Do brands lack personality?

Abstract

This commentary is written in response to the paper ‘Brand Relationship and Personality Theory: Metaphor or Consumer Perceptual Reality?’ This paper raises two issues regarding brand personality:

Do consumers see brands as having human traits, as per the ‘brand as human’ idea?

Is there a consistent consumer vision of brands that provides a distinct ‘personality’ which distinguishes it from other brands, as per the idea of brand personality as a metaphor?

Based on our own empirical evidence, we would answer ‘no’ to both of these questions. Despite the popularity of the personality concept, respondents rarely attribute personality-based traits to a brand (e.g. Charming or Helpful). Further there is little evidence of distinct brand personalities for competing brands. This leads us to question the value of brand personality to consumers when choosing brands, and therefore to marketers when designing brand strategy.