Whether you are aware of it or not, every organization on the planet has a brand personality. A brand personality can be defined as the feeling that stakeholders experience whenever they engage with an organization. This feeling can be influenced using visual images and content messaging, as well as the most minute stakeholder touch points. How you define your brand personality and the consistency in which that personality is projected to stakeholders is where many organizations get it wrong. Your brand must be well-defined and actively managed to create a strong, consistent experience.
Speaking of touch points, did you notice anything about this article that might feel different than other touch points you’ve had with Incite? Did you suddenly feel as if you were a part of the 1920s? If so, that’s because of the font style we used in the title – it’s a tiny detail that creates a different feeling. This font is known as Broadway and is a decorative typeface that is specifically used to evoke the personas from the twenties and thirties. Even though this font is a fun, interesting way of communicating, it is not consistent with Incite’s personality and how we want our stakeholders to feel after they interact with us. With this as an example, it’s small inconsistencies like this that can lead to stakeholder perceptions that break trust in your organization.
Reflecting on your brand personality requires you to ask yourself a few questions such as, how does your organization’s brand make you feel or how do you think it makes your clients or team feel?
To help define your organization’s brand personality we recommend the following three steps:
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- Do your research – do you know how your stakeholders currently perceive your brand personality? Do you what other brands or narratives align best with your target demographic? How does your customer segment want to feel when they interact with a product or service that your industry offers?
- Define brand adjectives – create brand adjectives that best describe your brand’s personality as if it were a person. Are you fun, engaging, and enthusiastic or do you want your brand to come off as professional, robust, and tactical?
- Ensure the adjectives fit – for your team to live out these adjectives at every touch point, they need to be able to connect to them. Let’s call brand adjectives your proverbial brand underwear. They have to feel comfortable, they can’t be itchy, and they have to be worn by every member of your team for them to be at the foundation of everything you do.
If everyone in an organization understands and integrates its brand personality into their everyday behaviour, that brand will become more consistent. Imagine a client experience where every touch point is aligned, dependable, and connects back to a brand. Consistency builds trust, enabling a brand to resonate more deeply with external audiences, making every touch point more connected and meaningful.
