5 Dimensions of Brand

Personality
given by JENNIFER

AAKER
 Jennifer Aaker
• Professor of marketing at the
Graduate School of Business,
•
Ph.D. in Marketing, Ph.D. Minor in Psychology,
• 1995
Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, 1989 (University of
(Stanford University)
California, Berkeley)

• RESEARCH INTERESTS
Time, Money & Happiness
•
Culture
•
Emotions
•
Psychology of Brand
Relationship
 Brand Personality

Brand personality refers to the set of human

characteristics associated with a brand (Aaker 1997).

Brand Personality provides an emotional identity for

a brand and encourages consumers to respond with

E.g. limca
feeling andrepresenting freshness,
emotions towards Nike as the
the brand.

athlete in all of us,Maggi-2min noodles.

Basically Brand personality ref lects how people

feel about a brand, rather than what they think

the brand is or does.

Consumers perceive the brand on dimensions

that typically capture a person’s personality, and

extend that to the domain of brands. The dimensions

of brand personality are defined by extending the

 Measuring Brand Personality

Jennifer Aaker’s paper, “Dimensions of Brand

Personality”(1997),contributes a way to measure the
much talked- about and interesting notion of brand
personality.
The objective of her study is to identify brand
personality dimensions as perceived in the
consumers’
mind.
Her study of 631 subjects rated 37 brands on 114
personality traits. She presents a valid and reliable
framework, which measures brand personality
Brand Personality Framework
 According to Jennifer Aaker (1997), the patern
suggests these brand personality dimensions might
operate in different ways or influence consumer
preference for different reasons.
Whereas Sincerity, Excitement, and Competence
represent an innate part of human personality,

 Sophistication and Ruggedness tap dimensions that

individuals desire but do not necessarily have.

 5 Dimensions
TRAITS DESCRIPTION
SINCERITY Service is perceived as honest, genuine,
cheerful, domestic

EXCITEMENT Customer perceived service as daring

and spirited
COMPETENCE Service is perceived as responsible,
reliable, eficient and dependable

SOPHISTICATION Customer perceived service as

charming, glamorous and romantic

RUGGEDNESS Service is perceived as strong and tough

Measuring the Validity of

5
Dimensions
 COLGAT
E
Today, Colgate is a
household name in India.
Colgate brand was selected
for the study as it is the No.1
brand in India (Economic
Times, 2004).Consistently superior

quality, continuing innovation, and value-for-

money products emerging out of the advanced

 Validity of Dimensions


Sincerity Dimension

The items—realistic, sentimental, and down to earth

under the Sincerity dimension are more relevant for

colgate.
But sincere and wholesome are not applicable for
colgate.
 Exciting Dimension

The items—cool, contemporary and

brand
imaginative—are not applicable to Colgate

 Competence Dimension

The item—successful—under Competence

dimension is not applicable to Colgate brand.


Sophistication dimension

The items – charming, smooth and glamorous

under sophisticated dimension are
morerelevant
for colgate.
Also the items- upper class , good looking
and feminine are not applicable to this brand.
Ruggedness dimension

The item—masculine—under the

Ruggedness dimension is not applicable to

this brand.
 The Soft Drinks

Brand Recall: The highest recall was of the brand Thums Up

with 32.84% followed by Pepsi with 31.86% and Coca-Cola

had a recall of 28.92%. Brands like 7up, Mountain

Dew, Sprite etc. had a recall of 6.38% altogether.

Top of the mind: For Coca Cola, color red, refreshing and

‘thanda’ were the terms topping the charts.

For Pepsi, the keyword ‘Youngistan’ from its tagline
was most recalled. ‘Sweet’ and ‘blue’ were other terms
associated with the brand. ‘
Strong’, ‘Akshay Kumar’ and ‘thrill’ were on top of the mind

recall of the respondents for the brand Thums Up.

 Measuring the Dimensions

Down to Earth: Pepsi was considered to be

the least on ‘down to earth’ vis-à-vis other

cola brands. Coca Cola scored neutral whereas

the response for Thums up was quite evenly

spread out across all the parameters.

Honest: Coca-cola was considered to be most
‘Honest’ brand followed by Thums Up and
Wholesome: Thums Up is the brand that is
considered most wholesome followed by

Pepsi. Neutral responses were given to Coca-

cola.
Cheerful: Pepsi is considered the most
cheerful brand closely followed by Thums up
and Coca-cola, but on the whole all the three
brands were considered to be ‘cheerful’.
Daring: Of all the three cola brands Thums
Up was the only brand that was highly
associated to being ‘daring’.
Spirited: All the three brands were regarded
as ‘spirited’ in nature. Thums Up was the least

amongst the three.

Imaginative: Coca-cola was rated as the
‘imaginative’ brand.
Up-to-date: All the three brands are

considered up- to- date.

rated
as highly Coca-cola
Reliable: and Thums
reliable. Neutral Up arose for
responses
were
Pepsi.
Intelligent: Coca-cola scored the maximum in
this parameter.
Successful: Coca-cola and Thums Up were
rated to be highly successful.
Upper Class: All the three brands were
regarded ‘Upper class’ as their brand
personality attribute.
Charming: Thums Up was not regarded as
‘charming’. Amongst the three, Coca Cola
scored the maximum in this parameter whereas

Pepsi scored neutral.

Outdoorsy: Thums Up is an ‘outdoorsy’ brand
while Coca-cola and Pepsi are rated neutral on

this attribute.
Tough: Thums Up is considered a ‘tough’
least ‘tough’ and Pepsi
brand, Coca Cola th
neutral on this attribute.
e
Over all Brand Personality: All the three brands
have shown distinguished brand personalities.
Coca-cola scored most on the broad attribute

‘Sincerity’. The rest

average rating two colas
on sincerity maintain
scale. a
All the three
brands score similar score in ‘Excitement’
attribute. Coca-cola and Thums Up are high on
Competence than Pepsi. Coca Cola and Pepsi are
considered ‘Sophisticated’ while Thums Up the
least sophisticated brand. Thums Up is rated high
on ‘Ruggedness’ scale relative to other Colas.
How to use the power of color in your
branding
A brand’s logo and visual identity will
comprise a number of visual cues,
such as shapes, symbols, number, and
words. But the number one visual
component that people remember
most is color. In fact, 
color increases brand recognition by u
p to 80%.
The power of color is both emotional and
practical in branding.

On an emotional level, 
color can affect how consumers feel when
they look at a brand, while on a practical level
it can help a brand stand out in the crowd.

Colors influence how consumers view the

‘personality’ of the brand
Color Design and Psychology for Branding
The JAL (Japan AirLines) image has several
components:
The bird symbolizes flight and the color red
communicates power.
Red also symbolizes good luck in Asia.

The circle and the color red reference the flag of

Japan.
Therefore, the brand image communicates powerful
air transportation from a Japanese company — and
good luck with the journey.
 The AT&T image is an award-winning design.
 The globe symbolizes a world circled by electronic
communications.
 More specifically, the symbol is made up of very
carefully delineated 'highlight' and 'shadow'
elements. As a result, the symbol may be reproduced
to give the impression of a three-dimensional sphere
that is lighted from a distance source. 
 TheUPS (United Parcel Service) image is
an excellent example of how a single color
communicates meaning.
 Brown symbolizes dependability and
solidity. (It is not a snobby color; it is not
high technology; brown is grounded in the
earth.)
About Shapes
 Colors and shapes work in harmony with each other to communicate. Therefore,
an understanding of shapes is essential to understanding the power of color in
branding.
 Even the most basic geometrical shapes can be soft or hard, stable or
threatening. The image below illustrates basic geometric shapes and
contemporary symbols that evolved from basic shapes.
About Shapes

 Consider the effects of color in the image of contemporary symbols

below.