Brand Identity · Brand personality · Component
The traits
The chosen characteristics, each with what it is not — because a trait without its opposite constrains nothing.
The deliverable
What it is
Three traits that genuinely exclude are worth more than seven that flatter. The test is whether a reasonable organisation could hold the opposite, and if none could, the trait is describing the category.
Traits also need evidence. A brand claiming to be direct while writing in careful qualifications has a trait list and a personality, and they are different things.
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 opposite
What the trait is not — the qualifier that makes it usable.
2 attributes: Not · Distinction
LearnThe evidence
What in the organisation’s actual behaviour supports the trait.
3 attributes: Evidence · Confidence · Current or aspired
Learn
A trait no reasonable organisation would claim the opposite of is describing the category, not the brand.
The other components in brand personality
The behavioural rules
How the personality shows up in specific situations, particularly the difficult ones — because that is where adjectives stop helping.
LearnThe exclusions
What the brand deliberately does not do or sound like — the list that keeps the personality from expanding to cover everything.
Learn