Description
Brand personality has been defined as the human characteristics or traits that can be attributed to a brand. Corporate brand personality is a form of brand personality specific to a corporate brand. Unlike a product brand personality that typically relates to consumers and user imagery for a specific product brand, a corporate brand personality can be defined in terms of the human characteristics or traits of the employees of the corporation as a whole.
© 2006 PALGRAVE MACMILLAN LTD 1350-23IX $30.00 BRAND MANAGEMENT VOL. 14, NOS. 1/2, 74–81 SEPTEMBER–NOVEMBER 2006 74
www.palgrave-journals.com/bm
Kevin Lane Keller
Professor of Marketing,
Tuck School of Business,
Dartmouth College, Hall
Hanover,
NH 03755, USA
Tel: + 1603 646 0393
E-mail: kevin.keller@dartmouth.
edu
will be true, and the former will impact
the latter.
What a company is and how it presents
itself to the consumer are de?ned by its
corporate brand personality. Corporate
brand personality is a form of brand person-
ality speci?c to a corporate brand. Brand
personality is understood as the human
characteristics or traits that can be attrib-
uted to a brand.
6
The way brand person-
ality is commonly explored in consumer
research is by asking questions such as: ‘ If
the brand were to come alive as a person,
what would it be like? What would it do?
Where would it live? What would it wear?
Who would it talk to if it went to a party
(and what would it talk about)? ’
INTRODUCTION
As markets continue to mature and
competition within industries grows
?ercer, companies will not succeed purely
on the basis of what products or services
they offer. Although these core func-
tions of the business are unquestionably
still crucial, other aspects such as
company culture and corporate citizen-
ship have increased in relative importance
in determining a company ’ s ability to
compete.
1 – 3
As a result, the success of a
21st century business will be de?ned as
much by who it is as what it does.
4,5
Historically, the identity of a company
resulted solely as the consequence of what
that company did. Increasingly, the reverse
The importance of corporate brand
personality traits to a successful
21st century business
Received (in revised form): 22nd April, 2006
KEVIN LANE KELLER
is the EB Osborn Professor of Marketing at Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College. Keller has served as brand
con?dant to marketers for some of the world ’ s most successful brands, including Disney, Ford, Intel, Levi Strauss, Nike,
Accenture and Starbucks. He wrote the textbook Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring and Managing Brand
Equity and co-authored with Philip Kotler the textbook Marketing Management .
KEITH RICHEY
is an independent consultant working in New York. He holds a joint Master ’ s degree in Global Media and
Communication from the University of Southern California and the London School of Economics.
Abstract
Brand personality has been de?ned as the human characteristics or traits that can be attributed to
a brand. Corporate brand personality is a form of brand personality speci?c to a corporate brand.
Unlike a product brand personality that typically relates to consumers and user imagery for a
speci?c product brand, a corporate brand personality can be de?ned in terms of the human
characteristics or traits of the employees of the corporation as a whole. A corporate brand
personality will re?ect the values, words, and actions of all employees of the corporation. A
successful 21st century ?rm must carefully manage its corporate brand personality. The three core
dimensions of corporate brand personality and two traits for each dimension that are crucial for
marketplace success are outlined as Passionate and Compassionate ( Heart ), Creative and
Disciplined ( Mind ) and Agile and Collaborative ( Body ). These traits have an interactive effect such
that the effects of one trait can be enhanced by the existence of another.
Journal of Brand Management (2006) 14, 74 – 81. doi: 10.1057/palgrave.bm.2550055
Keywords
corporate branding ;
corporate image ;
corporate values ; brand
personality ; brand
personality traits ;
corporate brand
personality
Keywords
corporate branding ;
corporate image ;
corporate values ; brand
personality ; brand
personality traits ;
corporate brand
personality
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IMPORTANCE OF CORPORATE BRAND PERSONALITY
Although the concept of brand person-
ality is relevant to both product brands
and corporate brands, there is an impor-
tant distinction that can be drawn between
the two types of brands that affects how
the brand personality concept should be
applied. A corporate brand is distinct from
a product brand in that a corporate brand
can encompass a much wider range of
associations.
6
For example, a corporate
brand may be more likely to invoke asso-
ciations based on people and relationships;
programs and values; and corporate cred-
ibility; as well as on common products
and their shared attributes or bene?ts.
Procter & Gamble is an example of a
corporate brand that has a more broadly
de?ned and differently composed set of
associations than those associations of the
product brands it owns (eg Tide, Pringles,
Mr Clean, Pantene, Iams, etc.).
Consequently, corporate brands will
typically have a set of personality traits that
is broader and differently composed than
the set of personality traits for each product
brand owned. By its nature, a product
brand is de?ned by what it does and repre-
sents, whereas a corporate brand is de?ned
as much by who it is as what it does. Unlike
a product brand personality that typically
relates to consumers and user imagery for
a speci?c product brand, a corporate brand
personality can be de?ned in terms of the
human characteristics or traits of the
employees of a corporation as a whole. A
corporate brand personality will therefore
re?ect the values, words and actions of
employees, individually and collectively.
Importantly, a successful 21st century ?rm
must carefully manage its corporate brand
personality. The corporate brand personality
should re?ect the corporate values held by
the organisation. For example, if environ-
mental stewardship is one of a company ’ s
core values, then attributes such as ‘ respon-
sible ’ and ‘ caring (for the environment) ’
would be re?ected in its set of brand person-
ality traits. In this way, the corporate brand
personality is shaped by the corporate values.
A company ’ s corporate brand personality
traits as seen by consumers and the general
public should be aligned with the company ’ s
internally espoused values.
Only once a corporation solidi?es an
appropriate set of personality traits that
are consistent with its values and drive
employee behaviours can it attain sustain-
able success against its competitors. In this
paper, a perspective on corporate brand
personality traits is offered. Speci?cally, it
is contended that there are three key sets
of traits that collectively de?ne corporate
brand personality. Maximising perform-
ance of the organisation on these three
sets of traits is therefore crucial for busi-
ness success in the 21st century.
CORPORATE BRAND PERSONALITY
TRAITS
Externally, corporate brands can establish
a number of valuable associations in the
minds of customers and other key constit-
uents that can help to differentiate the
brand, such as common product attributes,
bene?ts or attitudes; people and relation-
ships; programmes and values; and corpo-
rate credibility.
7 – 10
Regardless of how it
is constituted, a corporate image will
depend on a number of factors, such as
the products a company makes, the actions
it takes, and the manner in which it
communicates to consumers.
A key component of the corporate
image is the corporate brand personality.
In the past, brand personality has been
studied at the product level. Aaker
11
exam-
ined the brand personality attributed to 60
US product brands and found they fall into
?ve main clusters: (1) sincerity, (2) excite-
ment, (3) competence, (4) sophistication
and (5) ruggedness (see also Aaker et al .,).
12
KELLER AND RICHEY
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Product brand personality is strongly
de?ned in terms of user imagery — charac-
teristics of consumers who use or are
intended to use a brand. Brand personality
is seen as a means for consumers to express
their actual or idealised self-image.
Corporate brand personality, however, is
much more about perceptions of
employees — both senior management and
customer-facing — that make up the
company as well as the organisation as a
whole. Corporate brand personality re?ects
the values, actions, and words of all
employees of the corporation. In a busi-
ness-to-business setting, corporate brand
personality is often determined by direct
contact with a wide range of employees.
As a result of the different focus, corporate-
level traits transcend individual products
that the ?rm sells and the ?ve product
brand personality dimensions.
One useful means to characterise
corporate brand personality dimensions
is in terms of the tripartite view of
attitudes,
13
which consists of affective
(feelings), cognitive (thoughts) and cona-
tive (actions) dimensions. Speci?cally, we
believe that the corporate personality
traits of a successful 21st century business
can be grouped into three dimensions
related to the ‘ heart, ’ the ‘ mind ’ and the
‘ body ’ (see Figure 1 ). These dimensions
re?ect three distinct sets of personality
traits that can guide employees in
the organisation and in?uence how the
company will be viewed by others.
The ‘ heart ’ of the company is
comprised of two traits: passionate and
compassionate . The company must be
passionate about serving its customers
and competing in the market and
must have compassion for employees,
stakeholders, and members of the
communities in which it operates.
The ‘ mind ’ of the company contains
two traits: creative and disciplined . A
successful company must be creative
in its approach to serving its customers
and winning in the market, while also
adopting a disciplined approach that
ensures appropriate and consistent
actions across the organisation.
The ‘ body ’ of the company is made
up of two traits: agile and collaborative .
The successful company must possess
the agility to pro?tably react to changes
in the market and also employ a collab-
orative approach that ensures it works
well together inside and outside the
company toward common goals.
Note that the identi?cation of these three
core dimensions of corporate brand
personality is broadly consistent with
earlier academic work that empirically
analyzed approaches to corporate identity
research and identi?ed three core dimen-
sions of the ‘ Corporate Identity Mix: ’
Soul, Mind and Voice.
14,15
Next, we discuss these three corporate
brand personality dimensions in detail.
For each of the three dimensions, two
additional sub-dimensions are identi?ed
that capture the primary corporate person-
ality traits within these dimensions.
Heart: Passion and Compassion
The ‘ heart ’ of the organisation involves
passion and compassion. Employees of
—
—
—
Creative Collaborative
Compassionate
Disciplined Agile
Passionate
“Heart” “Mind”
“Body”
Figure 1 Corporate personality traits.
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IMPORTANCE OF CORPORATE BRAND PERSONALITY
successful 21st century ?rms must be
passionate about the company, its brands,
and their jobs.
16,17
If they do not feel
strongly about what they do, then it will
be dif?cult to motivate them to adopt
other vital corporate personality traits.
The passion felt by employees for their
speci?c roles in the company must extend
to their business, the industry in which it
competes, and the products and services
it offers customers. It is especially impera-
tive that employees be passionate about
what they do for their customers. As
customers are the core asset of any company,
every employee must have a strong desire
to assist the company in its commitment
to the customer. For example, GE ensured
that the customer ’ s interests would remain
a top priority internally by establishing the
‘ Voice of the Customer ’ process for iden-
tifying what matters most to customers and
allocating resources accordingly.
The 21st century ?rm must care deeply
about all its stakeholders, from its customers
to its employees to the members of the
communities in which it does business.
Customer care, for example, can be
demonstrated with customer rewards
programs, enhanced customer service, or
by responding to customer needs with
new products and services. Citibank ’ s
‘ Thank You ’ rewards program for its
banking customers is a recent example of
a customer care initiative. Employee care
can be manifested by enhanced bene?ts,
employee recognition programs, or pro?t
participation and shareholding schemes
such as Starbucks ‘ Bean Stock ’ program,
which gives every Starbucks employee
shares in the company. Community care
can be demonstrated by corporate social
responsibility initiatives or cause-related
marketing efforts such as Avon ’ s Walk for
Breast Cancer. Additionally, the ?rm must
show care for the environment, which can
be shown through efforts to use clean
energy sources in manufacturing or
programs to reduce the pollution produced
by the ?nished products themselves. Ben
& Jerry ’ s demonstrated its care for the
environment by splitting the traditional
?nancial bottom line into a ‘ double ’
bottom line, which included a measure-
ment of the environmental impact of their
products and processes.
Passion provides the internal drive for
employees, but it must be tempered by a
concern for others via compassion.
18
Nike
is an outstanding example of a company
whose passion for athletics and athletes
has fuelled great marketing success, but is
compassionate to others in many different
ways. Nike exhibits compassion to society
as a whole through their various commu-
nity initiatives such as the NikeGO
program to ‘ get kids moving and give
them a means to do it ’ and Zoneparcs in
the UK to transform playtime at UK
primary schools; environmental initiatives
such as Nike Considered, which uses
different footwear materials and construc-
tion to minimise waste and toxic substances,
and the Nike Reuse-A-Shoe recycling
program; and corporate responsibility
initiatives through best practice methods
in supply chain management and involve-
ment with the Global Alliance.
Mind: Creativity and Discipline
The ‘ mind ’ of a successful business must
be creative but disciplined. In particular,
21st century ?rms must possess creativity
to overcome the trade-offs inherent in
virtually all aspects of business. In many
ways, the most fundamental challenge
of management is how to reconcile or
address the many potential tradeoffs that
can exist in making marketing and other
decisions. Figure 2 lists a number of the
different possible trade-offs or con?icts
that can occur in making strategic, tactical,
KELLER AND RICHEY
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?nancial, or organisational decisions for
a company.
For example, a strategic tradeoff occurs
between building product performance
and crafting an appealing brand image,
since these strategies typically require
different competencies and skills. Finan-
cially, sales-generating and brand-building
activities are often in con?ict. One of the
surest ways to increase sales is to reduce
the price, but sustained price reductions
may lead to consumer perceptions of the
brand as ‘ discount ’ or ‘ cheap, ’ which would
detract from brand strength. Additionally,
the organisational tradeoff of customisa-
tion versus standardisation re?ects the fact
that increasingly customers desire prod-
ucts and services that are tailored to their
speci?c needs, but it is typically more
cost-ef?cient for companies to produce a
standardised version than a customised
one. Clearly, trade-offs are pervasive and
must be made in the context of
constrained — and often fairly limited
— resources.
But marketers do not want to neces-
sarily sub-optimise and emphasise one
dimension or the other. A better approach
would be to ‘ ?nesse the difference ’ and
achieve synergy between the two dimen-
sions. Marketing balance in this way could
occur by shrewdly reconciling the deci-
sion trade-offs — that is by ?nessing the
con?icting dimensions There is virtually
no way to do so, however, without crea-
tive, imaginative solutions.
For example, creative advertising can be
designed that both entertains and
sells products, as was the case with the
California Milk Processor Board ’ s Got
Milk? campaign. Brand equity-building
promotions that also move product can
be devised, as was the case with Procter
& Gamble ’ s promotion for Ivory soap that
reinforced a key attribute of ‘ ?oating ’ and
a key bene?t of ‘ purity ’ while also
increasing sales. Robust brand positions
can be established that stake out unique
competitive territory by simultaneously
creating points-of-party and points-
of-difference, such as was the case with
Apple ’ s ‘ The Power to Be Your Best ’ ad
campaign in the mid-1980s which recon-
ciled the seemingly negatively correlated
bene?ts of ‘ easy to use ’ (a point of differ-
ence) and ‘ powerful ’ (a point of parity) in
the minds of consumers.
In each of those cases, creativity and
innovative approaches overcame tough
marketing dilemmas. Innovations must go
beyond solving trade-offs, however, to also
address other organisational issues. Firms
must demonstrate the ability to ?nd new
solutions to old problems. For example,
Procter & Gamble, consistently among the
most innovative packaged-goods compa-
nies, recently created a more ef?cient way
to clean persistent bathroom stains with
• Strategically
– Retaining customers vs. Acquiring customers
– Brand expansion vs. Brand fortification
– Product performance vs. Brand image
– Points-of-parity vs. Points-of-difference
•
Tactically
– Push vs. Pull
– Continuity vs. Change
– Classic vs. Contemporary image
– Independent vs. Universal image
•
Financially
– Short-run vs. Long-run objectives
– Sales-generating vs. Brand building activities
– Accountable/Measurable tactics vs. not
– Quality maximization vs. Cost minimization
• Organizationally
– Global vs. Local
– Top-down vs. Bottom-up
– Customization vs. Standardization
– Internal vs. External
Figure 2 Some marketing trade-offs
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IMPORTANCE OF CORPORATE BRAND PERSONALITY
the launch of the Mr Clean Magic Eraser,
which contains a specialty chemical foam
made by BASF.
A successful ?rm must also be disci-
plined in its approach to growing its busi-
ness, which in itself at times can present
a trade-off with creativity. While it is
necessary to encourage and maintain crea-
tivity in the organisation, this creativity
must be focused to a certain degree. A
successful ?rm must concentrate on lever-
aging its core competencies and main-
taining focus on its core business, rather
than pursuing any new business opportu-
nity that arises. This can be best achieved
by setting appropriate priorities that
provide clear direction to all members of
the organisation as to what its business
goals are and how they can be met.
If ?rms are to compete successfully in
today ’ s rapidly changing marketplace, they
must transcend the current status quo and
?nd creative ways to systematically deliver
differentiated and unexpected value to
consumers. For example, 3M encourages a
culture of innovation by requiring its scien-
tists to spend 15 per cent of their time
pursuing research that interests them outside
their speci?c role in the company. As a
result, 3M consistently delivers innovative,
creative, and, importantly, differentiated
products that bring value to consumers.
With the ‘ 15per cent rule, ’ the company
manages the creativity of its employees so
that this creativity augments its core busi-
ness, rather than distracting from it.
To further maintain discipline, the 21st
century ?rm must resist following the latest
management fads, since frequently reorgan-
ising or restructuring a business to follow
untested management philosophies can be
distracting and even damaging. Similarly, the
?rm must avoid the ‘ grass is greener ’
syndrome, in which the ?rm de-emphasises
some existing businesses and markets in
favour of building new businesses and / or
competing in new markets that seem more
attractive for reasons such as that they are
growing faster or have fewer competitors.
Then, a few years later, the ?rm repeats the
move, shifting again into another new busi-
ness or market. The ?rm affected by the
‘ grass is greener ’ syndrome overlooks the
fact that success cannot be sustained by
continually chasing business trends.
Body: Agile and Collaborative
Finally, the ‘ body ’ of the ?rm involves
being agile and collaborative. A successful
21st century ?rm must possess the agility
to capture and deliver value to consumers
in the face of challenging market dynamics.
Many changes have occurred in the
marketing environment in recent years.
Undoubtedly, the marketing environment
will continue to evolve and change, often
in very signi?cant ways, in the coming
years. Shifts in consumer behaviour,
competitive strategies, government regu-
lations or other aspects of the marketing
environment can profoundly affect the
fortunes of a ?rm. Besides these external
forces, the ?rm itself may engage in a
variety of activities and changes in stra-
tegic focus or direction that may neces-
sitate minor or major adjustments in the
way that its brands are being marketed.
Consequently, effective brand manage-
ment requires proactive strategies designed
to at least maintain — if not actually
enhance — brand equity in the face of all of
these different forces. The ?rm must be able
to move forward quickly to take advantage
of new opportunities in the market. Google
is currently capitalising on its agility to move
rapidly into new markets such as IP
telephony, wireless internet access, and video
content provision as well as challenging
entrenched competitors in established
markets such as e-commerce, publishing,
desktop software and classi?ed ads.
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The 21st century ?rm must also adapt
its business model to changing conditions.
As noted above, it is important to apply
the appropriate level of discipline to ensure
that these changes do not dilute the
strength of its core business. To be truly
successful in the long term, the 21st century
?rm must be proactive, rather than reactive.
Being proactive requires that a ?rm antic-
ipate what changes will be necessary in the
future and proactively address them. Inno-
vation and relevance in all that it does will
require much agility by the ?rm as it
ensures that it continually moves forward,
but does so in the right direction.
Finally, the successful 21st century ?rm
must encourage collaboration among its
employees and seek a closely collaborative
atmosphere with its business partners.
Increasingly, a key goal of marketing is to
develop deep, enduring relationships with
all people or organisations that could
directly or indirectly affect the success of
the ?rm ’ s marketing activities.
Internally, the ?rm must foster a culture
of inter-departmental teamwork. Only
when employees willingly seek opportu-
nities to collaborate can a ?rm develop
the agility to overcome business challenges.
Externally, the ?rm must develop a network
of partners that offer complementary assets
and competencies, have common corpo-
rate values and beliefs, and jointly create
synergistic effects. For example, Wal-Mart
invites close collaboration from its biggest
suppliers by requiring them to perma-
nently staff teams at the retail giant ’ s
Bentonville, Arkansas headquarters.
Successful collaborations result from
relationship marketing that cultivates
the right kind of relationships with the
right constituent groups. Four key constit-
uents for marketing are customers,
employees, marketing partners (channels,
suppliers, distributors, dealers, university
scientists, agencies, etc.); and members of
the ?nancial community (shareholders,
investors, analysts). Relationship marketing
builds strong economic, logistical and social
ties among all these relevant parties.
Successful relationship marketing offers
the potential of smoother operations and
superior customer solutions. The ultimate
outcome of relationship marketing is the
building of a marketing network — the
company and all its supporting consti tuents
and stakeholders with whom it has
built mutually bene?cial relationships.
19
Marketing networks are invaluable company
assets. Increasingly, competition is not
between companies but between marketing
networks. Winning companies will be those
that build better net-works, in part through
a strong spirit of collaboration.
Developing strong relationships requires
understanding the capabilities and
resources of different groups, as well as
their needs, goals and desires. Each party
must be treated differently. Rich, multi-
faceted relationships with key constituents
create the foundation for a mutually bene-
?cial arrangement for both parties.
CONCLUSIONS
A whole greater than the sum of the
parts
A corporate brand personality is de?ned
in terms of three main dimensions, each of
which can be de?ned in terms of two key
traits: the ‘ heart ’ (passionate and compas-
sionate), the ‘ mind ’ (creative and disciplined)
and the ‘ body ’ (agile and collaborative).
Importantly, the effects of these three pairs
of corporate personality traits are enhanced
by each other. In other words, corporate
personality traits can have a multiplicative
or interactive effect, not an additive effect.
For example, passion can be the engine
for creativity. Employees who live the
brand and are close to their customers are
more likely to energetically pursue new
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IMPORTANCE OF CORPORATE BRAND PERSONALITY
solutions. Creativity, in turn, facilitates
agility, as ?rms are better able to respond
and react appropriately. As another
example, being disciplined allows for more
productive collaborations as the rules of
the game are clearly established between
partners. In short, a corporate personality
that maximises these three dimensions and
six traits should be better able to create
valuable synergistic effects.
One pro?table direction for additional
research study is to pro?le the conditions
favouring these synergistic effects. What
circumstances must prevail to maximise
these interactions? It will also be useful to
relate these corporate personality dimen-
sions to other corporate image dimen-
sions, for example corporate credibility
and associated perceived expertise, trust-
worthiness and likeability.
In closing, it is important to emphasise
that the corporate personality starts with
the company ’ s employees, who bring this
personality to life and actually determine
who a company is. A company can instill
the right values and personality attributes
in its people by establishing corporate-wide
values for everyone to live by, investing in
recruiting and training, communicating
objectives openly and listening to its
employees. For many ?rms, the employees
are the face of the company to the consumer
and it is therefore imperative that they
embody the corporate personality the ?rm
aspires to build. If everyone in a company
acts with ‘ heart, ’ ‘ mind ’ and ‘ body, ’ then the
company will be in a better position to
succeed in the 21st century.
Acknowledgments
Thanks are extended to John Hayes, Chief Marketing
Of?cer, American Express, for inspiring this article.
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form every member of your organization into a
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Management , 12th edn, Prentice-Hall, Upper
Saddle River, NJ .
doc_771611973.pdf
Brand personality has been defined as the human characteristics or traits that can be attributed to a brand. Corporate brand personality is a form of brand personality specific to a corporate brand. Unlike a product brand personality that typically relates to consumers and user imagery for a specific product brand, a corporate brand personality can be defined in terms of the human characteristics or traits of the employees of the corporation as a whole.
© 2006 PALGRAVE MACMILLAN LTD 1350-23IX $30.00 BRAND MANAGEMENT VOL. 14, NOS. 1/2, 74–81 SEPTEMBER–NOVEMBER 2006 74
www.palgrave-journals.com/bm
Kevin Lane Keller
Professor of Marketing,
Tuck School of Business,
Dartmouth College, Hall
Hanover,
NH 03755, USA
Tel: + 1603 646 0393
E-mail: kevin.keller@dartmouth.
edu
will be true, and the former will impact
the latter.
What a company is and how it presents
itself to the consumer are de?ned by its
corporate brand personality. Corporate
brand personality is a form of brand person-
ality speci?c to a corporate brand. Brand
personality is understood as the human
characteristics or traits that can be attrib-
uted to a brand.
6
The way brand person-
ality is commonly explored in consumer
research is by asking questions such as: ‘ If
the brand were to come alive as a person,
what would it be like? What would it do?
Where would it live? What would it wear?
Who would it talk to if it went to a party
(and what would it talk about)? ’
INTRODUCTION
As markets continue to mature and
competition within industries grows
?ercer, companies will not succeed purely
on the basis of what products or services
they offer. Although these core func-
tions of the business are unquestionably
still crucial, other aspects such as
company culture and corporate citizen-
ship have increased in relative importance
in determining a company ’ s ability to
compete.
1 – 3
As a result, the success of a
21st century business will be de?ned as
much by who it is as what it does.
4,5
Historically, the identity of a company
resulted solely as the consequence of what
that company did. Increasingly, the reverse
The importance of corporate brand
personality traits to a successful
21st century business
Received (in revised form): 22nd April, 2006
KEVIN LANE KELLER
is the EB Osborn Professor of Marketing at Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College. Keller has served as brand
con?dant to marketers for some of the world ’ s most successful brands, including Disney, Ford, Intel, Levi Strauss, Nike,
Accenture and Starbucks. He wrote the textbook Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring and Managing Brand
Equity and co-authored with Philip Kotler the textbook Marketing Management .
KEITH RICHEY
is an independent consultant working in New York. He holds a joint Master ’ s degree in Global Media and
Communication from the University of Southern California and the London School of Economics.
Abstract
Brand personality has been de?ned as the human characteristics or traits that can be attributed to
a brand. Corporate brand personality is a form of brand personality speci?c to a corporate brand.
Unlike a product brand personality that typically relates to consumers and user imagery for a
speci?c product brand, a corporate brand personality can be de?ned in terms of the human
characteristics or traits of the employees of the corporation as a whole. A corporate brand
personality will re?ect the values, words, and actions of all employees of the corporation. A
successful 21st century ?rm must carefully manage its corporate brand personality. The three core
dimensions of corporate brand personality and two traits for each dimension that are crucial for
marketplace success are outlined as Passionate and Compassionate ( Heart ), Creative and
Disciplined ( Mind ) and Agile and Collaborative ( Body ). These traits have an interactive effect such
that the effects of one trait can be enhanced by the existence of another.
Journal of Brand Management (2006) 14, 74 – 81. doi: 10.1057/palgrave.bm.2550055
Keywords
corporate branding ;
corporate image ;
corporate values ; brand
personality ; brand
personality traits ;
corporate brand
personality
Keywords
corporate branding ;
corporate image ;
corporate values ; brand
personality ; brand
personality traits ;
corporate brand
personality
© 2006 PALGRAVE MACMILLAN LTD 1350-23IX $30.00 BRAND MANAGEMENT VOL. 14, NOS. 1/2, 74–81 SEPTEMBER–NOVEMBER 2006 75
IMPORTANCE OF CORPORATE BRAND PERSONALITY
Although the concept of brand person-
ality is relevant to both product brands
and corporate brands, there is an impor-
tant distinction that can be drawn between
the two types of brands that affects how
the brand personality concept should be
applied. A corporate brand is distinct from
a product brand in that a corporate brand
can encompass a much wider range of
associations.
6
For example, a corporate
brand may be more likely to invoke asso-
ciations based on people and relationships;
programs and values; and corporate cred-
ibility; as well as on common products
and their shared attributes or bene?ts.
Procter & Gamble is an example of a
corporate brand that has a more broadly
de?ned and differently composed set of
associations than those associations of the
product brands it owns (eg Tide, Pringles,
Mr Clean, Pantene, Iams, etc.).
Consequently, corporate brands will
typically have a set of personality traits that
is broader and differently composed than
the set of personality traits for each product
brand owned. By its nature, a product
brand is de?ned by what it does and repre-
sents, whereas a corporate brand is de?ned
as much by who it is as what it does. Unlike
a product brand personality that typically
relates to consumers and user imagery for
a speci?c product brand, a corporate brand
personality can be de?ned in terms of the
human characteristics or traits of the
employees of a corporation as a whole. A
corporate brand personality will therefore
re?ect the values, words and actions of
employees, individually and collectively.
Importantly, a successful 21st century ?rm
must carefully manage its corporate brand
personality. The corporate brand personality
should re?ect the corporate values held by
the organisation. For example, if environ-
mental stewardship is one of a company ’ s
core values, then attributes such as ‘ respon-
sible ’ and ‘ caring (for the environment) ’
would be re?ected in its set of brand person-
ality traits. In this way, the corporate brand
personality is shaped by the corporate values.
A company ’ s corporate brand personality
traits as seen by consumers and the general
public should be aligned with the company ’ s
internally espoused values.
Only once a corporation solidi?es an
appropriate set of personality traits that
are consistent with its values and drive
employee behaviours can it attain sustain-
able success against its competitors. In this
paper, a perspective on corporate brand
personality traits is offered. Speci?cally, it
is contended that there are three key sets
of traits that collectively de?ne corporate
brand personality. Maximising perform-
ance of the organisation on these three
sets of traits is therefore crucial for busi-
ness success in the 21st century.
CORPORATE BRAND PERSONALITY
TRAITS
Externally, corporate brands can establish
a number of valuable associations in the
minds of customers and other key constit-
uents that can help to differentiate the
brand, such as common product attributes,
bene?ts or attitudes; people and relation-
ships; programmes and values; and corpo-
rate credibility.
7 – 10
Regardless of how it
is constituted, a corporate image will
depend on a number of factors, such as
the products a company makes, the actions
it takes, and the manner in which it
communicates to consumers.
A key component of the corporate
image is the corporate brand personality.
In the past, brand personality has been
studied at the product level. Aaker
11
exam-
ined the brand personality attributed to 60
US product brands and found they fall into
?ve main clusters: (1) sincerity, (2) excite-
ment, (3) competence, (4) sophistication
and (5) ruggedness (see also Aaker et al .,).
12
KELLER AND RICHEY
© 2006 PALGRAVE MACMILLAN LTD 1350-23IX $30.00 BRAND MANAGEMENT VOL. 14, NOS. 1/2, 74–81 SEPTEMBER–NOVEMBER 2006 76
Product brand personality is strongly
de?ned in terms of user imagery — charac-
teristics of consumers who use or are
intended to use a brand. Brand personality
is seen as a means for consumers to express
their actual or idealised self-image.
Corporate brand personality, however, is
much more about perceptions of
employees — both senior management and
customer-facing — that make up the
company as well as the organisation as a
whole. Corporate brand personality re?ects
the values, actions, and words of all
employees of the corporation. In a busi-
ness-to-business setting, corporate brand
personality is often determined by direct
contact with a wide range of employees.
As a result of the different focus, corporate-
level traits transcend individual products
that the ?rm sells and the ?ve product
brand personality dimensions.
One useful means to characterise
corporate brand personality dimensions
is in terms of the tripartite view of
attitudes,
13
which consists of affective
(feelings), cognitive (thoughts) and cona-
tive (actions) dimensions. Speci?cally, we
believe that the corporate personality
traits of a successful 21st century business
can be grouped into three dimensions
related to the ‘ heart, ’ the ‘ mind ’ and the
‘ body ’ (see Figure 1 ). These dimensions
re?ect three distinct sets of personality
traits that can guide employees in
the organisation and in?uence how the
company will be viewed by others.
The ‘ heart ’ of the company is
comprised of two traits: passionate and
compassionate . The company must be
passionate about serving its customers
and competing in the market and
must have compassion for employees,
stakeholders, and members of the
communities in which it operates.
The ‘ mind ’ of the company contains
two traits: creative and disciplined . A
successful company must be creative
in its approach to serving its customers
and winning in the market, while also
adopting a disciplined approach that
ensures appropriate and consistent
actions across the organisation.
The ‘ body ’ of the company is made
up of two traits: agile and collaborative .
The successful company must possess
the agility to pro?tably react to changes
in the market and also employ a collab-
orative approach that ensures it works
well together inside and outside the
company toward common goals.
Note that the identi?cation of these three
core dimensions of corporate brand
personality is broadly consistent with
earlier academic work that empirically
analyzed approaches to corporate identity
research and identi?ed three core dimen-
sions of the ‘ Corporate Identity Mix: ’
Soul, Mind and Voice.
14,15
Next, we discuss these three corporate
brand personality dimensions in detail.
For each of the three dimensions, two
additional sub-dimensions are identi?ed
that capture the primary corporate person-
ality traits within these dimensions.
Heart: Passion and Compassion
The ‘ heart ’ of the organisation involves
passion and compassion. Employees of
—
—
—
Creative Collaborative
Compassionate
Disciplined Agile
Passionate
“Heart” “Mind”
“Body”
Figure 1 Corporate personality traits.
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IMPORTANCE OF CORPORATE BRAND PERSONALITY
successful 21st century ?rms must be
passionate about the company, its brands,
and their jobs.
16,17
If they do not feel
strongly about what they do, then it will
be dif?cult to motivate them to adopt
other vital corporate personality traits.
The passion felt by employees for their
speci?c roles in the company must extend
to their business, the industry in which it
competes, and the products and services
it offers customers. It is especially impera-
tive that employees be passionate about
what they do for their customers. As
customers are the core asset of any company,
every employee must have a strong desire
to assist the company in its commitment
to the customer. For example, GE ensured
that the customer ’ s interests would remain
a top priority internally by establishing the
‘ Voice of the Customer ’ process for iden-
tifying what matters most to customers and
allocating resources accordingly.
The 21st century ?rm must care deeply
about all its stakeholders, from its customers
to its employees to the members of the
communities in which it does business.
Customer care, for example, can be
demonstrated with customer rewards
programs, enhanced customer service, or
by responding to customer needs with
new products and services. Citibank ’ s
‘ Thank You ’ rewards program for its
banking customers is a recent example of
a customer care initiative. Employee care
can be manifested by enhanced bene?ts,
employee recognition programs, or pro?t
participation and shareholding schemes
such as Starbucks ‘ Bean Stock ’ program,
which gives every Starbucks employee
shares in the company. Community care
can be demonstrated by corporate social
responsibility initiatives or cause-related
marketing efforts such as Avon ’ s Walk for
Breast Cancer. Additionally, the ?rm must
show care for the environment, which can
be shown through efforts to use clean
energy sources in manufacturing or
programs to reduce the pollution produced
by the ?nished products themselves. Ben
& Jerry ’ s demonstrated its care for the
environment by splitting the traditional
?nancial bottom line into a ‘ double ’
bottom line, which included a measure-
ment of the environmental impact of their
products and processes.
Passion provides the internal drive for
employees, but it must be tempered by a
concern for others via compassion.
18
Nike
is an outstanding example of a company
whose passion for athletics and athletes
has fuelled great marketing success, but is
compassionate to others in many different
ways. Nike exhibits compassion to society
as a whole through their various commu-
nity initiatives such as the NikeGO
program to ‘ get kids moving and give
them a means to do it ’ and Zoneparcs in
the UK to transform playtime at UK
primary schools; environmental initiatives
such as Nike Considered, which uses
different footwear materials and construc-
tion to minimise waste and toxic substances,
and the Nike Reuse-A-Shoe recycling
program; and corporate responsibility
initiatives through best practice methods
in supply chain management and involve-
ment with the Global Alliance.
Mind: Creativity and Discipline
The ‘ mind ’ of a successful business must
be creative but disciplined. In particular,
21st century ?rms must possess creativity
to overcome the trade-offs inherent in
virtually all aspects of business. In many
ways, the most fundamental challenge
of management is how to reconcile or
address the many potential tradeoffs that
can exist in making marketing and other
decisions. Figure 2 lists a number of the
different possible trade-offs or con?icts
that can occur in making strategic, tactical,
KELLER AND RICHEY
© 2006 PALGRAVE MACMILLAN LTD 1350-23IX $30.00 BRAND MANAGEMENT VOL. 14, NOS. 1/2, 74–81 SEPTEMBER–NOVEMBER 2006 78
?nancial, or organisational decisions for
a company.
For example, a strategic tradeoff occurs
between building product performance
and crafting an appealing brand image,
since these strategies typically require
different competencies and skills. Finan-
cially, sales-generating and brand-building
activities are often in con?ict. One of the
surest ways to increase sales is to reduce
the price, but sustained price reductions
may lead to consumer perceptions of the
brand as ‘ discount ’ or ‘ cheap, ’ which would
detract from brand strength. Additionally,
the organisational tradeoff of customisa-
tion versus standardisation re?ects the fact
that increasingly customers desire prod-
ucts and services that are tailored to their
speci?c needs, but it is typically more
cost-ef?cient for companies to produce a
standardised version than a customised
one. Clearly, trade-offs are pervasive and
must be made in the context of
constrained — and often fairly limited
— resources.
But marketers do not want to neces-
sarily sub-optimise and emphasise one
dimension or the other. A better approach
would be to ‘ ?nesse the difference ’ and
achieve synergy between the two dimen-
sions. Marketing balance in this way could
occur by shrewdly reconciling the deci-
sion trade-offs — that is by ?nessing the
con?icting dimensions There is virtually
no way to do so, however, without crea-
tive, imaginative solutions.
For example, creative advertising can be
designed that both entertains and
sells products, as was the case with the
California Milk Processor Board ’ s Got
Milk? campaign. Brand equity-building
promotions that also move product can
be devised, as was the case with Procter
& Gamble ’ s promotion for Ivory soap that
reinforced a key attribute of ‘ ?oating ’ and
a key bene?t of ‘ purity ’ while also
increasing sales. Robust brand positions
can be established that stake out unique
competitive territory by simultaneously
creating points-of-party and points-
of-difference, such as was the case with
Apple ’ s ‘ The Power to Be Your Best ’ ad
campaign in the mid-1980s which recon-
ciled the seemingly negatively correlated
bene?ts of ‘ easy to use ’ (a point of differ-
ence) and ‘ powerful ’ (a point of parity) in
the minds of consumers.
In each of those cases, creativity and
innovative approaches overcame tough
marketing dilemmas. Innovations must go
beyond solving trade-offs, however, to also
address other organisational issues. Firms
must demonstrate the ability to ?nd new
solutions to old problems. For example,
Procter & Gamble, consistently among the
most innovative packaged-goods compa-
nies, recently created a more ef?cient way
to clean persistent bathroom stains with
• Strategically
– Retaining customers vs. Acquiring customers
– Brand expansion vs. Brand fortification
– Product performance vs. Brand image
– Points-of-parity vs. Points-of-difference
•
Tactically
– Push vs. Pull
– Continuity vs. Change
– Classic vs. Contemporary image
– Independent vs. Universal image
•
Financially
– Short-run vs. Long-run objectives
– Sales-generating vs. Brand building activities
– Accountable/Measurable tactics vs. not
– Quality maximization vs. Cost minimization
• Organizationally
– Global vs. Local
– Top-down vs. Bottom-up
– Customization vs. Standardization
– Internal vs. External
Figure 2 Some marketing trade-offs
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IMPORTANCE OF CORPORATE BRAND PERSONALITY
the launch of the Mr Clean Magic Eraser,
which contains a specialty chemical foam
made by BASF.
A successful ?rm must also be disci-
plined in its approach to growing its busi-
ness, which in itself at times can present
a trade-off with creativity. While it is
necessary to encourage and maintain crea-
tivity in the organisation, this creativity
must be focused to a certain degree. A
successful ?rm must concentrate on lever-
aging its core competencies and main-
taining focus on its core business, rather
than pursuing any new business opportu-
nity that arises. This can be best achieved
by setting appropriate priorities that
provide clear direction to all members of
the organisation as to what its business
goals are and how they can be met.
If ?rms are to compete successfully in
today ’ s rapidly changing marketplace, they
must transcend the current status quo and
?nd creative ways to systematically deliver
differentiated and unexpected value to
consumers. For example, 3M encourages a
culture of innovation by requiring its scien-
tists to spend 15 per cent of their time
pursuing research that interests them outside
their speci?c role in the company. As a
result, 3M consistently delivers innovative,
creative, and, importantly, differentiated
products that bring value to consumers.
With the ‘ 15per cent rule, ’ the company
manages the creativity of its employees so
that this creativity augments its core busi-
ness, rather than distracting from it.
To further maintain discipline, the 21st
century ?rm must resist following the latest
management fads, since frequently reorgan-
ising or restructuring a business to follow
untested management philosophies can be
distracting and even damaging. Similarly, the
?rm must avoid the ‘ grass is greener ’
syndrome, in which the ?rm de-emphasises
some existing businesses and markets in
favour of building new businesses and / or
competing in new markets that seem more
attractive for reasons such as that they are
growing faster or have fewer competitors.
Then, a few years later, the ?rm repeats the
move, shifting again into another new busi-
ness or market. The ?rm affected by the
‘ grass is greener ’ syndrome overlooks the
fact that success cannot be sustained by
continually chasing business trends.
Body: Agile and Collaborative
Finally, the ‘ body ’ of the ?rm involves
being agile and collaborative. A successful
21st century ?rm must possess the agility
to capture and deliver value to consumers
in the face of challenging market dynamics.
Many changes have occurred in the
marketing environment in recent years.
Undoubtedly, the marketing environment
will continue to evolve and change, often
in very signi?cant ways, in the coming
years. Shifts in consumer behaviour,
competitive strategies, government regu-
lations or other aspects of the marketing
environment can profoundly affect the
fortunes of a ?rm. Besides these external
forces, the ?rm itself may engage in a
variety of activities and changes in stra-
tegic focus or direction that may neces-
sitate minor or major adjustments in the
way that its brands are being marketed.
Consequently, effective brand manage-
ment requires proactive strategies designed
to at least maintain — if not actually
enhance — brand equity in the face of all of
these different forces. The ?rm must be able
to move forward quickly to take advantage
of new opportunities in the market. Google
is currently capitalising on its agility to move
rapidly into new markets such as IP
telephony, wireless internet access, and video
content provision as well as challenging
entrenched competitors in established
markets such as e-commerce, publishing,
desktop software and classi?ed ads.
KELLER AND RICHEY
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The 21st century ?rm must also adapt
its business model to changing conditions.
As noted above, it is important to apply
the appropriate level of discipline to ensure
that these changes do not dilute the
strength of its core business. To be truly
successful in the long term, the 21st century
?rm must be proactive, rather than reactive.
Being proactive requires that a ?rm antic-
ipate what changes will be necessary in the
future and proactively address them. Inno-
vation and relevance in all that it does will
require much agility by the ?rm as it
ensures that it continually moves forward,
but does so in the right direction.
Finally, the successful 21st century ?rm
must encourage collaboration among its
employees and seek a closely collaborative
atmosphere with its business partners.
Increasingly, a key goal of marketing is to
develop deep, enduring relationships with
all people or organisations that could
directly or indirectly affect the success of
the ?rm ’ s marketing activities.
Internally, the ?rm must foster a culture
of inter-departmental teamwork. Only
when employees willingly seek opportu-
nities to collaborate can a ?rm develop
the agility to overcome business challenges.
Externally, the ?rm must develop a network
of partners that offer complementary assets
and competencies, have common corpo-
rate values and beliefs, and jointly create
synergistic effects. For example, Wal-Mart
invites close collaboration from its biggest
suppliers by requiring them to perma-
nently staff teams at the retail giant ’ s
Bentonville, Arkansas headquarters.
Successful collaborations result from
relationship marketing that cultivates
the right kind of relationships with the
right constituent groups. Four key constit-
uents for marketing are customers,
employees, marketing partners (channels,
suppliers, distributors, dealers, university
scientists, agencies, etc.); and members of
the ?nancial community (shareholders,
investors, analysts). Relationship marketing
builds strong economic, logistical and social
ties among all these relevant parties.
Successful relationship marketing offers
the potential of smoother operations and
superior customer solutions. The ultimate
outcome of relationship marketing is the
building of a marketing network — the
company and all its supporting consti tuents
and stakeholders with whom it has
built mutually bene?cial relationships.
19
Marketing networks are invaluable company
assets. Increasingly, competition is not
between companies but between marketing
networks. Winning companies will be those
that build better net-works, in part through
a strong spirit of collaboration.
Developing strong relationships requires
understanding the capabilities and
resources of different groups, as well as
their needs, goals and desires. Each party
must be treated differently. Rich, multi-
faceted relationships with key constituents
create the foundation for a mutually bene-
?cial arrangement for both parties.
CONCLUSIONS
A whole greater than the sum of the
parts
A corporate brand personality is de?ned
in terms of three main dimensions, each of
which can be de?ned in terms of two key
traits: the ‘ heart ’ (passionate and compas-
sionate), the ‘ mind ’ (creative and disciplined)
and the ‘ body ’ (agile and collaborative).
Importantly, the effects of these three pairs
of corporate personality traits are enhanced
by each other. In other words, corporate
personality traits can have a multiplicative
or interactive effect, not an additive effect.
For example, passion can be the engine
for creativity. Employees who live the
brand and are close to their customers are
more likely to energetically pursue new
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IMPORTANCE OF CORPORATE BRAND PERSONALITY
solutions. Creativity, in turn, facilitates
agility, as ?rms are better able to respond
and react appropriately. As another
example, being disciplined allows for more
productive collaborations as the rules of
the game are clearly established between
partners. In short, a corporate personality
that maximises these three dimensions and
six traits should be better able to create
valuable synergistic effects.
One pro?table direction for additional
research study is to pro?le the conditions
favouring these synergistic effects. What
circumstances must prevail to maximise
these interactions? It will also be useful to
relate these corporate personality dimen-
sions to other corporate image dimen-
sions, for example corporate credibility
and associated perceived expertise, trust-
worthiness and likeability.
In closing, it is important to emphasise
that the corporate personality starts with
the company ’ s employees, who bring this
personality to life and actually determine
who a company is. A company can instill
the right values and personality attributes
in its people by establishing corporate-wide
values for everyone to live by, investing in
recruiting and training, communicating
objectives openly and listening to its
employees. For many ?rms, the employees
are the face of the company to the consumer
and it is therefore imperative that they
embody the corporate personality the ?rm
aspires to build. If everyone in a company
acts with ‘ heart, ’ ‘ mind ’ and ‘ body, ’ then the
company will be in a better position to
succeed in the 21st century.
Acknowledgments
Thanks are extended to John Hayes, Chief Marketing
Of?cer, American Express, for inspiring this article.
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