3 dead-simple steps to defining your brand's personality

1) Start with your customers

Customers are always the best place to start.

They offer insight into your product or service that you might have overlooked.

Look at your offering.

Look at the type of business that you have.

What do you want customers to feel when they interact with your brand?

Make sure this feeling is aligned with your business.

Example.

A lock manufacturer would want people to feel safe

2) Create a list of adjectives

Once you know how you want people to feel.

Write down a list of words that describe your brand.

It might help to think of how you would describe your brand if it was a person.

Which celebrity would your brand be?

If your business is selling or making expensive dress watches it could be George Clooney, or maybe George Clooney’s brother.

The person doesn’t have to be real.

As long as you have a good idea about how you would describe this person.

Example.

• Helpful
• Smart
• Caring

Put together a list as long as you can

3) Use brand archetypes

Then use the brand archetype wheel.

Originally developed by Carl Jung

The theory is that we all encounter the same sort of people or characters over and over again.

If you think about your favourite films.

They will all have the same kind of characters.

Or archetypes.

Take your list of words from step two.

Then put each one against an archetype.

Example

Caring and helpful would be next to the caregiver archetype.

The one with the most words next to it is your primary archetype.

Then you could have a second and third.

or just a second.

Don’t have more than three.

Break them down

It can help to put a percentage beside each one so you know how much each weighs.

Example

• Sage 60%

• Caregiver 30%

• Innocent 10%

This gives you a good idea of the personality of your brand.

In the end, you should know

• How you want people to feel

• keywords to describe your brand’s character

• A primary brand archetype

Use this information to inform your visual identity, tone of voice and messaging.