marketing - Industrial Engineering

158 PART 3 CONNECTING WITH CUSTOMERS
stimuli (including buying behavior). We often desclibe it in terms of such traits as selfconfidence,
dominance, autonomy, deference, sociability, defensiveness, and adaptability.23
Personality can be a useful variable in analyzing consumer brand choices. The idea is that
brands also have personalities, and consumers are likely to choose brands whose personalities
match their own. We define brand personality as the specific mix of human traits that we can
attribute to a particular brand.
Stanford's Jennifer Aaker researched brand personalities and identified the following
traits: 24
1. Sincerity (down-to-earth, honest, wholesome, and cheerful)
2. Excitement (daring, spirited, imaginative, and up-to-date)
3. Competence (reliable, intelligent, and successful)
4. Sophistication (upper-class and charming)
5. Ruggedness (outdoorsy and tough)
She analyzed some well-known brands and found that a number of them tended to be
strong on one particular trait: Levi's with "ruggedness"; MTV with "excitement"; CNN with
"competence"; and Campbell's with "sincerity." The implication is that these brands will
attract persons who are high on the same personality traits. A brand personality may have
several attributes: Levi's suggests a personality that is also youthful, rebellious, authentic,
and American.
A cross-cultural study exploring the generalizability of Aaker's scale outside the United
States found that three of the five factors applied in Japan and Spain, but a "peacefulness"
dimension replaced "ruggedness" both in Japan and Spain, and a "passion" dimension
emerged in Spain instead of "competency."20 Research on brand personality in Korea
revealed two culture-specific factors-passive likeableness and ascendancy-reflecting the
importance of Confucian values in Korea's social and economic sYstems. 2G
Consumers often choose and use brands that have a brand personality consistent with
their own actual self-concept (how we view ourselves), although the match may instead be
based on the consumer's ideal self-concept (how we would like to view ourselves) or even on
others' self-concept (how we think others see US).27 These effects may also be more pronounced
for publicly consumed products than for privately consumed goods. 28 On the other
hand, consumers who are high "self-monitors"-that is, sensitive to how others see themare
more likely to choose brands whose personalities fit the consumption situation. 29 Finally,
often consumers have multiple aspects of self (serious professional, caring family member,
Levi's iconic brand image and persoilalily
11as endured for years. Here is Andy
Warhol's take on tile brand.