Developing Brand Personality Through Colour Construct – A ...

Developing Brand Personality Through Colour Construct – A Conceptual
Investigation
Zeenat Jabbar
National University of Sciences & Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan
E-mail: zejabbar@nbs.edu.pk
Lynne Baldwin
Brunel University, Elliot Jacques Building, Uxbridge, UB8 3PH, UK
Email: lynne.baldwin@brunel.ac.uk
Abstract
The paper is making a theoretical contribution in identifying the role of brand colours in the
formation of brand personality. Brand personality provides consumers with emotional
fulfilment, thereby increasing purchase possibility. Colours are frequently used to describe
emotions such as ‘green with envy’, ‘red with rage’ and being ‘in the blues’ when depressed.
Although there is a large literature on colour preferences, there has been relatively little
systematic research on the role brand colours in developing brand personality. The paper
addresses question like: How do consumers interpret a brand’s personality, through its brand
colours? Questions like this are important, in order to create appropriate brand image through
a clear, definitive brand personality. Pakistan is the context for this research, and the brands
chosen represent cellular telecom industry of Pakistan. The telecom sector of Pakistan is one
of those sectors, which has witnessed phenomenal growth in the last few years. Our research
methodology included a questionnaire survey of 700 respondents, the results of which were
then tested for reliability and association among the variables. The paper concludes with
findings’ implications for both academicians and managers.
Keywords: Brand Colours, Brand Personality, Corporate Visual Identity,
Conference Track: Brand, Identity, and Corporate Reputation
1. Introduction
Colours are said to have emotional and psychological properties (Ward 1995). The meanings
linked with different colours are vital to marketers as they communicate brand image to the
consumers (McCracken 1988; Hynes, 2009). The research described here is first and
foremost exploratory. The goal of the research is to explore the meaning(s) associated with
specific brand colours in developing specific brand personality and to provide a conceptual
framework for further research. The intrinsic meaning of colour, if appropriately selected
may bring, ‘inherent and immediate value to the brand’ (Kohli and LaBahn, 1997), like a
carefully chosen name. Logo colour is also very important due to its mnemonic quality in the
areas of recognition and recall (Henderson and Cote, 1998). Colour may play a role in
imparting information, creating lasting identity and suggesting imagery and symbolic value
(Henderson and Cote, 1998). Colour is sometimes referred to as the ‘silent salesperson’ as it
exerts persuasive power at a subliminal level. Therefore, it is necessary to address the need to
examine how people perceive the colour, design and meaning of logos to examine how these
interlink to and affect the identity of the organisation (Henderson and Cote, 1998).
2. Literature Review
Colour is an integral element of corporate and marketing communications. It induces moods
and emotions, influences consumers’ perceptions and behaviour and helps companies
position or differentiate from the competition (Hynes, 2009). Colour is only one element of a
brand’s projection endowed with inherent meaning and provides a valuable retrieval cue
(Tavassoli, 2001). Colours play an important role as a brand's "trade dress" and can be an

influential communicative device (Meyers-Levy & Peracchio, 1995). Colour influences
human emotions or feelings, in the sense that some colours may make one happy, while some
colours may make one depressive. Simultaneously, colour itself has some characteristics,
which can be described by semantic words, such as ‘‘warm–cool,’’ ‘‘light–dark,’’ ‘‘soft–
hard,’’ etc. The semantic words describing the characteristics of colours and human’s
emotional responses on colours are generally termed as colour emotion (Nakamura et al,
1994; Sato et al, 2000a; Sato et al, 2000b; Xin et al, 1998). Table 1 below gives a brief
description of how colours are associated with different emotions, linked to personality, as
researched in two separate studies.
Table 1: Typology of Colour Associations
COLOURS Hynes (2009) Clarke & Costall (2008)
Colour Connotation Colour Connotation
Blue Protective, Stability, Prestigious, Secure,
Reliable Grow
Purple Passionate, Playful, Visionary, Truth, Justice
Exciting
Orange Fun, Playful, Happy Fun, Playful, Happiness
Red Fun, Playful, Happy Passionate, Dynamic,
Exciting
Yellow Fun, Energetic, Happy Energetic, Cheerful,
Imaginative, Cheerful Friendly
Green Stability, Contemplative Fun, Energetic, Healthy
Pink Truth, Justice Protective, Homely,
Stable
Brown Homely, Dependable, Earthly, Nature
Warm
Brand personality provides consumers with emotional fulfilment, thereby increasing purchase
possibility (Freling and Forbes 2005). The usefulness of brand personality is conclusive; as
long as the brand personality is perceived to be strong and favourable, the consequences, such
as brand associations and evaluation, are positive (Freling and Forbes 2005). Brand
personality is important especially for differentiation and developing the emotional aspects of
the brand (Plummer 1985, D.Aaker 1996, Aaker 1997, Diamantopoulos et al, 2005, Freling
2005, , Bosnjak et al, 2007). Colour is a vital part of products, services, packages, logos,
displays and collateral. It is a potent cue for product and brand differentiation and for creating
and sustaining corporate identities (Garber and Hyatt, 2003; Madden et al., 2000) and
consumer perceptions (Grossman and Wisenblit, 1999). Colour signals a product’s attributes
for merchandise, thereby influencing perceptions about price and quality (Kerfoot et al.,
2003). Colour is the least expensive way of changing the product (Parmar, 2004). Colour
distinctiveness within a category or ‘visual branding’ allows for visual brand differentiation.
Colour also facilitates ‘emotional branding’ and companies could use colours associated with
specific emotions in order to target the psychogenic heterogeneity of the market (Moser,
2003). Colour is an important brand attribute that coveys different symbolic meanings, which
are employed in the creation and maintenance of brand images (Madden et al., 2000), as a
tool for advertising persuasiveness (Myers-Levy and Peracchio, 1995), and influence
purchase decision for products (Eckman et al., 1990; Cooper, 1994). Such studies have

looked beyond the aesthetic value of colour and investigated its functional value. This
functional value originates from specific meanings that colours convey in different contexts
and has implications for psychological functioning; their studies demonstrate that the mere
perception of the colour evokes affect, cognition, and behavior congruent to the meaning
(Elliot et al, 2007). Cool colours such as green, blue, and white clustered together are
associated with gentle, peaceful, and calming meanings; whereas, warm colors such as
yellow, gold, orange, red, and purple clustered together and are associated with vibrant, hot,
active, and sharp meanings (Madden et al, 2000). Recent research on brand personality
defines the construct as “the set of human characteristics associated with a brand” and
documents a stable set of personality dimensions that are thought to underlie the construct
(Aaker, 1997)
• sincerity, typified by traits such as wholesome, down-to-earth, and honest;
• excitement, typified by traits such as daring, imaginative, and exciting;
• competence, typified by traits such as intelligent, secure, and confident;
• sophistication, typified by traits such as glamorous, smooth, and charming; and
• ruggedness, typified traits such as strong, masculine, and western.
Brand personality scale (BPS) measures, as proposed by Aaker (1997), the extent to which a
given brand possesses any of these personality traits. Brand personality influences
consumers’ perceptual processing of product information. Brand personality is a nonphysical
piece of product knowledge that shapes perceptions about that product and deals with the
importance of relations in social activities and gives the brand higher positions in the mind of
consumers and makes the brand as their friends and belongings (Rajagopal, 2006); and it is
all the attitudes, perspectives, feelings and views customers have about a brand. Brand
associations are important to marketers and to consumers. Marketers use brand associations
to differentiate, position, and extend brands, to create positive attitudes and feelings toward
brands, and to suggest attributes or benefits of purchasing or using a specific brand.
Consumers use brand associations to help process, organize, and retrieve information in
memory and to aid them in making purchase decisions. Another advantage of the personality
association is that it establishes direct relationship with the customers (Taft, 1997). Therefore,
we propose the following hypothesis:
H1: Brand colour blue is associated with the personality trait, competence (intelligence,
secure, & confident);
H2: Brand colour purple is associated with personality trait, sophistication (glamorous,
smooth, & charming);
H3: Brand colour orange is associated with personality trait, excitement (daring,
imaginative, & exciting);
H4: Brand colour red is associated with personality trait, sincerity (wholesome, down-toearth,
& honest).
3. Research Methodology
Our sample frame includes 700 Pakistani youth, with an age bracket of 18-26, who
constitutes the highest usage of cellular services in Pakistan (Pakistan Telecom Authority,
2011), the sampling method used is stratified random sampling. We analysed brand colours’
impact on developing brand personalities of five telecom companies operating in Pakistan,
The brands include: Mobilink, Telenor, Ufone, Warid, and Zong. Mobilink’s brand colour is
purple, Telenor’s brand colour is blue, Ufone’s brand colour is orange, Warid’s brand colour
is red, whereas, Zong does not have any one predominant brand colour, instead it is a
combination of yellow, red, and blue. We used a questionnaire survey, wherein, the questions

were adapted from research sources available in the relevant literature, including
Karaosmanoglu (2006), Clarke and Costall (2008), Hynes (2009), Aaker (1997). The
geographic location of the survey was the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. A fivepoint
likert scale (ranging from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’) was used. SPSS 16.0
software was used to analyse the data, the variables used and their respective codes are listed
in Table 2.
Table 2: List of Variables & their SPSS Code
Variables SPSS Code
Blue represents Competence, Intelligent, Secure, Confident BCISC
Red represents Sincerity, Wholesome, Down-to-Earth,
Honest
RSWDH
Orange represents Excitement, Daring, Imaginative OEDI
Purple represents Sophistication, Smooth, Glamourous,
Charming
The brand colours of the company communicates what it
stands for
PSSGC
CCOM
I like the brand colours of the company LCOL
The brand colours of the company are easily recognized RCOL
The brand colours of the company make me have positive feelings
towards the company
We used Cronbach Alpha to test the reliability factor, and Pearson Chi-square to test the
association among the constructs. The Cronbach alpha value for all the 8 items generated
under this research study, is 0.859, hence, there exists a greater internal consistency among
the items on the scale. We also used Pearson Chi-Square in order to establish the strength of
the relationship between the cross-tabulated variables. A chi-square value of less than .05
signifies an existence of a stronger relationship. The values presented in Table 3 prove that a
strong relationship exists between the cross-tabulated variables.
PCOL
Table 3: Measure of Association among Variables
Constructs Variables Pearson Chi-Square
Brand Name with Brand Brand names crosstab BCISC, RSWDH, OEDI, PSSGC 0.003
Personality Brand names crosstab CCOM, 0.012
LCOL, RCOL & PCOL
Brand names crosstab competence, sincerity,
excitement, and sophistication 0.001
Table 3 presents strength of associations between brand names (Mobilink, Telenor, Ufone,
Warid, and Zong) and different colours representation (BCISC, RSWDH, OEDI, & PSSGC);
brand colours association with brand personality traits ‘competence’, ‘sincerity’,
‘sophistication’ and ‘excitement’ is tested; similarly brand names association with brand
colours’ preference is also tested. The demographic distribution of the sample was as follows:
85% were undergraduate and 15% were postgraduate students (595 undergraduate and 105

postgraduate respectively); 54% were male and 46% were female (378 male and 322 female);
52% resided in Islamabad and 48% resided in Rawalpindi (364 from Islamabad and 336 from
Rawalpindi); the age group was divided into three age brackets: 18-20 (504; 72%), 21-23 (91;
13%), and 24-26 (105; 15%). The cross-tabulation results among the variables are presented
in Table 4.
Table 4: Cross -Tabulation Results
Variable Brand Result
CCOM Mobilink 100% (700)
Telenor 97% (609)
Ufone 100% (700)
Warid 69% (483)
Zong 42% (294)
LCOL Mobilink 89% (623)
Telenor 81% (567)
Ufone 93% (651)
Warid 72% (504)
Zong 54% (378)
RCOL Mobilink 100% (700)
Telenor 97% (679)
Ufone 95% (665)
Warid 88% (616)
Zong 32% (224)
PCOL Mobilink 86% (602)
Telenor 74% (518)
Ufone 87% (609)
Warid 79% (553)
Zong 56% (392)
Competence Mobilink 78% (546)
Telenor 97% (679)
Ufone 55% (385)
Warid 21% (147)
Zong 17% (119)
Sincerity Mobilink 46% (322)

Telenor 83% (581)
Ufone 61% (427)
Warid 94% (658)
Zong 29% (203)
Sophistication Mobilink 86% (602)
Telenor 33% (231)
Ufone 21% (147)
Warid 14% (98)
Zong 12% (84)
Excitement Mobilink 26% (182)
Telenor 23% (161)
Ufone 99% (693)
Warid 12% (84)
Zong 88% (616)
Table 4 presents a summary of the research results, wherein the brand colours of Mobilink,
Telenor, Ufone, and Warid, communicate what these brands stand for, and their respective
brand colours are also well-liked, generate positive feelings, and communicate what they
stand for. Whereas, Zong’s brand colours are liked and to a certain extent generate positive
feelings, hence they communicate what brand stands for. Table 4 presents a summary of the
survey results on colour representation of different personality traits and how each
correspond to the respective telecom brand under review.
Table 5: Colour Representation of Personality Traits
Variable Results Corresponding Brand
BCISC 94% (658) Telenor
RSWDH 76% (532) Warid
OEDI 96% (672) Ufone
PSSGC 98% (686) Mobilink
In Table 5 above, 94% of the respondents agree with the statement that blue represents brand
personality trait ‘competence’; 76% of the respondents agree with the statement that red
represents ‘sincerity’; 96% of the respondents agree that orange represents ‘excitement’; and
98% of the respondents agree that purple represents ‘sophistication’. The third column in
Table 5, places the brands which have the corresponding colours, as mentioned earlier.
4. Conclusion
Based on the results of our findings presented in the previous section, we can conclude that
Mobilink’s, Telenor’s, Ufone’s, and Warid’s brand colours are easily remembered and also
communicates what it stands for; Zong’s brand colours are well liked, but they, alone do not

communicate what the brand stands for. Therefore, based on our research findings, the
hypotheses presented earlier, are accepted:
H1: Brand colour blue is associated with the personality trait, competence (intelligence,
secure, & confident) - Accepted;
H2: Brand colour purple is associated with personality trait, sophistication (glamorous,
smooth, & charming) - Accepted;
H3: Brand colour orange is associated with personality trait, excitement (daring, imaginative,
& exciting) - Accepted;
H4: Brand colour red is associated with personality trait, sincerity (wholesome, down-toearth,
& honest) - Accepted.
With this research paper, we hope to bring new insights on the current conceptualization and
operationalization of the constructs, such as brand colour’s influence on brand personality.
This research paper suggests that managers should understand that brand personality
formation is a multifaceted phenomenon, since it is determined by more than one factor. In
addition, the paper also suggests that managers should regularly assess the relationship
between consumers and a brand’s identity, and how do the consumers associate different
brand colours with different brand personality traits.
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