The Impact of Brand Personality on Brand-Aroused Feelings
The Impact of Brand Personality on Brand-Aroused Feelings
Dr Karen Miller School of Management and Marketing, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD, Email: Miller@usq.edu.au
Brand managers are increasingly using brand personality to differentiate and uniquely position their brand without really knowing its effects. This study begins to addresses this gap by examining the effects of brand personality on brand-aroused feelings across the product categories of sport shoes, mobile phones and surf wear. Using SEM to analyse the data from 324 usable surveys, the findings indicate that consumers perceive brand personality and brand-aroused feelings as two separate constructs and that brand personality has a substantial effect on brand-aroused feelings. On the basis of the findings, this study recommends that brand managers consider positioning their brand as original, imaginative, considerate and kind if they want to arouse positive brand feelings. Keywords: brand management; consumer behaviour; positioning strategy; integrated marketing communications INTRODUCTION Over the past decade, there has been increasing interest in brand personality from academics and practitioners (e.g., Aaker 1997; Caprara, Barbaranelli & Gianluigi 2001; Freling & Forbes 2005a; Romaniuk 2008; Sweeney & Brandon, 2006), and the intensity of this interest demonstrates the need to advance its development and investigate its effects. Managers perceive brand personality as a way to develop a sustainable uniqueness in a marketplace proliferated by brands where it is becoming increasingly difficult to come up with branded products that are truly different in the eyes of consumers (Aaker 2003; Sweeney & Brandon 2006). A lack of perceivable differentiation may be contributing to the reason why an estimated 75% to 85% of new brands will fail (Boyle 2003; Kohli & Thakor 1997) or why brands are being commoditized and losing money (Barron 2003). Increasingly, brand personality is used by
Dr Karen Miller School of Management and Marketing, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD, Email: Miller@usq.edu.au
Brand managers are increasingly using brand personality to differentiate and uniquely position their brand without really knowing its effects. This study begins to addresses this gap by examining the effects of brand personality on brand-aroused feelings across the product categories of sport shoes, mobile phones and surf wear. Using SEM to analyse the data from 324 usable surveys, the findings indicate that consumers perceive brand personality and brand-aroused feelings as two separate constructs and that brand personality has a substantial effect on brand-aroused feelings. On the basis of the findings, this study recommends that brand managers consider positioning their brand as original, imaginative, considerate and kind if they want to arouse positive brand feelings. Keywords: brand management; consumer behaviour; positioning strategy; integrated marketing communications INTRODUCTION Over the past decade, there has been increasing interest in brand personality from academics and practitioners (e.g., Aaker 1997; Caprara, Barbaranelli & Gianluigi 2001; Freling & Forbes 2005a; Romaniuk 2008; Sweeney & Brandon, 2006), and the intensity of this interest demonstrates the need to advance its development and investigate its effects. Managers perceive brand personality as a way to develop a sustainable uniqueness in a marketplace proliferated by brands where it is becoming increasingly difficult to come up with branded products that are truly different in the eyes of consumers (Aaker 2003; Sweeney & Brandon 2006). A lack of perceivable differentiation may be contributing to the reason why an estimated 75% to 85% of new brands will fail (Boyle 2003; Kohli & Thakor 1997) or why brands are being commoditized and losing money (Barron 2003). Increasingly, brand personality is used by