Linking brand personality with consumer characters

Lucy Handley’s feature ‘Six codes that reveal a brand’s real personality’(MWlinks.co.uk/BrandPersonality) throws up some interesting questions about who is really in control of shaping the personality of a brand. Just like the perception of a person, it is subjective and gaps can emerge between the intention of the marketer and the intended consumer.

As all relationships are based on fulfilling psychological needs on some level, it would be interesting to look at the personality traits of the respondents themselves to see which personality traits seem to gravitate towards each other. I can envisage a two-way research project between the consumer and brand. It could possibly redefine our notion of a target audience and establish a new tradition of creating communications that are designed to appeal to particular personality types.

We are embarking on a study into this area. Perhaps there are some undiscovered links between human personality, consumer behaviour and drivers of attraction to brand personality traits that could inform us all.

Mo Saha, Creative planning director, Pd3 London