What is Brand Personality in business?
Brand personality is a key part of marketing. Whether you’re posting on social media, printing flyers or running an email campaign, your brand should have a consistent personality. A carefully crafted brand personality can increase engagement, traffic and return customers. 81% of consumers need to trust a brand to consider buying from it (Edelman). Your brand personality can make or break this trust. It can also make marketing easier by helping with ideation and content creation, providing a clear tone of voice.
1) Think of your business as a character
Creating a personality for a business can feel abstract and therefore difficult. It may help to think of your business as a character. Passionate about the environment? Wanting to help people? Love to post memes on social media? These aspects of your business all double as character traits! Think of the personality as a passionate brand ambassador.
2) Think outside the box
There are likely thousands of people offering the same service you do. How can you set yourself apart? Surreal Cereal provided an excellent example of this with their “celebrity” marketing stunt. They boasted about Serena Williams, Ronaldo and Dwayne Johnson loves their cereal. This is true, people with those names do love it, but not the ones you’re thinking of. The campaign gained traction on social media, proving that a little creativity goes a long way.
3) Consistency across platforms
Each platform has a different purpose, and therefore different expectations. You may want your LinkedIn content to be more professional, and your Instagram to be more personal. However, there needs to be consistency between platforms. The platforms should each showcase different aspects of your brand personality, but it should ultimately be the same personality.
4) Consistent visuals
People’s outfits may change, but we can still recognise them based on the way they look. Think of brands the same way. You can add new elements and make minor changes to keep your graphics interesting, but there should be enough visual consistency that they are recognisable as the same brand. Brand colours and consistent fonts should help! You can also use a consistent illustration style, the same shapes or patterns.
5) Consider your audience
When creating your character, think of the audience as well as the business. What do they like? What are they looking for? Do they seem compatible with your character? You’ll especially want to consider their age and industry. An older audience in the finance industry will likely want polished and professional content, whereas a younger audience in creative industries will be more open to experimentation. It’s fun to get creative, but in the end, the purpose of the brand strategy is to expand the reach of your business. If you’re not thinking of your audience, it is unlikely to be effective.
We hope these tips will help you develop your brand personality. Have fun and experiment. If you’re feeling stuck, we would be happy to help. We can offer advice, a re-brand, social media content, or all three! Our experienced experts are ready to help your business grow. If you want to know more, send us an email on matt@onemanwebdesign.com or call us on 07983 570803.
