Brand Identity Prism
(Kapferer)

Knowledge Center

An obvious benefit of using a human being for a metaphor for a brand is that it becomes much more easy, especially for non-experts, to understand and discuss what a brand stands for. Consumers easily perceive brands as if they would have personality traits.

What is the Brand Identity Prism? Description

According to Jean-Noël Kapferer, brand personality should be just one key facet of brand identity.

Jennifer Aaker deserves credit for having revitalized the human metaphor for a brand, but she is causing conceptual confusion by merging a number of dimensions of brand identity into brand personality. Kapferer recommends to revitalize to the original terminology of brand identity as the overall brand descriptor.

Origin of the Brand Identity Prism. History

To understand Kapferer's model it is useful to read a bit of history:

Already in 1958, Martineau used the word "brand personality" to refer to the non-material dimensions that make a shop special: its character.

In the 60s and 70s there was a growing dissatisfaction with equating the product and the brand. A typical example of that was the term "Unique Selling Proposition" or USP from Rosser Reeves.

In 1982, Séguela, a VP of an adverting agency, recommended that all brands be described along three facets:

1. Physical. What does the product do and how well does it perform?
2. Character. Brand personality facet.
3. Style. Operational elements for adverting and communication.

In the late 80s, Ted Bates introduced the term "Unique Selling Personality". As a consequence, in the famous 'copy strategy' - the essential single sheet which summarizes the advertising strategy as related to copy - it became widespread to see a new item to be filled by account executives: brand personality.

Analogously to the use of the term "personality" in psychology, on the research side, the brand identity frameworks always quoted brand personality as a dimension of brand identity - namely those traits of human personality that can be attributed to the brand. Among the other dimensions are:

• Brand inner values (cultural facet)
• Brand relationship facet (its style of behavior, of conduct)
• Brand-reflected consumer facet
• Brand physical facet (its material distinguishing traits)

Book: Jean-Noël Kapferer - The New Strategic Brand Management: Creating and Sustaining ...

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Information Sources Various sources of information regarding Brand Identity. Here you will find powerpoints, videos, news, etc. to use in your own lectures and workshops. Jennifer Aaker on Branding Jennifer Aaker on Branding Jennifer Aaker explains the difference between brand and branding: - "Branding" is just the tip of the iceberg (the mar... Social Media for Organizations Social Media for Business, Online Business Identity, Corporate Reputation, Social Networking for Business This presentation provides interesting information about the usage of social media for businesses. The presentation incl... 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... Brand Identity Positioning Positioning Brand Positioning by A. Kwanta Panthongprasert, Department of Advertsising, 2010. A clear summary presentation about Br... 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... Brand Identity and Brand Equity: Nike versus Adidas Brand Management, Branding A presentation by K. Tichá that is a nice practical example of working with Brand Identity and Brand Equity, comparing N... Brand Identity Prism Diagram Brand Management Download and edit this 12manage PowerPoint graphic for limited personal, educational and business use. Republishing in ...

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