An examination of brand personality through methodological triangulation

Abstract

Because the brand now occupies a cornerstone position in marketing strategy, the concept of brand personality and its influence on consumer behaviour has emerged as a critically important research topic. Although a few initial explorations in this area document the effects of brand personality, questions about how and why it occurs remain. This paper attempts to replace this void with a cognitive theoretical perspective that borrows from associative memory formulations and anthropomorphism theory. A multi-method qualitative approach is used to triangulate the construct and explore this perspective in the consumer domain. Data provide support for the cognitive account of brand personality and suggest that: (1) brand personality is connected to many other brand associations in consumer memory and accessed through spreading activation; and (2) consumers embrace brands with strong, positive personalities because of a natural human tendency to anthropomorphise nonhuman objects. A discussion describes implications for brand managers generated by this research, and highlights additional complexities of brand personality that warrant further examination.