How To Win Over Your Audience With Your Brand Persona

Identify your brand archetype

Just like your ICP – ideal customer profile, your brand too needs to have an archetype or an archetypal mix associated with its person.

An archetype will help define specific characteristics of your brand that are based on the psychology of your audience and this enables you to come up with strategies and messaging that aligns with your audience.

Identity archetypal mix based on audience archetypal mix

Analyze the audience archetypal mix and decide if you want to align with those personas or choose ones that dominate them.

This depends on your industry sector.

In specific segments and for certain products or services, the audience will be attracted to brand archetypes and personality that is similar to their own.

In specific sectors and for certain products or services, the audience responds better to opposing archetypes and messaging.

Identify what drives our archetypes

Identify and nail down what our brand cares for and gets motivated for.

At the root of all human behavior is the concept of motivation. The same should be applied to your brand.

What does our brand really care about? Beyond making money.

How is that related to our product or service? How is it related to our audience and what they care about?

Ideally, you would like to align this with your audience so your brand can enter their worldview.

Identify what our archetype fears most

Identify and nail down our fears, i.e., what our brand does not want to see happening. Just like people, our brand needs to fear certain things that go against our core values, our purpose, or our motivation.

The reason is simple. If our brand fears certain ideas or actions that erode our core essence, our strategies and tactics would be safe from indulging in those ideas or actions.

Create your brand core words/vocabulary

Just like language is essential for civilization, the words used for brand thinking determine the sophistication of the brand message and how the audience would perceive it.

Creating a set of core words describing the brand’s characteristics, beliefs, desires, and fears will help you articulate your brand.

Create a list of brand core words

These core words can be derived from our brand archetypal mix and can either align with the core words of our audience or be in opposition. These words can also be similar to our core values and vocabulary.

You can also revisit your brand essence module and amend your master vocabulary with any new words from this session.

Explain the core words in action sentences

As with the core values phase, explain each of the core words in the form of an “action” sentence from the brand’s perspective.

For example, if one of your core words is determination, you can say, “the brand moves forward with determination in the face of adversity.” This puts the word into context.

When creating “action” sentences, do not worry too much about continuity or cohesiveness. These sentences can be isolated and not related to each other. They also do not have to be marketing based and are usually not meant for the public.

Create hashtag and tagline

Although this can be done in the brand story and message framework phases, now would be an excellent time to see if you can crystallize your brand persona into a hashtag and/or tagline.

It is a good idea to start thinking about the hashtag at this stage because when you are creating “action” sentences, you may uncover a motif that works well as a tagline or rallying cry.

Remember, the whole process of brand positioning, strategy, and messaging framework is iterative and interlinked. You would go backwards to the essence phase or forward to the message phase and tweaking as you uncover new information and insights.

Create your brand voice and tone

Once you have identified the archetypal mix and created your brand vocabulary, you will have plenty of insights into your brand’s personality.

In this task, you start to lay down the brand voice and tone – how it sounds, looks, and feels to the audience.

However, remember that this personality framework is not 100% set in stone. Voice and tone can change and adapt to different media, campaigns, and contexts.

Identify the brand personality approach.

Jennifer Acker published a personality framework in 1997 in which she proposed five personality dimensions that can be applied to brands.

They are sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness.

Sincerity

Sincere brands are honest, grounded, transparent, and trustful. They typically focus on quality, legacy, and trust.

Example of a sincere brand is Patogonia which has built up a personality of trust and care for the environment. This description of their Word Wear program says it all:

““One of the most responsible things we can do as a company is make high-quality stuff that lasts for years, so you don’t have to buy more of it. Buying a used garment extends its life on average by 2.2 years, which reduces its carbon, waste and water footprint by 73%”.”

Excitement

Companies that exhibit imagination, cutting edge, inspiration, and even edginess could be said to have the excitement personality dimension.

A great example of an exciting brand is Red Bull. One look at their branding, advertising, product claims, or anything to do with Red Bull, and you will see excitement oozing out.

Red Bull sponsors extreme sporting events full of excitement and exhilaration and does a great job broadcasting its personality through these events.

Competence

Brands that show reliability, responsibility, efficiency, and intelligence could be considered as showing the competence personality dimension.

An excellent example of a competent brand is Apple. People come to associate reliability and intelligence with anything Apple does or produces. Although innovation is at the essence of Apple, the messaging and personality these days tend to be more about competence than simply innovation.

Sophistication

Brands that exude glamour, luxury, pomp, and class can be thought of as brands showing sophisticated personalities.

An example I love of this personality is GUCCI which is at the top of the luxury brand game and prices their products so high that they are not affordable to most people. They couple that with the glamour and romance of luxury to pull off complete sophistication.

Ruggedness

Brands that seem tough, masculine, and outdoorsy usually have ruggedness as their personality dimension and tend to attract a predominantly male audience.

A perfect example of a rugged personality is JEEP, whose products, branding, and messaging all push the rugged nature of its character.

Create the brand personality

Once you decide which personality dimension most suits your brand based on the archetypal mix, it is time to lay down specific characteristics you want your brand to exhibit and own.

Start with beliefs and opinions. This makes your brand more human.

Yes, you read that right. Your brand should have opinions on things that relate to your audience and your market segment.

Don’t be shy or afraid. Of course, ensure you are not taking extremist views or rubbing your audience the wrong way.

That is why it helps to create those wafer-thin audiences ICPs.

Next, figure out the attitude of the brand. This will show itself as the voice and tone of the brand. Within the context of the personality dimension, determine what attitude you would like to show.

Write down a detailed description of how you want your brand to behave in different situations and scenarios, such as when onboarding customers, dealing with complaints, etc.

And voila! Your brand personality is ready!

Understand how to manifest your brand personality

To help you understand how a brand persona manifests in the real world, search for and identify big brand adverts that align with your personality – search on Youtube for videos of adverts that convey the brand personality you are going for. This is not an easy task, but with patience and time, you can find good videos that relate to your brand personality.

Study these to see how big brands showcase their brand personality. Just as a guide.