Brand Identity · Brand personality · Component
The exclusions
What the brand deliberately does not do or sound like — the list that keeps the personality from expanding to cover everything.
The deliverable
What it is
Exclusions are more durable than traits. Organisations disagree about what they are and agree readily about what they are not, which makes this list easier to write and more useful in practice.
It is also the list that gets tested. Every exclusion attracts a plausible-looking exception, and the sum of those exceptions is a personality nobody chose.
One level in
What it is made of
Each element is a constituent part of the component. Follow one to see the attributes it carries.
The avoided
Tones, formats and behaviours the brand does not use.
3 attributes: Avoided · Example · Scope
LearnThe pressure
Where the exclusion is being pushed against.
3 attributes: Pressure source · Exceptions granted · Status
Learn
Count the exceptions granted. An exclusion overruled four times has been abandoned without anyone deciding to.
The other components in brand personality
The traits
The chosen characteristics, each with what it is not — because a trait without its opposite constrains nothing.
LearnThe behavioural rules
How the personality shows up in specific situations, particularly the difficult ones — because that is where adjectives stop helping.
Learn