Unlocking the secrets of brand personality

Whether you’re a small startup, a well-seasoned enterprise, or a personal brand, having a distinguished personality is essential to creating a solid identity. Like human personality, brand personality is a set of characteristics that people can relate to emotionally.

Say you and a friend are chatting it up at your local coffee spot. She bumps into a co-worker and introduces you to him. Let’s call him Craig. Craig has nothing interesting to say, yet he hangs around for too long. The whole interaction was awkward and uneventful. You know right away that you and Craig could never be friends. Period. End of story. That’s how simple it is for people to judge how much they like or dislike your brand based on its personality.

Having a relatable brand personality is beneficial for a myriad of reasons. It differentiates you from the pack, increases brand engagement, and gets people into your actions. When you use brand personality to captivate your customers, you differentiate from other brands and increase your brand’s overall value.

Brand Voice & Tone

Brand voice is how you use language and tone uniquely to capture your identity. When you create a compelling brand voice across blogs, email, video, and website content, your brand’s character will shine brighter than everyone else’s. And, if your brand marches to a different beat (as it should), your brand voice will help you stand out from the crowd.

Lifestyle media company UrbanDaddy does this masterfully with a brand voice that’s equal parts funny, stylish, and sophisticated. The company focuses on bringing the best current events, food, and culture to a select number of cities across the nation. Their copy is brief and to the point yet filled with witty analogies, current event references, and genuinely helpful tips. Their brand voice feels like talking to a fabulous new friend you always want to be around, and their practical tips on where to nosh, chill, and the party keeps readers craving more.

Brand Visual Style

Humans have extremely short attention spans. Memorable visual brand and style elements are essential for companies that want to be remembered. If done correctly, logo design, color, typography, and overall brand look and feel can impact people’s emotions. For example, cool blue and purple tones can create a calm, relaxed, and peaceful feeling, while bright reds and yellows create a sense of excitement and energy.

The Honest Company is one brand that relies on design to connect to consumers in a crowded industry. The Honest Company — which creates natural, non-toxic cleaning and personal products — displays a refreshing approach to the eco-friendly lifestyle. Their butterfly logo communicates transformation, freedom, nature, and sustainability themes. Meanwhile, the brand’s packaging design is filled with whimsical illustrations, playful shapes, and cheery pops of color that echo natural forms. This visual language appeals to the young, eco-friendly mom while steering clear of overused eco-friendly and baby-centric branding trends.

Brand Essence

To sum it up in a few words, brand essence is the emotional heartbeat of your brand. It’s everything your brand means and stands for, from how consumers feel when using your product to what values they associate with your brand, your essence pulses through every consumer touch point. Managing how people perceive your brand can be complex, with many opportunities for consumers to interact with your brand online. However, a careful dedication to your values, ideas, and brand soul can help you forge a brand essence that is authentically yours.

Take Poler Stuff, for example. This outdoor apparel brand proves that small, consistent elements can add up to create a unique brand essence. While Poler Stuff’s branding slogan, “camp vibes,” is laid-back and simple, the tagline is used consistently across all consumer touch points. In addition to using this slogan across t-shirts, hats, and mugs, it’s also used to create a robust online community that rallies behind the brand’s spirit. The hashtag #campvibes is used to generate brand engagement on Instagram, where users are encouraged to post their adventure photos using the hashtag and join the community.

Brand Culture Statement

Brand culture statements are essential for informing employees’ daily work and inspiring your organization internally. Modern brands are leading a more transparent company by publicizing their culture in a place where everyone can access it. By being transparent and open about your brand’s culture, your customers will better understand and appreciate the motivations behind everything you do.

Moz uses its culture code to inspire internal team members, loyal customers, and prospects. Moz smartly defines its dedication to customers throughout the core code, making it clear that its culture code transcends every part of its brand, including its corporate culture, product offering, and customer relationship. The B2B software brand dedicated an entire page to TAGFEE, an acronym for “Transparent & Authentic, Generous, Fun, Empathetic, and Exceptional.” This culture code page offers an intimate view of Moz’s brand personality.

Brand Consistency

By now, you know that consistency is a core component of building a brand that consumers remember. Even if your brand is starting, making the character a key goal can attract your lions (loyalists) early on. Likewise, a consistent brand personality can encourage customers to choose your brand.

Fabletics is a relatively new brand that proves how powerful a consistent brand presence can be. Fabletics fills its Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook accounts with quick workout videos, inspirational quotes, colorful product shots, and envy-inducing lifestyle imagery. While this content is strategically varied, it upholds the same emotional and influential brand values. Fabletics’’ consistent posting delights its audience and reinforces the same brand personality day in and day out.