Brand Core · Brand Identity · Module
Brand personality
The traits the brand behaves as if it had — chosen deliberately, with things it is explicitly not, because that is what governs the judgement calls no guideline covers.
The idea
How it works
Personality is what people fall back on when the guidelines do not cover the situation, which is most situations. That makes it the most used part of an identity and usually the least specified.
The trait list is only useful if it excludes. “Friendly, professional, innovative” describes almost every organisation and settles nothing; naming what the brand is deliberately not is what makes the list operational.
Working with it
In practice
- 01
Choose three traits, not seven
A long list averages out to no personality at all. Three that genuinely constrain are worth more than seven that flatter.
- 02
Name the opposite for each
“Warm, not casual.” “Direct, not blunt.” The second half is what makes the first usable.
- 03
Express it as behaviour
What would this brand do when a customer is angry? Adjectives do not answer that; behavioural rules do.
- 04
Test it on real material
Take three existing pieces and ask whether they read as this personality. Usually one does not, and that is the finding.
One level in
The components of brand personality
A component is something that exists afterwards which did not exist before — a deliverable or a mechanism, not an intention.
The behavioural rules
How the personality shows up in specific situations, particularly difficult ones.
Learn
Every trait needs its opposite written next to it. “Warm, not casual” is usable; “warm” alone is not.
The other modules in brand identity
Visual system
Logo, colour, typography, imagery and layout — specified precisely enough to be reproduced by someone who has never spoken to anyone about it.
LearnVerbal system
Name, tone of voice, vocabulary and how things are named beneath the brand — the half of identity that is used most and documented least.
LearnConsistency
How the system is actually held: where the assets live, who can approve a departure, and how often real output is checked against the intent.
Learn