be different, then finetune and implement your personality across the whole brand. Remember that in Point 6’s ‘Brand Race’, we say “Shante, you stay” to bold personalities that shine through everything you do, and “sashay away” to those that don’t.

If you are interested in building your brand, we’re here to offer you expert advice and support. Drop us a message to get started.