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Role of Advertising in Creating Brand Personality |
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Advertising is one of the key elements in building a brand
personality, which is equally important to the marketer & consumers.
Brand personality is distinct, non preemptible enduring and associates the
brand with certain values. Brand personality acts a potent brand
differentiator and offers sustainable competitive advantage.
Advertising by creating or reinforcing brand's
personality enhances brand value or equity , which in turn can be
leveraged through brand extension. Brand personality also helps
brands to gain market share, command price premium and insulates from
discounting Brands.
Consumers as part of self-defining process, use
possessions to describe themselves and also to which group they
belong, especially in socially conspicuous product categories such
as clothing, automobiles etc.(what is me is related to what I have)
Brands make personality statements, users associate a brand with a strong
personality.
Key advertising elements such as endorser, user
imagery, symbols and execution elements contribute to Brand personality.
Role of advertising in creating Brand Personality
Human beings have a personality, which is essentially a
summation of traits. Brand personality can be defined in several
ways, with emphasis on emotion, human and tangible aspects of the brand.
It can also be defined as sum of the tangible and intangible aspects of
the brand. Even for industrial product like steel, SAIL uses emotional
connect with 'punch line' there is bit of SAIL in everybody's life.
Brand personality, is process of transforming the brand into a person or
humanizing the brand. Thus brands can also have characteristics (Ex:
Sex, Gender, skills & abilities etc). Marketers deliver the
personality using advertising, features, packaging etc.
Users and non users differ in perceptions with respect
to Brand personality users attach a distinct personality to the brand.
Established brands have unique personality which is generally
consistent and may be implicit. Brand personality enables to
establish relationship between brand & consumer with emotional
content. The degree of proximity between brand and consumer
personality, will influence the purchase intension and brand loyalty.
Brands need to update personality to stay contemporary and relevant, as
target audience personality may change over a period of time, due to
changes in cultural, economic, media exposure etc. Brand personality
should not be confused with target audience characteristics. Personality
may be existing or aspirational. Projective techniques can be used
to describe brands. Consumers can be asked to associate the brand,
with adjectives (word association, sentence completion etc.) and also can
be asked about user imagery.
For example: Using
of Film stars for the Lux beauty soap is logical and the attractiveness of
celebrity is high. This is critical and leads to credibility.
Endorser personality gets transferred to the brand . Thumb up soft drink
has distinct personality owing to chivalry based ads, which also
communicates about user imagery. The name 'Marlboro' evokes Wild West
imagery, thanks to ads and consistency of the marketers in maintaining the
same brand personality. Ads for multi utility vehicles like Mahendra
scorpio , shows the ruggedness personality.
Nokia – Powerful technology brand.
'Nokia' one the world's most valuable brand has distinct
personality. The slogans.' We call this human technology', 'only
Nokia human technology enables you to get more out of life' and
'connecting people' emphasize human side of technology, thereby
resulting in brand personality of trusted friend. It also stands for
reliability and quality. The ads also played prominent role in
contributing to the distinct personality.
The ads of Sprite cool drink primarily positioned on
thirst quenching platform, depict the no nonsense type, down to
earth personality of cool drink laced with humour & spoof,
complimented by distinct shape and colour of the bottle.
Endorser
The selection of an endorser is critical, as the
personality of the endorser can get transferred to the brand.
Hathway shirts has acquired strong image owing to presence of
sophisticated and mysterious endorser. Marlboro cowboy gave macho
image to the brand. Endorser may be real or fictional. Using
celebrities as brand endorser has advantages & disadvantages.
celebrity enjoys instant recognition & goodwill that can be
transferred to the brand. Local celebrities can be used in local /
Regional markets Ex. Pavan Kalyan for Pepsi in A.P. Celebrities can also
be experts in some situations such as Michael Jordan expert in basketball
shoes. The using of Film stars for Lux beauty soap and
highly successful sports persons for Nike is logical and shows brand fit.
Sachin, Shahrukh Khan and Big 'B' endorse number of
brands. Choosing the right celebrity & levering their qualities
is important, otherwise celebrity endorsement may end up as futile
exercise also involving wastage of money.
Sachin stands for style, power play, technique and
excellence or performance. Sharukh Khan represents energy &
entertainment and style. They cut across all demographic groups and
have mass appeal.
For 'Boost' Health beverage brand fit with Sachin is
excellent. Similarly, King Khan is also played role in the success
of 'Santro small car' Rahul Dravid was brand endorser for Max
New York life insurance, as he stands for trust, reliability, Which
can be transferred to the brand. The same is the case with
Steve Waugh endorsing ANP SANMAR Life insurance.
'Exide' has signed the new batting sensation MS Dhoni
for his power play and talent.
Jhon Abraham is the latest upcoming star, is endorser
for brands like Yamaha, Samsung etc., because of his rugged looks, good
physique and youthfulness.
Endorser stands for certain favorable values of the
brand such as performance, style and reliability etc.
Personality of the brand and celebrity should
complement each other. Reliable celebrity ensures instant awareness,
acceptability and positive attitude towards the brand, which is precursor
to buying.
Use of Cheeranjevi, Big' B' King Khan in
publication ads, to salvage the brand image of brands (Thumbsup, Pepsi,
CDM) after setbacks is excellent way to leverage on the celebrity
credibility
This will be provide much needed assurance to the
consumers and also protect brand image & values.
The element of creativity is critical while using
celebrity endorsements. Otherwise celebrity may overpower, and
overshadow the brand (vampiring effect). Boost advertisement featuring
Sachin etc is a classic example of effective celebrity endorsement.
The Visa TV involving Hollywood star RichardGere,
depicts the essence of Visa brand power (convenience, wide acceptance)
through emotional appeal. This is excellent way of adapting the
communication to local markets.
Indian celebrity can connect foreign brand with the
Indian consumer with great effect.
S. Kumar's has Big ' B' is brand Ambassador for
Reid & Taylor, as it will enable them to Indianise the brand
personality.,Shahrukh Khan the Bollywood superstar is brand ambassador for
Tag Heuer. The core values of the brand, pride, passion, precision
and perfection closely matches with the personality.
Singapore Girl for Singapore airlines also played key
role in brand personality of Singapore airlines.
Endorser
- Attributes User Imagery
It describes who or what type of person, might use that product /
brand. Somebody may identify himself as Mercedes owner or Volvo
driver. The recent TVC of Raymonds,( playing with puppies) focuses on soft
side of man (i.e. caring and loving) and also on subtle aspects of life
styles of executives. Here the focus is on emotional aspects rather
than on functional attributes).
User imagery also communicates about the life style of
the user. User imagery results in user-driven image which is
transferred to the Brand. Brand personality needs to be updated with
change in user imagery and information so that the brand remains
contemporary and relevant.
The Thumbsup, Marlboro, are classic examples for 'user
imagery' contributing to brand personality & success. In fact,
some of the brands have become cult brands in which brand personally
played prominent role.
Kingfisher attained distinct personality as fun, frolic
and lively supported by their ads and event sponsorships. Smirnoff
attained youthful and innovative personality and all their innovative
promotions are in tune with the brand personality. MTV has become coolest
brand among the youth as channel, with sensible promotions(MTV youth icon
award)and believed in talking to the audience/youth and localization
of the content.
Executional elements:
The elements like layout, colour etc (in print ads) and
visual appeal, music etc in broad cast advt. also contribute to the
Brand personality. Intelligent and creative ads deliver
brand personality. IBM. Intel are excellent techno brands, in which
advertising also played prominent role in their success.
Mozart symphony played in Titan Ad. Complements the brand personality of
Titan as sophistiscation, elegance etc. success of absolute Vodka in
U.S.A. is also attributed to clever execution of the advt in which
bottle image figures always in intelligent way, with Withy Puns.
Tangible aspects of the Brand.
Brand's tangible aspects like package and
other elements like price are also key elements. Nirma's price &
transparent package, Yellow colour of the detergent powder, symbolize
'Down to Earth' personality of Nirma.
Smell package of Medimix and Mysore Sandal (including
soap shape) gives distinct personality to them. Absolute Vodka,
transparent liquid and shape of the bottle played key role in brand
personality.
Symbols & Logos
Symbols can also be used effectively to communicate brand
values and characteristics. Mascots may also be part of the logo of a
brand. Eicher uses head of the horse in the past , representing
power and sturdiness of the Tractor. Eicher now uses galloping horse
after diversifying its operations. Goodlands Nerolac uses Guddy
tiger, signifying bright lasting colours.
Apple computers uses as it represents fun and
friendliness.
These symbols / mascots have become endearing and
shombitSengupta designed wipro logo of rainbow colours.
LIC used hands of logo where represents safety, UTI has
'Kalash' as it is considered sacred and signals good things. Royal
stag brand uses 'Horse' symbolizing naturalness and purity.
ITC welcome group has W-Namaste as its logo, which
captures the Indian tradition of welcoming the guests.
Logos should be Nike represents action, Swoosh symbol represents it.
Britania little hearts uses 'heart logo'
symbolizing love and affection.
Slogans / Punchlines
They also reflect Brand personality.
Peter England
- Honest Shirt (sincerity) Slogans enhance brand recall and have strong linkage
with brand's essence / key values. Logos support brand names, provide ease
in processing visual information lead to brand recall. Logo can be
textual, abstract design and may be real.
They convey a clear meaning or suggest something about
product category / brand / values / features / benefits of the
brand.
Executional Elements:
Semantics of the ad and Big 'B' presence, played prominent
role in delivering the Brand essence of Dabur Chyanvanprash
highlighting the traditional and natural, effective way to
strengthen mind & body.
Brand personality plays prominent role in product
categories such as alchohol, cigarettes, cool drinks, and perfumes. Brand
personality may dominate functional attributes though which are equally
important, thereby influencing consumer's preference.
It also acts as differentiator in case of Brand parity
with respect to brand features. The key differentiating factor between
brands such as Coke , Pepsi, Thumpsup, Wiilsflake and India Kings is
their distinct personality.
Consumers have actual and ideal self concept, which has
bearing on buying behavior. Self concept is sort of individual
perception on his/her characteristics, abilities etc and also what others
opinion on him/her is there. The proximity between self image
and brand's image, will determine the attitude towards the brand.
Consumers see brands and their associates, as means to express..
Marketers through ads try to activate self image / concept of consumer,
which may be existing or aspirational through various elements such as
Execution, celebrity, logos / symbols etc.
Ads work on image congruence and try to influence
consumer attitude and preference thus evaluations.
The problem arises when brand self image is not in sync
with that of consumer and vice-versa. The need arises to determine
the brand personality (existing) and change it so as to match with that of
consumer self image. For example, Brand which is considered as old, cannot
be targeted to young target audience.
In case of incongruence, Advertising needs to highlight
functional aspects, and emphasize brand image in case of image congruence.
Thus brand image may become dominant factor influencing buyer behaviour.
It also helps to nullify the weaknesses of the brand contributing to poor
perception.
Conclusion:
To conclude, Brand personality being potent tool needs to
be leveraged to achieve key objectives for existing & new brands.
Consistency is also important, failing which dilution of brand personality
or absence of it may occur. Other mix elements like distribution,
pricing, promotion and packaging (apart from advertising) should
support and strengthen brand personality.
References:
1. AAKER, David building strong Brands, 1996. |
