Extending human personality to brands: The stability factor

Abstract

This paper explores the brand personality concept and investigates whether the human personality approach could be applied to the brand construct. Specifically it investigates whether brand personality is stable over time and in association with other brands, even with the introduction of reference brands. The results showed that stability over time and in association with other brands appeared to be inherent in brands, which suggested that the brand personality functioned in much the same way as the human personality and, by extension, the personality of brands would be likely to function much like the personality of humans. This has far-reaching managerial implications for the understanding of brands from the personality perspective. These implications underline the importance of brand congruity so that it becomes a fundamental principle for brand management and strategy.