ABSTRACT
The personality approach in brand management explains how and why people choose brands with certain personalities and how imbuing brands with personality can be a powerful tool to create and enhance brand equity. Research into how personality affects consumer choice of brands and how personality can lead to stronger brands began in the field of consumer and advertising research. The rationale is that consumers ‘see’ themselves in the personality of the brand and use the brand personality in their construction and expression of identity and self. The brand personality approach draws on theories and insights from the academic fields of human psychology, sociology and consumer behavior. The personality approach introduces a strong emotional bond between the brand and the consumer, based on consumers’ use of the brand personality for the inward construction and outward expression of self. The nature of the brand–consumer exchange in the personality approach is interactive and dyadic and revolves around the exchange of symbolic benefits.
