Your company’s brand personality is how it relates to the consumer. It’s what connects people to your business through the representation of lifestyle and culture; it’s the makeup of the human characteristics of your business. Some common examples of brand personalities include those of excitement, sincerity, ruggedness, and the sophisticated.

Those who create these iconic brands know how to bring out strong emotions from those they are targeting. They understand the lifestyles of their targets and know what and how to move them. In order to have the desired impact on your target’s buying habits your brand must be clear to your target market. In addition to clarity your brand must move your target in the way you need them to move. Like anything delicate your brand needs the proper beginning and lots of nurturing…as it grows and takes on a life all its’ own it will need a level of maintenance with consistent messages. As a brand grows keep in mind the messages/events/promotions must remain in the now. Last year’s message or promotion may not work today so keep pushing the envelope of creativity and be bold!

Developing a brand personality may come before or after a product or service is created.

Here we have the chicken and the egg situation where you try to decide if you should create the brand personality first or create the product first.

For example, when designing clothes there’s usually a specific type of person you are trying to appeal to. When designing the clothes, you’re “hand picking” the type of people who envision wearing them. You have a brand personality picked out. On the other hand, there are some clothing designers who started just by designing the clothes they liked and knew they would have a certain segment of the population connecting with the designs.

It’s certainly advantageous if you can identify your brand with a distinct personality. For example, Nike is thought of as the motivational company, the company of athletes “Just Do It!” Rogaine is seen as the “solution” company because it gives, mostly men, a potential cure for male-pattern baldness. Who doesn’t want to feel younger, more confident especially in a society fixated with the outer appearance? Take Las Vegas…it has been branded as Sin City, the place you can come and do things you may not usually do and nobody at home will be the wiser.

Try to figure out what archetype your company falls under.

This will help you determine what you want people to think and take from your business.

Chasing or begging for customers rarely works. Find out who you are and how you want your business to connect. It’s after that has been defined you can create the messages to move your target towards your business. Remember we suggest hiring a well-rounded professional agency to lead. We want people have familiarity with branding and what to look for so you don’t go with an agency that will take you down the wrong road.

A starting point is to establishing a brand personality is to imagine your business walking through the door and picture how it would walk, talk, and interact.