Why do brands need a personality? 

It’s more difficult than ever before to grab the attention of your target audience. Social media advertising, SERP ranking, and inbound marketing strategies are all available, and more competitive – while audience engagement continues to be elusive and hard to capture. 

Creating an effective brand personality isn’t a new concept, but it is one that is essential to the core of your company and your marketing. The right personality can give your business the boost it needs to truly resonate and connect with an audience, while simultaneously helping you stand out from your competitors. There are many different personalities to consider, and each one targets a different buyer persona.  

In our guide below, we will take you through the core types of brand personalities, which are a great starting point for developing your brand and marketing strategy. We’ll also outline five simple and effective techniques to create a unique, genuine, and lasting personality that is true to your business. 

Don’t have time to read? Here’s the run-down of our five tips for creating an effective brand personality: 

• Carefully consider the audience and buyer personas you want to attract. 
• Integrate your core values – authenticity is a must.  
• Consistency is the backbone of any brand personality. 
• Monitor your brand personality carefully. 
• Don’t be afraid of feedback.  

The 5 core business personalities 

Each type of brand personality conveys a different emotion and caters to a specific target audience. Businesses may choose to take one of these personalities and expand on it, or create a hybrid of different personalities to attract a more specific type of audience. 

Competence 

Reliable, successful, intelligent.  

Audiences are attracted to these brands because they trust that they’re able to get the job done. Examples include Microsoft or Volkswagen. 

Ruggedness 

Thick-skinned, outdoorsy, tough.  

These brands make customers feel powerful and remind them of nature. Examples include Jeep and Timberland. 

Sophistication 

Charming, decadent, and high-class.  

It often takes more time to generate a sophisticated brand personality, as it takes time to be noticed as a luxury and well-established business. However, once this is achieved, your audience will see you as desirable and refined. Examples include Tiffany or Pandora.  

Excitement 

Daring, intriguing, imaginative, tenacious.  

These brands are good at building excitement and are often dynamic and convey adrenaline. Examples include Red Bull or Nike. 

Sincerity 

Wholesome, genuine, honest, warm.  

Customers love brands like this because they are believable, trustworthy, and comforting. Examples include Lindt or John Lewis. 

Now that we know the five core brand personalities, it’s time to dive into how you can begin to create an effective and unique personality for your own business. 

Why not read our guide for creating effective culture content? 

Tip #1 – Carefully consider the audience and buyer personas you want to attract. 

To begin shaping a brand personality, it’s important to consider your target audience and buyer personas. Think about what they will be most receptive to. Does your audience want something trustworthy and reliable, or something exciting and full of adrenaline?  

Once you know what will be most engaging and effective to your audience, you can begin to build this into a curated and lasting personality for your business.  

Tip #2 – Integrate your core values to build authenticity. 

A brand personality that doesn’t feel authentic or genuine will underperform and make you appear dishonest or false to your audience. 

A key strategy to build authenticity and a genuine appearance is to integrate and demonstrate your core values. This gives your personality and business a sense of agency and purpose.  

Additionally, you will also attract likeminded individuals that share your values to your business.  

A good example of a business that has integrated their core values into their personality is cosmetics brand Lush – which regularly take a stance on social issues in their displays. 

Tip #3 – Consistency is the backbone of any business personality. 

For any brand personality to be effective and resonate with its audience long-term, it needs to remain consistent.   

An inconsistent personality makes your business seem erratic at best, and unreliable at worst. To avoid this, you need to ensure that all messaging follows the same guidelines, from the tone of voice to language used and general content formatting. 

A consistent personality shows that your business has solid foundations and can be trusted – an important factor in any marketing strategy, from B2B businesses to tech for good and sustainable initiatives. 

READ MORE: Our ultimate marketing guide for tech for good businesses 

Tip #4 – Monitor your personality carefully. 

Once you have an established, consistent brand personality that follows guidelines and demonstrates your core values, it’s important to monitor performance.  

Metrics for this may include conversion rates, bounce rate, or social media engagement. Ask yourself if your target audience is being as receptive as possible, or if you need to spend some time reimagining your personality. 

This could range from smaller issues such as shifting tone of voice, to creating an entirely new personality for your business. 

Although this can be disheartening and may seem like a step back, it will be worth it to reengage your target audience and improve the key indicators of your performance. 

Tip #5 – Don’t be afraid of audience feedback. 

In addition to monitoring the performance of your business personality, it’s crucial to be open and receptive to any audience feedback. Use these insights to shift your personality for maximum effect.  

If large amounts of your target audience suggest specific changes to your business’s communication strategy, it’s vital to be open to reception. This shows your willingness to listen to and communicate with your audience, making your business seem more human and three-dimensional.  

It’s also reassuring to your audience to know they can have a 2-way conversation with you, not just be sold to. 

Personality is priceless. 

Building and maintaining an effective business personality is a great and cost-effective way to build engagement and trust with your target audience for all businesses. This is especially true for businesses where an honest brand image is fundamental to success, like tech for good.  

For more insights into effective marketing strategies, why not read more of our marketing insights here? Alternatively, if you have any queries and would like to take your marketing to the next level, feel free to contact us directly.