Brand Character: Person, Place or Thing Exercises
What if your brand were a person? What would he look like? What would his personality be like? What if your brand were a place? What would it be? What would it look like? Who would be there? And what is the one thing your brand could be that would differentiate it in the marketplace? Asking yourself the “Person, Place or Thing” questions can help drive your branding efforts.
I recently met with a smart group of women who were starting up a literary performance group in Portland. They are a passionate group made up of two writers, an actress and a designer. They are in the process of developing a website and needed help with their branding. When I met with the women, they had a great sense of what they wanted to become as an organization and what kind of events they wanted to hold.
We discussed their brand positioning and the components of the brand. I took them through the different considerations of building a brand - like understanding the consumer insight, developing a brand promise, articulating brand benefits and reasons to believe. When we got to the brand personality, I asked them to think of a person that might embody their brand. They had a hard time coming up with a person. One person thought she was sophisticated like Audrey Hepburn, but another person felt Hepburn wasn’t modern enough. When no one else offered up any other personalities, I probed a bit more. I discovered that they all have vastly different ideas of what the brand personality is. Is it retrospective? Or is it contemporary? Is it creative and artsy? Or is it polished and professional? The Moth is a storytelling organization that we discussed as a 'competitor', and its personality is clearly defined – it's edgy, underground and cool. What was their brand going to be like?
In helping the group develop a solid personality for their brand, I thought about writing this blog post to describe some exercises they could use to assist in the process. I call it the “Person, Place or Thing ”exercises. Each of these approaches can be used together or separately. I use one or two of these exercises when I do consumers research to get deeper into diagnosing a brand issue. I also use these exercises when doing brand positioning workshops with my clients. Here are three projective exercises that every marketer should know to position or re-position their brand:
I. Brand Person
Consider these questions:
What if your Brand is a person? Imagine for a moment that your brand goes to a family reunion. He (or she) arrives at the party. What does he look like? Describe his appearance. Is he short or tall? Skinny, average or overweight? What is he wearing?
What’s his personality? What three adjectives would you use to describe his personality? How is he interacting with the other people at the party?
He goes and talks to a person at the party. Who is that other person? What do they talk about?
If your brand had a personal saying or a motto, what would it be?
If you brand were a famous person, who would it be?
After doing this exercise, you can get a clearer sense about how your brand should behave in the marketplace. Is your brand an irreverent teenager who shows up at the party in ripped jeans and smokes in front of his relatives even though he knows he shouldn’t? Is he like James Dean in Rebel without a Cause? Or is your brand an international spy who wears a three-piece Armani suit and is a serious lady magnet? Is he more like James Bond? Each of these brands would have entirely different brand personas that would help differentiate it in the marketplace.
I used this exercise in interviews with consumers of a major food brand. The category is extremely competitive with pricing driving much of the brand decisions. Confounding the issues, consumers think the brands are interchangeable. When I used this exercise in research, I learned that while the two competitors had distinct personalities, this brand had scattered perceptions. One competitor is consistently described as an older, maternal woman who is always taking care of others. The other competitor is described as a fun-loving child who sometimes got in trouble (think Dennis the Menace). The brand in question has an inconsistent persona. Sometimes the brand is described as a young Martha Stewart, and other times as a stodgy Englishman. When I followed up this conversation with: Which of these people do you want to hang out with? The answer was never our Brand. The other people are more approachable – and maybe even more fun. This exploration illuminated the need for the brand to strengthen its positioning and update its imagery to compete effectively in the marketplace.
II. Brand Place
Consider these questions:
What if your Brand is a place? What is the place?
What does it look like? Describe the décor. How is it decorated? What type of furniture is in it? What is the color palette?
What kind of people are hanging out in this place? Who are they? What do they look like? What is their relationship with each other?
What type of music is playing in the background?
Doing this exercise helps you get a lot clearer about the look and feel of your brand, and your brand’s personality. Is your brand an open-air market or is it a sleek, hip club? Is your brand a café in an Italian Piazza or a rodeo in the heart of Cowboy country? Your brand will inevitably show up differently in the marketplace if it were like any of these places.
What’s helpful about this exercise is it can illuminate some of the strengths or weaknesses that may exist with your brand imagery. I used this exercise in interviews with consumers of a beverage brand that competed in a sub-segment of the healthier ready-to-drink brands. When I asked this question in focus groups, I learned that the brand had great perceptions among its brand users. The brand is described as a cool, eclectic local bar where lots of like-minded creative types hang out. A competitor’s brand is described as a white, modern sleek retailer – like an Apple Store. Both brands have very strong imagery and perceptions were consistent across the groups that I did. When I asked Brand users: Which of these places would you want to hang out in? The answer was most often our Brand’s place. Great! The brand had strong imagery and had affiliation within our consumer group. We were building new products for this core group of people and we had a good starting point to move forward.
III. Brand Thing
Consider this question:
What’s the one thing your brand could be like that would differentiate it in the marketplace? (Note: This 'thing' should not be in the category in which you compete.)
I like challenging my clients to think about this question because it helps them get out of their category. Clients are often caught up in the dynamics of their own product categories and they don’t often think about taking inspiration from other categories. In my client’s offices, there are often shelf-sets of their competitor’s products. It makes sense to understand a category and its dynamics in the place consumers will see your product. But what if you also had a display of products that you can take inspiration from? Chances are your competition acts and behaves similarly to other competitors in the category. What if you were to take your brand cues from an entirely different category?
I once did a project for an eye care brand. Everyone in that category looks and behaves the same. The imagery is much like an eye doctor’s office – if you can imagine what one looks like. That is to say that the brands all look pretty sterile. The packaging is white. The font is serious. There is always a photo or illustration of an ‘eye’ on it. But what if this eye care brand was more like makeup? The packaging would be colorful and fun. The font would be eye-catching. The copy and instructions for use on the packaging would have personality.
If you have an existing brand that doesn't stand out in the category, maybe it’s time to think about the one other thing your brand can be like. Virgin fancies itself more like a night club than an airline. Apple is more like a design agency than a computer maker. What cues can your brand take from an entirely different category?
When you are designing your brand, ask your team to consider the “Person, Place or Thing” questions. These questions will help clarify your brand’s tone and personality, which will help you develop your brand's identity, including your logo and packaging. And it will help when designing your marketing mix and communicating your brand message.
Feel free to share your brand character aspirations below.
