How to Develop A Brand Personality

If you grew up rolling down your car window and asking your friend parked in the next spot, "Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon?" You may have been surprised to find it stacked on the grocery store shelf, like any old ordinary mustard.

That’s the power of a brand's personality. You are so convinced by what the brand tells you about itself that it seems special, extraordinary, and, most importantly, desirable.

Your brand personality may not inspire a generation to imitate your marketing like Grey Poupon, but with the right approach, you could make your brand stand out. Here’s how to develop one:

Think About Your Audience

Consider who is most likely to purchase your product or service. Make notes about them, including their gender, age range, job roles, hobbies, and habits. You may need to segment them into sub-categories until you have a clear picture of the members of your audience.

Ask What Your Brand Would Be Like as a Person

Would your brand be rugged, wearing denim and a pair of work boots? Maybe they would be a teenager with an attitude and a shrug. They might be a retired grandmother who has too many hobbies to pack into her day.

Imaging your brand as a person helps you determine many aspects of your brand’s personality, including the types of words your brand would use or the appearance of the visual content that would capture your brand.

You’ll also consider the font your brand would choose if it were a person. A rugged brand would use a more straightforward, bold, even masculine font. A brand aiming to appeal to young people might choose something with curves and bubbly lines.

Create a Style Guide

Once you’ve begun identifying your look and sound, create a style guide for your staff to promote consistency. Your brand personality can’t take hold if your social media manager approaches your brand personality much differently than your web developer. Your style guide will keep all communications and design choices within the context of your brand personality.

Tweak, but Commit

Along the way, you’ll likely need to tweak some things about your brand personality. For instance, there may be a certain phrase that your brand frequently uses that becomes associated with a negative, unrelated event. Or you may find that your edgy brand's voice is more effective when there’s a touch of humor to it.