BRAND MANAGEMENT

CHAPTER – 6

BRAND PERSONALITY
 Understanding Brand Personality

Brand personality is what distinguishes one brand from another.

It can be defined as the sum of all the significant tangible and

intangible assets of a brand.

Consumers find it easy to deal with brands that have strong

personalities because it is easier to remember them.

Marlboro’s macho image is part of its legendary charisma. So

successfully has the image been built that not many remember that
Marlboro was a woman’s cigarette brand to begin with.
 Types of Brand Personalities
Chris Mcrae divides brand personalities into six types. This approach
is different from David Aaker’s or Kapferer’s wherein the attempt
was to transform a brand into a human being for understanding its
personality. The types of brand personalities prescribed/ identified
by Chris Mcrae are discussed below:
• Ritualistic brands: These brands are associated with particular occasions. For
example, Ruh Afza is associated with the month of Ramadan in Bangladesh (the
holy fasting month for Muslims); Cadbury’s is associated with celebrations in
India (as the tag line reads in Hindi ‘kuch mittha ho jaye’). Ritualistic brands are
not consumed for general purposes, but only on specific occasions.

• Symbol brands: The logo or the name of the brand is more important than what it
contains. For example, Sharif Melamine (a melamine manufacturer in
Bangladesh) is strongly identified with is logo of a lion embossed on its products;
or the devil with two horns has given a lot of sensational publicity to Onida TV (a
television brand in India).
• Heritage brands: These are the brands that have pioneer advantage.
They are capable of setting the agenda for the category or the
segment they are in. For example, Philips has a strong position in
the consumer durables industry because of its reputation for
innovation.

• Exclusive brands: Exclusive brands are snobbish in appeal. They

create an aura revolving around them. For example, Oil of Olay is
an exclusive brand in cosmetic industry due to its exceptional
product quality. Cadbury’s ‘Bournville’ is another example of
exclusive brand as it emphasizes in its advertising tag line ‘you
don’t buy it, you earn it’. Similar interpretation goes for ROLEX
watch since its tag line claims ‘the crown for every achievement’.
Other examples include iPhone, BMW cars, Pierre Cardin shirts
etc.
• Belonging brands: Human beings are constantly in need of being
socially accepted. Brands which make the consumer a part of a
larger family are belonging brands. A Levi’s jeans puts a youth at
par with youth in the rest of the world, as do Ray-Ban sun glasses.
Mark Jukerberg’s Facebook has already become a belonging
brand among many social networking sites.

• Legendary brands: Brands which have a great deal of history

behind them and have achieved strong global status are legendary
brands. Coke is viewed as legendary in the soft drink beverage
category around the world; and Marlboro is a name that’s trusted
for its global reputation in the cigarette manufacturing industry.
 Understanding Brand Image
In today’s markets, most companies provide similar products and
services. Fundamentally, these markets are commodity markets
driven by prime needs and minimum standards of service. When
customers consider such factors, some products and services will
meet their requirements. How do customers differentiate them?
When the basic qualifying factors are in place and the consumers
are considering all the available options, brand image comes into
play – company or product imaging becomes fundamental to the
decision.

Image is the market’s summation of the complete product – the way

it perceives the total experience, brand against brand. Largely, it
is the thrust, tone, and manner of a company’s communication,
and the consumer’s experience with the brand that builds its
image.
Brand image should reflect and express the brand personality.
However, there is a lot of difference among scholars in the way
they define brand image.

Ogilvy treats brand personality and brand image as the same.

Sengupta defines brand image as the totality of the impressions
about the brand. According to him, brand image includes
physical, functional, and psychological aspects of the brand.
Christine Restall argues that brand image is the measurable aspect
of the brand. But there are also non-measurable aspects of a
brand. For example, Louis Philippe shirts have a snobbish image;
where as Kumar shirts have value for money. Kapferer thinks that
brand identity is from the sender’s side while brand image is from
the receiver’s side.
 Brand Image & Country of Origin
Several studies have showed that brand image has a correlation with
the country of origin. It has been observed that hedonistic products
(eg. perfume, wine) fare better when they are manufactured by
French companies. Similarly, Japanese products are preferred in
categories like electronic products such as TV, cameras, microwave
oven, and most consumer durables. German products are preferred
in categories like automobile engineering or beer manufacturing.

As long as we think of ayurvedic products, we remember brands like

Dabur and Vicco Vajradanti – all with Indian origin. We consider
Swiss as the best makers of watches and chocolates. The United
States is viewed as the master of computer-based technologies and
internet-based innovations. The US is equally respected for
medicinal research and advancement.
 Brand Image & Celebrity

Research on image built through endorsement of celebrities show that

there are three aspects that influence a consumer’s attitude toward a
brand. These are the attractiveness, trustworthiness, and expertise of
the celebrity who endorse the brands.

Companies need to choose the right celebrity for endorsing their

brands. Thus, when MARKS milk-powder came up with its image-
changing ad campaign it used Sadia Islam Mou (a successful
choreographer and TV actress in Bangladesh) who has a clean
image among the viewers in the country. Similarly, Kapil Dev (the
former Indian Cricket captain) was used in the commercials of
Boost malt drink due to his reliability and leadership role in cricket.
 Brand Image & Imagery
Image is the product seen from the consumers’ perspective. Imagery
is the consumer seen from the product’s perspective.

Typically, imagery falls into three categories. These include sacred

imagery, secular imagery, and mediating imagery.

A sacred imagery is where the product gets elevated because of the

settings and the rituals of consumption. For example, Lal Bager
Haash Marka Gondhoraj Narikel Tel (Gondhoraj coconut oil with
the symbol of a swan from the manufacturer Lal Bag in
Bangladesh) used sacred imagery in its early TV advertisements
wherein the ad tag line was ‘I used it as a kid, so does my grand
daughter now’.
On the other hand, a secular imagery for a product is where the
consumer would like to break the routine to do something new.
Bajaj scooty in its TV advertisement endorsed Priyanka Chopra
(a popular actress in India) in which she claimed ‘why should
boys have all the fun?’- is an example of secular imagery.

A mediating imagery is something that skillfully weaves the use of

both sacred and secular imagery. For instance, in a TV ad of
Santoor Sandalwood Talc (an Indian talcum powder brand) a
strikingly modern woman uses Santoor talc, but is shown as
seeking the blessings of the elders in the traditional fashion.
Thank You