The Brand Framework Series: Brand Personality Spectrum Designed and Measured Brand Personality

Brand Personality Spectrum is Jennifer Aaker's Framework that defines brand personalities through 5 dimensions including Sincerity, Excitement, Competence, Sophistication and Ruggedness, specifying the location of each dimension as a measurable number. It is ideal when brand communication lacks a recognizable identity. The benefit is that it consistently makes the team communicate in the same direction at every Touchpoint.

What is Brand Personality Spectrum and where does it come from?

Brand Personality Spectrum was proposed by Jennifer Aaker, a researcher at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, in a research paper published in the Journal of Marketing Research in 1997 under the name Dimensional of Brand Personality. This research became one of the most cited reference papers in the brand management industry and is the basis of brand personality measurement, both in academic circles and in brand departments of large organizations around the world.

The basic principle of the Framework is that brand personalities can be stripped down to 5 dimensions that are comprehensive and statistically testable. In a market where all brands access the same communication tools, use the same platform, and hire a Creative team from the same source, the real difference is not who speaks louder, but who listens and knows immediately which brand it is.

Brand personality is not the aesthetic of content, but the structure that determines how a brand is remembered and how deeply it connects with its customers. Brand Personality Spectrum turns this from intuition into a designed, tested and controlled system. The point of distinguishing the Framework from the common Brand Guideline is to identify the location on Spectrum by a measured weight, not just by multiple interpretive adjectives.

Key principles and procedures

The five-dimensional Brand Personality Spectrum works as a Spectrum, not a decisive choice.

Sincerity is the dimension of sincerity, warm, trustworthy. Brands with high Sincerity often communicate in an intimate tone and value listening rather than announcing.

Excitement is the dimension of enthusiasm. Dare to try. Dare to try. Unlike the frame, brands with high Excitement communicate in an energetic tone and are not afraid of experimentation.

Competence is the dimension of expertise, reliability, and professionalism. Competence-based brands often opt for data, evidence, and accuracy.

Sophistication is the dimension of refinement, tasteful, and special. A brand communication with high Sophistication takes care of every detail from word selection to sentence structure placement.

Ruggedness is the dimension of durability, raw, straightforward. Brands that use Ruggedness as a mainstay communicate in an unadorned tone and pride themselves on individuality.

The implementation process is divided into three parts. The first part is to identify the position on Spectrum by the measured weight. Saying that the brand wants to be professional is still too vague to be practical, but stating that Competence is at 70%, Sincerity at 50%, and Excitement at 20% allows the team to see the weight of each dimension and immediately understand which side to decide between the two choices should be given more weight.

The second part is to take off personality as a tangible communication rule. Identify what level of vocabulary a brand uses, what kind of pronouns, long or short sentences, how to use humor, how to deal with criticisms, how to answer difficult questions in what way. These have to be converted from adjectives to pragmatics, because the team is not working on the word warm, but working on sentences that have to be sent out every day.

The third part is to keep the actual sample as Reference, not just the Do and Don't list, but the actual text on social, email, storefront, or in conversation with customers, which is evaluated to accurately reflect a given Personality. For example, a fintech brand defined as 70% Competence, 50% Sincerity, 20% Excitement will write a Copy led with data and evidence, complemented with a friendly tone, and use active language at the ideal point, not at all points.

Common pitfalls

The first mistake is to try to stay centered on all dimensions so as not to waste any customer group, which in practice makes it impossible to mind any group; the farther the position is from the centerpiece of Spectrum, the more likely the brand is to be remembered.

The second mistake is to simultaneously choose multiple dimensions as the mainstay; when all dimensions are equally important, teams cannot decide when to choose between conflicting alternatives; the practice that works is to choose one primary dimension and one to two secondary dimensions to reinforce depth.

The third mistake is to write a broad-worded Brand Guideline without going into detail where the team actually works; a broad document will not be picked up to read and eventually become a wasted expense.

The fourth mistake is to change personalities frequently by campaign. Changing personalities for each campaign destroys the chances of recognition accumulation and makes customers feel that multiple brands are found wearing the same name.

The fifth error is the personality designation during which the business is still unable to find the Product-market Fit. Locking In Direction during this phase will lead to a later dismantling at a higher cost.

Compare to another Brand Framework in the series.

Brand Personality Spectrum pierces on brand personality. While Brand DNA Model views brand identity as a 7-part structure that unites personality as one of them, Personality from Aaker works as a Sub-framework within Brand DNA Model.

Compared to Simon Sinek's The Golden Circle providing communication direction, Personality Spectrum gives the tone of that communication. Why from Golden Circle says what to say, Personality says what to say.

Compared to Kevin Lane Keller's Customer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) that measures strength in the mind, Personality Spectrum customers create Imagery in CBBE and affect Feelings in the Response layer.

Compared to Marty Neumeier's The Brand Gap and ZAG-focused Radical Differentiation Personality Spectrum provides the tools to express that difference at the daily level of communication, Onliness from ZAG identifies who the brand is, personality tells how the brand speaks.

Compared to Donald Miller's StoryBrand Framework (SB7) that structures storytelling, Personality Spectrum sets the tone that Guides in SB7 use to tell. Adam Morgan's Challenger Brand Archetypes section that highlights the posture towards the selected Archetype market often determines the weight of the personality to use.

When not to use Brand Personality Spectrum

Businesses that have not yet found a real group of customers yet adjust their positivity frequently or are still in a period when the core product is still not stationary. Defining personality during a period when the business is still searching for itself will lead to Lock In a direction that may not match the truth of the market.

Businesses that sell Commodity goods in the B2B market where purchase decisions primarily use specs and prices, because these customer groups do not recognize brand personalities at the decision level.

Businesses operating in many markets with very different cultures, without Local teams in each market, because a given personality in one culture may interpret it differently in another.

Organizations that do not have a process for maintaining communication consistency, because defining a Personality without a monitoring system will not yield. This Framework only works if all parties in the organization use the same Reference.

Example of adoption to digital businesses

For digital businesses, Brand Personality Spectrum is used to determine the tone of every Touchpoint that customers come across. For example, specialized e-commerce platforms that sell domestically produced beverages. 70% Sincerity designation, 60% Ruggedness, 30% Sophistication, 30% Excitement and 40% Competence translate into tone across all channels.

The web page uses friendly language. Speaking of manufacturer as real name with story, not primarily product Spec information. Onboarding email tells the origin of each product before the promotion. The Customer Service team answers questions in a straightforward tone, not too formal Template. Social posts use images and videos from within production plants and farms, not Stock Photos.

When a brand has a clear personality, team work becomes more consistent, a new team, a faster onboard, a Brief Agency or a Freelance Copywriter take less time, and the workaround is reduced because all parties have common criteria to decide.

The results will accumulate across all channels. When a customer comes across a brand through Instagram and receives an email, visits a website, or finds a brand in another channel, they will immediately feel familiar because communication has a consistent personality at all Touchpoints.

For digital businesses that expand abroad, Personality Spectrum serves as a criterion used by each local team to adjust their communication by maintaining their core. The 70% Sincerity tone in Thai may be expressed differently than in English, but the feelings received by customers should be on the same plane. This criterion reduces the risk of a brand becoming multiple brands in different countries.