So what’s the role of personality in branding? Guy Kawasaki interviews Rohit Bhargava for the answer. The full exchange is well worth the three minutes you’ll spend reading it.
The short answer is that personality adds a human touch to your product or service. And that persona gives your brand a chance to create a human connection with customers and clients.
Bhargava argues that creating a personality around your brand is more than creating a Facebook profile. It’s creating a relationship. An organization that seeks to capitalize on the “green” wave would be wise follow his advice to add “conscientious,” “smart” and “progressive” to the adjectives applied to its brand.
Question: What is the first steps in creating a brand personality?
Answer: One thing that many people are talking about is the role of social media in creating a brand personality. Though it may be tempting to launch an online social network, or a brand new shiny blog, personality is not just about social media.
The real first step is to focus on what I call the three core elements of personality: being unique, authentic, and talkable. This means making it ok for your employees and customers to talk about you.
The trick is to let go of any notion that you can control the conversation between your brand and the people who care about it (employees and customers). It’s a conversation — sometimes unpredictable, always imperfect. But if you allow it to happen, your brand will shine through as real and compelling.
So how do you start?
Question: What are the most important tools for creating a brand personality?
Answer: The word “tools” is not the right one to use; the best way to spread a brand personality–not surprisingly–is through people. Employees and customers are the messengers of this personality and ideally the way that it will come to life.
People make and buy products. People build brand personalities; green, gray and every shade in between.