One of the most overlooked elements in building a digital brand is to create a brand personality – or persona. A digital brand is a lot more than a logo, a website, and some social media accounts. Most successful brands make us feel something more than a memorable tagline, they give us unique experiences and form relationships with us.
The Personality
Think about a brand as a person. The visual elements are equivalent with how a person look and how they dress. However, the most important element in forming a long-lasting relationship with that person is the person’s personality. You do not want to hang out with a person if they do not get you, if they ignore you, are boring, or just simply do not listen to you. This is why the personality of the brand is crucial. A pretty account on Instagram is simply not enough to engage your target audience.
How Do You Create a Brand Personality?
Aaron Walter who wrote ‘Designing for Emotion‘ describes a list of action-based elements that can be used to create a brand personality:
- Create a personality image. What/who does your persona look like? Is it a person, animal or other object?
- Create an overview of your brand.
- List traits of your brand that you want to highlight.
- Map out the personality you desire from the list above.
- Describe how your persona would speak, and provide examples of copy.
- Describe how the persona engages with others.
- Put together a style guide with fonts and colours that match the persona.
Overall, the most important thing is to think about how the brand should act if it was a human being; should it be competent, sophisticated, excited, etc. It is crucial to understand your target audience as it is crucial to match their personality to establish a valuable connection and engagement. The consumers want to feel like they know you before they create a long-lasting relationship with you.
What is Next?
It can be difficult to create a valuable brand personality that matches your digital target audience. If you need help or have any questions, leave a comment or contact me.
