Brand Identity Prism
(Kapferer)

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Analyzing the identity of a brand. Explanation of Brand Identity Prism of Jean-Noël Kapferer. ('92)

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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Best Practices - Brand Identity Prism Premium   Top-10 Naming Blunders For a Company, Product or Brand Here's a list of errors you should avoid when choosing a name for your brand, product or company: 1. Using your family name. Unless your name is unique and memorable, it contains minimal promotional...

Expert Tips - Brand Identity Prism Premium   Pitfalls of International / Global Brands Consistent with current trends in globalization, international firms have concentrated their efforts on t... Usage (application): Brand Portfolio Management, Brand Valuation       How to Build a Brand in China Based on data about Chinese consumers’ expectations, Paul F. Nunes, Susan A. Piotroski, Lay Lim Teo and R. Michael Matheis are offering following “... Usage (application): Brand Development, China, Best Practices       What are Attributes of Strong Brands? In the article “The Brand Report Card” (Harvard Business Review, January 2000), Kevin Lane Keller argues that the world’s strongest brands shar... Usage (application): Brand Management, Brand Valuation       Characteristics of a Good Brand Identity Prism A well-built Brand Identity Prism typically has the following formal characteristics: 1. There are few words to each facet 2. The words ar... Usage (application): Demands for Brand Identity Prism       How to Divest 2nd Tier CPG Brands? On top of the value of each individual brand comes the value of brands combined whith eachother. Bahadur, Landry and Treppo of consultancy firm BAH gi... Usage (application): Brand Portfolio Management, Freeing up Resources for Main Brands, Brand Valuation       Generic Traits of a Good Brand A good brand displays nine traits: 1. It drives shareholder value. 2. Top executives support the branding effort, marketing people ma... Usage (application): Brand Management, Checklist       Nationalism and Patriotism in Corporate Brand Communication Strategies Past research in market communication revealed that many consumers prefer to purchase domestic brands because they want to stimulate their own country... Usage (application): Corporate Branding, Corporate Reputation, Corporate Nationality, Corporate Patriotism, Corporate Nationalism       Why are Brands Often So Similar? Understanding Brand Similarity/Parity Despite of the efforts of companies to differentiate their brand from other brands, in many product categories a high level of brand similarity/brand ... Usage (application): Branding, Brand Management, Brand Parity, Brand Similarity, Know Model, Brand Differentiation       The Need for Brand Authenticity In an article called "Embrace the Dark Side" in the HBR of Oct 2006, Michael J. Fanuelle says that to be strong, brands need authenticity. Perfect pur... Usage (application): Branding       Generic Implementation Steps of a Global Brand Firms that want to build global brands should take following 10 steps: 1. Involve the CEO and board to provide top-down guidance. 2. ... Usage (application): Global Brand Development, Best Practices       The 22 Laws of Branding (Trout & Ries) 1. The Law of Expansion: The power of a brand is inversely proportional to its scope. Trying to be all things to all people undermines the power of th... Usage (application): Branding, Brand Recognition       Status Brands: The influence of Power-distance Beliefs Status brands are brands that can inherently raise the social prestige of its owners within a certain community or society. Status brands are dif... Usage (application): Branding, Brand Management, Power Distance, Brand Recognition       Brand Relationship Quality A lot of research has been done to consumers’ brand evaluations about brands by examining factors such as brand attitudes and perceived brand quality.... Usage (application): Branding, Brand Management, Brand Differentiation, Brand Relationship       Focus Points in City Branding Although most people are used to products and services marketing, cities are increasingly being used as a marketing tool since the end of the twentiet... Usage (application): City Branding, Regional Branding, Geographical Branding       Three Dimensions in How Global Brands are Evaluated by Consumers Holt et al. (2004) researched how people evaluate and value global brands. They found out that 3 main characteristics are critical in the evaluation o... Usage (application): Global Branding, Corporate Reputation, CSR, Globalization

Resources - Brand Identity Prism Premium Steve Jobs on Brand Strategy and Core Values In this video Steve Jobs gives a presentation on Marketing and Core Values. He argues that in this noisy and complicated world companies do not have m... Usage (application): Marketing, Branding, Strategic Vision, Core Values   Jennifer Aaker on Branding Jennifer Aaker explains the difference between brand and branding: - "Branding" is just the tip of the iceberg (the mark, the name, the icon, the... Usage (application): Jennifer Aaker on Branding   Social Media for Organizations This presentation provides interesting information about the usage of social media for businesses. The presentation includes the following sections: Usage (application): Social Media for Business, Online Business Identity, Corporate Reputation, Social Networking for Business   Brand Stretching and Extension Presentation that is mainly about Brand Stretching and branding in a Global Context. The presentation includes many examples and contains the followin... Usage (application): Brand Management, Brand Identity, Global Brand, Meta Brand   Martin's Trust Model: The Trust Matrix An important determinant of the reputation of your brand, company or sector is TRUST. In the financial sector for example, the abuse of public trust h... Usage (application): Trust, Corporate Reputation, Corporate Branding, Corporate Image   Branding Cities: City Branding This presentation is about city branding. It explains how to successfully brand cities. The following sections are included: 1. Cities: The mothe... Usage (application): City Branding, Branding Strategies   Country Branding: Branding a Country This presentation is about branding a country or another geographic location. Next to the outline, there are several country-examples given. The follo... Usage (application): Country Branding, Place Branding   Brand Identity Positioning Brand Positioning by A. Kwanta Panthongprasert, Department of Advertsising, 2010. A clear summary presentation about Brand Positioning. Fir... Usage (application): Positioning   How Sponsoring Enhances and Supports other Marketing Elements Fiona Green explaines that sponsoring is valuable to support and enhance other marketign elemenets such as CRM, PR, advertizing, etc., but can not rep... Usage (application): Initial Understanding of the Added Value of Sponsoring   Brand Identity and Brand Equity: Nike versus Adidas A presentation by K. Tichá that is a nice practical example of working with Brand Identity and Brand Equity, comparing Nike and Adidas. It includes th... Usage (application): Brand Management, Branding   Brand Identity Prism Diagram Download and edit this 12manage PowerPoint graphic for limited personal, educational and business use. Republishing in intranets, websites, books, ma... Usage (application): Brand Management     News Brand Identity         News Brand Dimensions         Videos Brand Identity         Videos Brand Dimensions         Presentations Brand Identity         Presentations Brand Dimensions         More Brand Identity         More Brand Dimensions

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