Modeling the Personality Construct of Brands: A Study on Apparel Brands in India

Abstract

Brand personality, which is defined as ‘personality attributes associated with the brands’, forms the core of a brand’s symbolic attributes. As the functional benefits offered by all brands in a product category are similar, symbolic benefits play a significant role in achieving differential positioning of brands. Firms often try to differentiate their brands from those of competitors by designing a suitable brand personality. To develop a suitable brand personality, knowledge related to the brand personality construct is essential. Although theoretical studies have illustrated the construction of brand personality and identified important constructing factors, there are gaps in empirical validation of the theories and the constructing components. Moreover, identification of the relative importance of the brand personality constructing components across different product categories was also not done. In this paper, an attempt has been made to create a model of brand personality for selected brands of apparels, based on theoretical studies. A methodology is also developed to empirically justify the theoretical construct. The relative importance of the constructing components of brand personality is also measured across selected brands of apparels operating in the Indian market.