The Brand Personality Model of Aaker

Knowledge Center

The Brand Personality Dimensions of Jennifer Aaker (Journal of Marketing Research, 8/97, pp. 347-356) is a framework to describe and measure the 'personality" of a brand in five core dimensions, each divided into a set of facets.

It is a model to describe the profile of a brand by using an analogy with a human being.

The five core dimensions and their facets

These are:

• Sincerity (down-to-earth, honest, wholesome, cheerful)
• Excitement (daring, spirited, imaginative, up-to-date)
• Competence (reliable, intelligent, successful)
• Sophistication (upper class, charming)
• Ruggedness (outdoorsy, tough)

Each facet is in turn measured by a set of traits. The trait measurements are done using a five point scale (1 = not at all descriptive, 5 = extremely descriptive) rating the extent to which each trait describes the specific brand.

An explanation of The traits belonging to each of the facets

These traits are:

• Down-to-earth = down-to-earth, family-oriented, small-town
• Honest = honest, sincere, real
• Wholesome = wholesome, original
• Cheerful = cheerful, sentimental, friendly
• Daring = daring, trendy, exciting
• Spirited = spirited, cool, young
• Imaginative = imaginative, unique
• Up to date = up to date, independent, contemporary
• Reliable = reliable, hard working, secure
• Intelligent = intelligent, technical, corporate
• Successful = successful, leader, confident
• Upper class = upper class, glamorous, good looking
• Charming = charming, feminine, smooth
• Outdoorsy = outdoorsy, masculine, Western
• Tough = tough, rugged

The Brand Personality Dimensions Framework of Jennifer Aaker can be used to investigate the current status (IST) of a brand and to describe the desired future status (SOLL) of the brand.

Forum New Topic Forum about Brand Personality. How to Create a Brand? The Brand Creation Process Brands and Branding are essential components of a successful business. But more in detail, what attributes and properti (...) 10   27 comments Brand Personality - Education - Social Media Marketing Interesting theory, particularly for private educational institutions transitioning from more traditional marketing stra (...) 10   0 comments Brand Personality Questionaire Where can I find an inventory or questionnaire on brand personality dimensions? Thanks... (...) 9   1 comments 🔥 NEW 6 Human Attributes of Human-Centric Brands (Kotler) In marketing, it's being said for a long time: 'The Customer is King'. In the digital era, this saying is truly manifest (...) 6   2 comments CORPORATE Brand Personality Models Can we apply the same model to measure corporate brand personality (of banks)? Or else, what is best model to mea (...) 5   2 comments Destination Personality I am applying the personality dimensions to destination brands. Has anyone done this before? I am doubting which model i (...) 4   1 comments Brand Personality for Recruitment Has anyone tried to utlize this model for determining an organization's personality traits for the purpose of employment (...) 4   0 comments Using Brand Personality Dimensions Model for Goal Setting This is a good model and I would like to use this to set goals for my department and individual staff members. We need t (...) 4   1 comments Global Marketing Strategy The world that we know today is becoming more and more connected due to the effect of globalization, but consumers still (...) 3   0 comments Multi-attribute Theory I have a question regarding the linear multi-attribute theory? What is this model? What are indifference curves in terms (...) 3   2 comments Branding Case: Why the Branding of Mauritius Failed A branding exercise of Mauritius failed miserably because the dual-language slogan "Mauritius, c'est un plaisir" did not (...) 3   0 comments Employment Branding Survey I would like to do a survey on Employment Branding. Is it possible to suggest me on how to go about? (...) 2   1 comments

Expert Tips Sign up Advanced insights about Brand Personality. Here you will find professional advices by experts. Pitfalls of International / Global Brands Brand Portfolio Management, Brand Valuation Consistent with current trends in globalization, international firms have concentrated their efforts on the development (...) What are Attributes of Strong Brands? Brand Management, Brand Valuation In the article “The Brand Report Card” (Harvard Business Review, January 2000), Kevin Lane Keller argues that the world’ (...) How to Build a Brand in China Brand Development, China, Best Practices Based on data about Chinese consumers’ expectations, Paul F. Nunes, Susan A. Piotroski, Lay Lim Teo and R. Michael Mathe (...) Dimensions and Traits of the Corporate Brand Personality Corporate Brand Development In contrast to product brand personality, which typically relates to consumers and user imagery for a specific product b (...) Generic Traits of a Good Brand Brand Management, Checklist A good brand displays nine traits: 1. It drives shareholder value. 2. Top executives support the branding effort, mark (...) How to Divest 2nd Tier CPG Brands? Brand Portfolio Management, Freeing up Resources for Main Brands, Brand Valuation On top of the value of each individual brand comes the value of brands combined whith eachother. Bahadur, Landry and Tre (...) Benefits of a Strong Brand Personality Brand Management, Brand Strategy, Marketing Strategy A lot of research has been done on the effects of brand personality; these researches suggested various benefits that ma (...) The Need for Brand Authenticity Branding In an article called "Embrace the Dark Side" in the HBR of Oct 2006, Michael J. Fanuelle says that to be strong, brands (...) Generic Implementation Steps of a Global Brand Global Brand Development, Best Practices Firms that want to build global brands should take following 10 steps: 1. Involve the CEO and board to provide top-down (...) Why are Brands Often So Similar? Understanding Brand Similarity/Parity Branding, Brand Management, Brand Parity, Brand Similarity, Know Model, Brand Differentiation Despite of the efforts of companies to differentiate their brand from other brands, in many product categories a high le (...) Nationalism and Patriotism in Corporate Brand Communication Strategies Corporate Branding, Corporate Reputation, Corporate Nationality, Corporate Patriotism, Corporate Nationalism Past research in market communication revealed that many consumers prefer to purchase domestic brands because they want (...) Six Steps for Integrating Social Media Into your Organization Social Media Integration, Using Social Media, Social Media for Business In order to successfully integrate social media into your organization, six useful steps can be used. These are the foll (...) Status Brands: The influence of Power-distance Beliefs Branding, Brand Management, Power Distance, Brand Recognition Status brands are brands that can inherently raise the social prestige of its owners within a certain community or socie (...) The 22 Laws of Branding (Trout & Ries) Branding, Brand Recognition 1. The Law of Expansion: The power of a brand is inversely proportional to its scope. Trying to be all things to all peo (...) Focus Points in City Branding City Branding, Regional Branding, Geographical Branding Although most people are used to products and services marketing, cities are increasingly being used as a marketing tool (...) Brand Relationship Quality Branding, Brand Management, Brand Differentiation, Brand Relationship A lot of research has been done to consumers’ brand evaluations about brands by examining factors such as brand attitude (...) Three Dimensions in How Global Brands are Evaluated by Consumers Global Branding, Corporate Reputation, CSR, Globalization Holt et al. (2004) researched how people evaluate and value global brands. They found out that 3 main characteristics ar (...)

Information Sources Sign up Various sources of information regarding Brand Personality. Here you will find powerpoints, videos, news, etc. to use in your own lectures and workshops. Evolution of Consumer Brands over Time. Development Patterns and Transgression Brand Personality Effects over Time Article by Jennifer Aaker, Susan Fournier and S. Adam Brasel reports results from a longitudinal field experiment examin (...) The Impact of Fun and Classiness Brand Image Beliefs, Brand Image / Personality This study by Rajeev Batra and Pamela M. Homer experimentally examines some situational influences on the formation and (...) Jennifer Aaker: Strong Brands Start Internally Jennifer Aaker on Branding Jennifer Aaker explains that strong brands start inside the company. A strong brand involves not just "Branding" which (...) Brand Identity Positioning Positioning Brand Positioning by A. Kwanta Panthongprasert, Department of Advertsising, 2010. A clear summary presentation about Br (...) Original In-depth Research Paper by Aaker Brand Personality Although a considerable amount of research in personality psychology has been done to conceptualize human personality, i (...) Brand Stretching and Extension Brand Management, Brand Identity, Global Brand, Meta Brand Presentation that is mainly about Brand Stretching and branding in a Global Context. The presentation includes many exam (...) Martin's Trust Model: The Trust Matrix Trust, Corporate Reputation, Corporate Branding, Corporate Image An important determinant of the reputation of your brand, company or sector is TRUST. In the financial sector for exampl (...) Branding Cities: City Branding City Branding, Branding Strategies This presentation is about city branding. It explains how to successfully brand cities. The following sections are inclu (...) Country Branding: Branding a Country Country Branding, Place Branding This presentation is about branding a country or another geographic location. Next to the outline, there are several cou (...) How Sponsoring Enhances and Supports other Marketing Elements Initial Understanding of the Added Value of Sponsoring Fiona Green explaines that sponsoring is valuable to support and enhance other marketign elemenets such as CRM, PR, adve (...) Understand the Basics Behind Sport Sponsoring Initial Understanding of Sport Sponsoring A sponsorship is a business contract between a company and an individual, a club, a team or an event in which the compan (...) The Self-Expressing Role of Brands Brand Management 1999 Paper by Jennifer Aaker. Considerable research in consumer experimental psychology has examined the self-expressive (...) Brand Personality Model Diagram Brand Strategy Download and edit the 12manage PowerPoint model for limited personal, educational and business use. Republishing in int (...)

Research Links Sign up Automatically jump to further useful sources regarding Brand Personality. News Videos Presentations Books More

Compare with Aaker's Brand Personality Dimensions: Brand Identity Prism  |  Reputation Quotient  |  Brand Asset Valuator  |  Brand Equity Model

Return to Management Hub: Decision-making & Valuation  |  Knowledge & Intangibles  |  Marketing

More Management Methods, Models and Theory